I find it amusing that those who have never gone to a DevCon make the claims that it is too expensive, but yet most of the people who go, continue to go year after year. This year's DevCon had the largest attendance to date.
The sessions are good, but it's the contacts you make and the ideas you hear from others that make it such a great event. While we're on the same subject, if you're really into FileMaker then you should join the FSA. The FSA forum is much more informative that any of the other 'public' forums.
Many of the people giving advise in the public forums are the non-FSA, non-DevCon attending developers who often give less than ideal advise. There are a few very knowledgable people who give very good advise, but on the 'public' board it's smart to take everything with a grain of salt...