As someone who lived 2 miles from the Cisco and NetApp campuses in RTP for over 10 years and now lives in SW Florida, Miami is not "driving distance." I live on the quiet side of Florida and will definitely be interested in this conference. Maybe I'm not the usual techy conference type but I have no desire to travel to California(for any reason) or to a typical conference location such as Las Vegas. I spend about 3-5 months traveling abroad every year and the West Coast of the US just doesn't do it for me. I appreciate the conference organizers for choosing a different area.

Well, as someone who goes to NCSU, I plan on driving it at least :-)

Miami is only close for people living in Florida is more my issue. NC is pretty close to centered along the east coast, has a fairly large tech hub and doesn't get many conferences. Then again, I am slightly biased in the respect that I'd like it closer as well.

thats a LONG drive. 11 hours or more. flying from RDU is like $200