First let me say that I've never made it to a perl conference yet. :-( But I think that if you could convince your employer to foot the bill I'd go to TPC in CA. It's bigger, has a larger variety of topics, and in general should have more of the big names in perl attending. And I like the fac that the list of classes is already finalized. It's much easier to convince management when you know what is planned for the sessions.

But I've also heard very good things about YAPC as well. It's more of a grassroots effort for those on the East coast who can't make it to CA. And grassroots != poor quality. But here's a little request to the YAPC organizers: Can we get a list of the classes, even it it's just tentative? Just a teaser would make me happy...

There's no way my employer can be convinced to get me to TPC, so I'm pushing for YAPC. IMHO, any conference is better than no conference. :-)