Common value for training conferences is $500 a day, according to the Encompass user group president Nina Buik. But the International MPE/iX Conference — sponsored by GHRUG, the last-standing Regional User Group — is working to turn out the pockets of that training value formula.

The world of 3000 users needs both kinds of training. The big show, with HP's highest execs, a Grammy-winning band, thousands of attendees. The specialized session-fest, with details on the world of the 3000. The 3000 community can make budget for both — the June HP Technology Forum, plus the MPE/iX Conference — because the MPE/iX meeting is bargain-priced.

While the International MPE/iX Conference content committee plans out the schedule and confirms its speakers, today I see the agenda holds 14 slots on each of five tracks:

• Homesteading
• Migration
• Other Systems (non-HP)
• Unix/Linux
• New Technologies, Best Practices

That's 70 talks in all, plus two keynotes, across two days right on Clear Lake, a waterway that feeds Galveston Bay in Texas. (A Hilton hotel at Nassau Bay, Texas has rooms with waterfront views.) If you could fill up your training with each available session, you could get 16 talks for the Early Bird price of $150.

That's $9.37 per training session. I couldn't get a haircut last month at Houston's classic Avalon Barbershop for that little. And that very good haircut is growing back out. The training lasts throughout a career.