Just got back from the NJ event. It was a pretty standard fare (read: long and boring) -- it really seemed like a waste of time for us, since
the DIY kits were nowhere to be found, and have to be shipped.
This pisses me off since I am never home to receive mail + there is no tracking information (or any information for that matter) for me to even schedule a time to be home to wait. I'll have to eat it as a $200 loss, or bitch to my credit card company a couple of weeks from now and say I paid for something I never received. Eating the $200 seems easier.
The giveaways were lame, there were no HTPC cases, or netbook giveaways like someone in this thread said -- just a couple of X2 processors, tuner cards, mice and a couple of motherboards. I'd say that there were roughly 15 giveaways for 300 people. One person somehow managed to win two prizes. Don't know how since it was 1 entry per person.
I did catch an XL Windows Server R2 shirt though. Too bad I need an XXXL.
$200 loss and waste of time for me. (+$30 in tolls and parking)