I had a similar experience this past week at the ISSS conference in Corvallis.

I'm applying to the systems science PhD program at PSU this year and was amazed at the both the depth and breadth of the systems research and discussion to be had, but also noted the lack of software developers or computer/information systems discussion.

I'm looking forward to being able to bring some of my expertise to this field, while also mining the knowledge and concepts for use in better software systems design.

I'm going to definitely look into this conference for next year, though hopefully they won't be running the same week as the ISSS conference again.