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Last month, Adam Goucher wrote some tips for people who go to conferences and are on a budget, which I saw from Greg Wilson’s blog.

One other thing too add to Adam’s budget tips: if you’re a student, consider volunteering at the conference! That’s what I did at SIGGRAPH this year, if it isn’t obvious enough already from my recent entries. In exchange for some of your hours of service, you can usually get things like:

• Free pass to the full conference
• Free or discounted hotel rates
• Potential free swag for volunteers. (See some of the free stuff I got from SIGGRAPH 2007 here)
• And best of all: you’ll get to meet other like-minded students and make contacts to advance your career.

I was a little disappointed back in May of this year when most of my friends already graduated while I still have another school year to suffer through but now I’m actually glad that I’m taking my time to finish school. If I hadn’t, then I wouldn’t be able to volunteer at any upcoming conferences. Here are couple that I’d like to volunteer for within the next year:

• Game Developer’s Conference 2008: happens annually around March. Student volunteer registration starts in the fall.
• SIGGRAPH 2008 in L.A: Student application deadline is Feb 28, 2008.