I just got word of an upcoming career development event taking place in south-east Michigan next week and it's made me mildly depressed about the state of the software development industry in my area.
On one hand, I'm glad to see someone offering low-cost continuing education events. On the other hand it's 2009: there should not be a developer left in this industry who hasn't already investigated and/or implemented most of these techniques already on her (or his) own time or as part of a workplace requirement to remain updated on current industry trends.
You can't talk about "version control, continuous integration, and automated testing" as "new techniques" just like you can't talk about "C#, Java, Python, Scala, GWT, Silverlight," as "new languages".
Sad Panda.