Conference worriers: I am one of those people who a few years back got my current job (my first full-time salaried gig) by scraping together the reduced student admission, booking a (cheap as all hec) hideous red-eye flight across the country, and staying with family members to attend the AAM conference. I attended every open forum I could and shared my ideas freely. I continued those conversations after the sessions, and ended up meeting a lot of people. People were extraordinarily helpful and would walk me clear across a crowded hall to meet potential employers. One (saintly) person actually said "Oh. You're looking for a job? I'll get you a job, hold on.... " and promptly introduced me to the person who eventually hired me. : ) Contacts made (or continued) at that conference eventually led to at least 3 other hires in our department alone. Aside from its payoff 5 months later, as a newbie I found the conference *indispensable* as a way to get a current "state of the profession." When you are starting out, you might not even know what options are out there. It's worth it for that reason alone. *** Craig M. Rosa *** Exhibit Developer, The Tech Museum of Innovation *** email> [log in to unmask] vox> (408) 279-7133 *** WWW> http://www.thetech.org/ fax> (408) 279-7197