FOSS4G - 5 days in Victoria.. nice (perhaps a bit too long for some though)

I was just looking around at the events, sessions, and workshops planned for this September's OpenSource event, FOSS4G planned for September 24-27 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (my old hometown). What I never noticed about this event before was that sessions and training span the entire week - 5 days. No doubt there's going to be loads of "meat" covered in this cool open source training session, however, in today's very competitive marketplace where there's oodles of events vying for your attendance, getting people to go somewhere (even beautiful Victoria) for 5 days has got to be a challenge. I've attended close to 100 events and training sessions in the past decade and I've seen how competitive this space can be. Perhaps this one is niche enough that the 5 day span won't matter, add to the fact that there will likely be a large Euro contingency and the fact that the event is much like a "user conference" then perhaps it won't matter to most. Presenters to date are listed as being from the following companies:
The Timoney Group
OSGeo China
IBM Corporation
Autodesk, Inc.
Precision Geomatics Inc.
OpenStreetMap
NASA/SSAI
Metalogic Software Corp.
more to come!
This is a great opportunity to get a good look at what's taking place in the open source movement and I wish I could be there (particularly to see some family and Canadian friends at the same time), however, 5 days is just a little too long for me during that time period. Those of you lucky enough to attend, you'll be pleased to know that September is likely THE best month you could ever select to visit Victoria! Drop me a line if you're looking for tips on what to see, where to go, and where to stay. A tip... check out Swan's Hotel!

A bit about the event:
The 2007 Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference gathers developers and users of open source geo-spatial software from around the world to discuss new directions, exciting implementations, and growing business opportunities in the field of open source geo-spatial software. FOSS4G is presented annually by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). Topics to be addressed at this event will include (but not be limited to):
-Interoperability
-NeoGeography and NovelGeography
-Using a Software Stack
-3D Worlds

See ://www.foss4g2007.org
Finally, a reminder that the RFP call for hosting the 2008 event will be closing July 20 see details here