I went to one of AUGI's "Cad Camps" last winter and I find that sort of thing helpful in terms of picking up on new stuff, but it's also too general to help sort out specific needs. If you continue to do the same things with CAD, picking up each upgrade shouldn't be that much of a problem, but my FEELING is that that isn't true anymore with AutoCAD - it's becoming harder and harder to ramp up with a new version. However, my real sympathies go to people just starting out, or maybe changing what they do with the package.
I was involved with designing a "computer conferencing" program (an early version of today's forums like this one) in 1980-1985. The problem quickly became apparent. Those of us who had used the package from the start didn't really have any serious problems everytime an upgrade would come out, but after even a couple years, the commands (it was ALL command-oriented back then - no mousies yet) - all the stuff you could do with the program - had become SO dense it was almost too intimidating to any NEW users.
And people were just using that program more or less for fun, or at least a free-time thing. That's not true with AutoCAD - I am amazed when I hear about people out there WORKING in CAD who can take a couple weeks to get "oriented" to a CAD upgrade. I sure couldn't do that. And I think that is becoming more of an issue.