Steve,

Microsoft only made BI cheap but currently not easier, most companies need BI but they just don't know it, remember my reference about Jetblue time is their business they need to quantify staff logistics to handle weather related cancellations but they have not done it because it is not required by the Government for their business.  The relational model keep a business going but dimension modeling and prediction modeling grows the business and manage vagaries of business issues.

The conference is a good place to start but one thing I know about Microsoft is anything that they think you should call their consultant they will not cover it, the same thing with anything they have not implemented per Bill Inmon and Ralph Kimball.  The reason IBM makes a lot of money in software services Microsoft is building its consulting division, so if an employer pays for MOSS2007 enterprise BI will be easy for you if not you have to build what you need. How will BI help a business? Banks sell other services to existing customers, companies that depend on delivery hedge gas costs, hotels and airlines dump rooms and seats rather than let the time be a waste.