OOPSLA'86 was a fabulous experience. I had been studying Smalltalk in the corn-fields of Illinois, and was starting to draw some conclusions, but it was hard to tell if I was on to something great or just suffering from the isolation. In Portland, I found I was part of a community of people with similar experiences and opinions. I met Alan and Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Peter Deutsch, and Ward Cunningham and Kent Beck.
At OOPSLA'89 or 90, Ward used CRC cards to teach me to use HotDraw. Rebecca got me into the tutorial business at OOPSLA'91 by doing the first frameworks tutorial with me. Kent got me started in patterns by forcing me to work with him on a pattern language for using HotDraw at Bruce Anderson's "Towards an Architecture Handbook" workshop. Kent and Ward are both independent consultants now, and you won't find better.
I met Jan Steinman and Barbara Yates in Switzerland around 1992. I let them in on the secret of OOPSLA tutorials, and we've been friends ever since. They've been all over, worked on all kinds of things, and are the ENVY of all.
Ken Auer was one of the founders of Knowledge Systems Corporations. He recently went independent so he can spend more time with his family. He is an outstanding implementer and teacher.
Alistair Cockburn specializes in the human factors of software design. He teaches analysis and design methods that really work!