I am very pleased to announce that due to popular demand the Aussie DevCon has been organized again for this year and will take place from Monday 12th October to Sunday 18th October (inclusive). The venue once again is Eden, NSW. This choice was a matter of self-preservation. I was threatened with violence if I dared relocate. Don't just take my word for it. Check out these posts here  and here's some special words from a few of our overseas guests.

We will once again have the privilege of Training and/or Presentations by Robert Zaunere, Bob Foreman, Bruce Johnson, Michael Summons, Kim Davies, plus a few more new faces such as Robbie (a Capesoft partner), Russ Eggen, and maybe another SV representative.

The costs for this year's DevCon are as follows, but remember that these costs include lunches and dinners from the Eden Fishermen's Club full restaurant menu for the entire time of the DevCon. For those arriving by plane I also provide free transport to and from Merimbula Airport. Moreover I have been informed by many that they will be bringing family with them as they realised last year Eden really lends itself to doing just that so if there is enough interest I will also organize a few free tours for family members. Also when ordering via the link below there are drop-down lists to allow for the cost of lunches and dinners for family members. I've done this because if you would like your family to eat with you during the lunches or dinners this works out more cost effective. Quite simply I issue the attendee with value tokens that you can use as currency. The lunch tokens are worth $12.50 and the dinner tokens are worth $22. For the vast majority of meals on the menu this will totally cover their cost. If you want something special then you simply have to pay the difference. In many instances the cost of a meal is somewaht less than the value of the token but you cannot redeem the difference in cash, however you can get a few people together and combine the value's of the tokens to pay for a few more extras like garlic bread for example. This sytem worked really well last year and was most appreciated. Using this sytem you have the luxury of ordering from the restaurant's full menu, and I assure you the quality of meals is excellent.

GST is a local tax and is only payable by those purchasing within Australia. GST is displayed when ordering via the link below but will not be included in the transaction if your address is outside of Australia.

Booking and payment of the DevCon Training and/or Convention can be done here: http://www.datadownunder.com.au/products.php?cat=10 (first 2 items). Please note that I don't use a payment gateway so even if you give credit card details, nothing is charged until I process your card via an EFTPOS terminal so feel free to leave your credit card details even if you need a variation to what is offered. You can always email beforehand and I'll assist in the process as required. If you wish to participate in both the Training and the Conference then simply add "Aussie DevCon 2009 - Training" (including any extras) to the cart, then when you are automatically taken to your shopping cart just click on "continue shopping" then add "Aussie DevCon 2009 - Convention" (including any extras) to your cart, then when automatically taken to your shopping cart this time just click on "Checkout" and fill in the details as required.

The DevCon is being held right in the middle of Whale Watching season so I have organized a Whale Watching Cruise for the morning of Friday 16th October. For those who pay for both Training and Convention (the full 7 days) they will qualify for participation in the cruise for free. You can also purchase extra tickets for family members. I have tried to give as much flexibility to the ordering of such items as possible but if you need some variation then just include your request in the "Extra Information" text box in the checkout phase. Please be aware that the vessel has a licence for only 70 people so confirmed bookings will be on a first come first served basis.

Over the next few days I'll be adding more pertinent information. If there are certain items you think I've missed please don't hesitate to contact me and I'll do my best. We don't have an actual schedule of topics for the DevCon but the daily time structure will be much like last year's. I'll add the full schedule of this year's DevCon ASAP. We also received a tremendous amount of support by 3rd Party developers last year and expect to eclipse that amount this year. To get an idea of just how much they contributed last year have a look at this.

DevCon Accommodation - read here 

Venue - The Eden Fishermen's Recreation Club provided the perfect venue for a very successful Aussie DevCon 2008 and by extremely popular request has been booked once again for this year. Due to the indications of a much bigger attendance I have booked the main auditorium to cater for the greater numbers.

Getting to Eden

Flying?
The regional carrier is Rex Aviation. The regional airport is Merimbula. I will be organizing transport between Eden and Merimbula so a little closer to the DevCon dates I'll ask everyone flying in to let me know when they're due to arrive and depart. The aircraft are a SAAB 340 with normal seating capacity of 34. Despite the short flight, in-flight refreshments are served.

Driving?
Eden is a lazy 7 hours from either Sydney or Melbourne with rest stops, and 3 hours from Canberra. Buses? Yes there's coach services available up and down the coast so check with your travel agent.

Trains?
No sorry, too much political squabbling so they never got here.

Any questions can be directed to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it