I had a total blast at Northern Voice 2005. It was probably the most laid-back-yet-productive conferences I've been to. It was structured, but not corporate. Loose, but not chaotic. It had a very strong feeling of community - a grassroots "feel" to it, even though many of the "big names" of the blogosphere were there. It was a total community event, and I met so many people from such a wide variety of backgrounds - a real eye opener.
The conference, and especially hanging out at Casa del Lamb the night before, was one of the highlights of the year for me.
It looks like it's going to be an even bigger/better (but not too big - it's still at Robson, so it can't grow much bigger - yay!) event this year, with a pre-conference "Moose Camp" hands-on event. They also realized what a hot commodity the "Bloggable" t-shirt is, and are making them available (for a fee) to everyone. (I've worn mine so much that people are likely sick of seeing it :-) It's been to every conference I've gone to, as well...)
I've got no idea if I'll be able to make it to Northern Voice 2006, but if there is any way I can swing it, I'll be there! I might even try to convince some other Learning Commons folks to make the trip...
As for the issue of the "conference tag" - some software chokes on spaces in tags, so I'd vote for "nv06" and/or "northernvoice2006" - both of which are applied to this post.