I'm really disappointed that I won't be making it to I/O this year. 2009 was a blast (I missed 2010 out of laziness). Thought all I had to do was register within the first hour and I'd be fine.
Honestly, I blame Oprah for this.
I didn't bother signing up this year, and saved myself the money and time by doing so. Maybe it was better in the past, but I hope they change the conference to actually promote developers and developing.
That is with the caveats that I've selected what to watch based on what seemed interesting (and technical), and that the sessions they call "201" seem to be more 101, but from what I've seen and the in-person Q&A/networking opportunities, it seems well worth the trip for developers.
but i saw a couple on youtube when they were featured, and i must say they were at best introductions to their platforms than anything else.
It seems there are a lot of people out there enamored with Google, but don't have any other venue to rub elbows with the "Google people." I'd like to see a Google conference geared towards media, SEO, and the press so all those types will get the hell out of I/O. That way they can still announce products, ape and/or heap scorn on Steve Jobs, and get some noise made.
What I have seen with higher price conference is that you get a lot of corporate attendees and more lower to middle management than developers. It may have been also because of the conference too (oracle, webmethods and Microsoft)