The South Sound Technology Conference was a real success (Tribune article about it here). More than 250 people came and packed UWT. Andrew Fry and the staff at the Institute of Technology have done a great job with the event.
I've been volunteering for the last few years on the steering committee. When I started it was a free event. Interestingly, it never got that as many people as when we decided to start charging for it ($20 for the day, which also gets you lunch).
There were some good panels, breakout sessions, and of course the keynote–Howard Schmidt, cyber security czar for the Obama administration.
Definitely read the Tribune article. There's a lot happening in the tech world in Tacoma!