Volunteering was absolutely the best thing I could've done. Here's most of the story:

I had ignored my Web 2.0 blog feeds for so long that by the time I finally heard about mesh (and I think even that was through Quinn, who learned about it from Richard, who lives in Vancouver); anyway, by the time I heard about it, all of the student-priced tickets were sold out. Considering that student rate was $25 and full conference price was $350… well…

I sent a message to the first e-mail address I could find – Stuart's –
essentially volunteering to mop the floor or do other chores in order
to get into mesh. I heard no response. So much for Plan A. S'okay, I
had plenty of backup plans.

Plan B: Convince the company I'm an intern for that it would be
totally in line with their business and it would create value for
them. They were convinced of the merit, but didn't want to set
precedent.

Plan C: Try to get sponsor passes. We eventually tracked down the
person in charge of the Mesh sponsorship, but unfortunately she was
all out of passes.

Plan D: Convince my research lab to spring for it. Mark Chignell
agreed, mock-groaning about the weight on his pocket.

Right after I registered, I got e-mail from Mark Evans asking if I
wanted to volunteer. I had a feeling that volunteering was a very good
idea. So I did, and I loved every minute of it. =)

zzz…