Yup. Here is why...
The money on the show floor is not made by the people paying at the
gate, its made by the presenters paying for the square footage/location. There is a reason
Strand/
Rosco/
ETC/
Apollo are always right up next to the door when you
walk in.
These company's pay a lot, and the promoters then have to get people to come. By allowing people in for free, it gets more
foot traffic on the floor and allow anyone to see what the presenters have to show. More people in, more badges scanned by each booth.
Now that being said, just going to the show floor of
USITT will be pretty lame. It would be good for an afternoon, but no one can spend 3 days on the showfloor. You could spend a
bit more time at
LDI. What the conferances are really about is talking to others and going to panels and sessions.