Welcome to the SD West 2005 conference blog. We're hoping our impressions of the event will be opportunities for discussion and debate among readers and attendees, so feel free to comment. Note that the Software Development editorial team will be doing its usual coverage via our printed newspaper, SD Express, and the May and June issues of the magazine--so we'll be a bit spread thin. But as far as writing exercises go, this is a good one! The informal nature of the medium lends itself well, we think, to a conference--SD West tends to be more about opinions and techniques and less about actual breaking news. That said, we'll be sure to include coverage of the many tools and products we see. Stay tuned, and add your voice to the fray!