Adena, in thinking about this more, I agree that calling the paid seminars "training" might be more descriptive of the content. I understand the distinction you're making between a seminar intended to sell a product and one that has more of a technical scope.

My original tweet was based on what I've seen and heard happening in my state at several ESRI user groups, our state GIS conferences, and direct interaction with other ESRI users. Essentially what I'm hearing is that many users seem to be reluctant to switch to ArcGIS Server. There was much apprehension and confusion among the user base leading up to the release of ArcGIS Server 9.2.

Because of that, our ESRI reps have been in full court press mode since 9.2 was released to try to get users to start using it. They've held numerous technically-oriented ArcGIS Server seminars in several locations in my state that have arguably bordered on training sessions. Some of these seminars have been free and some have been workshops at conferences. Granted, I may be comparing apples to oranges since I get the impression that the seminars in my state were more of an initiative by our ESRI regional office, and the latest round of seminars are of course a series of seminars being held around the country.

I think the bottom line in my mind is that, at least in my area, a precedent has been set in my mind with technically-oriented seminars having been offered in the past at no charge. With the uneasiness I hear from ESRI channels about the level of uptake of ArcGIS Server, wouldn't it be a better move on their part to offer the half-day technically-oriented sessions for free as a way to demonstrate the product's functionality in a way that can't be done at a sales-oriented seminar? I'd think that this would be a great way to get users who are sitting on the fence to commit to using the product.