I've been meaning to write this wrap-up on TechEd 2004 for the past week and a half, but things have been pretty hectic as of late. Not only have I had a couple of consulting projects going on, but I also have two classes I'm teaching, and was out of town on business most of last week. But the real time consumer has been those pile of last minute activities for this weekend. See, I'm a gettin' hitched on Saturday to my girlfriend of the past three and a half years. While we have been planning this as far back as August 2003, needless to say, there are a ton of last-minute preparations and details that need attending to. And right now is the calm before the storm. Out-of-town family and friends start arriving late tonight, tomorrow, and Friday, and our place - our tiny 1,000 sq. ft. condo - will be host to a couple of guests both tomorrow night and Friday night. But enough about that, back to TechEd...
This year's TechEd was the first I've ever attended. I've been to a number of conferences in the past, but most were small and ASP/ASP.NET-focused, and have never been anywhere near in size to the 12,000 folks who piled in for TechEd 2004. Needless to say, tbe scale of everything was simply awe inspiring. At breakfast there were dozens, if not hundreds, of 2'x1' trays piled six inches deep with bacon (or a product pretending to be bacon - I couldn't decide). Just seeing row after row of those little rubbery meat-flavored slabs was impressive enough, and made my entire TechEd experience. I couldn't help but imagine what the kitchen area must be like. I assume there was a team of men doing nothing but making bacon. There may have even been someone to manage that team, a bacon manager, if you will.
Having never been to a large Microsoft conference before, I was unaware of how much food, and how often, they provided. Besides having gobs of food at each breakfast, lunch, and dinner, between each session there was always fruit, bagels, and an assortment of deserts - fruit bars, brownies, cake, popsicles, Dove bars, candy, candy bars, and so on. Just volumes and volumes of it. Needless to say, it was hard to eat healthy during the conference, but what fun it eating healthy anyway?
I did manage to go to some of the sessions, between feeding periods, and have blogged about a couple of them. I went bright and early to Michele Leroux Bustamante's Building Applications with Globalization in Mind. Also, I really enjoyed Rob Howard's Black-Belt ASP.NET talk. But the best part of TechEd was not to be found in the sessions, nor in the cafeteria, but rather in the Cabanas. The Cabanas were in a large, football field-sized room, surrounding hundreds of public, Internet-connected computers, and were staffed with Microsoft employees who were all too willing to play XBOX with you. Seriously, though, they were a great place to ask questions and get answers. In fact, I was even queried once or twice for ASP.NET-related questions and dutifully turned over the reigns of XBOX to accommodate.
I also got to participate in a book signing on behalf of Sams Publishing. The downside was that it was hosted right at the lunch hour, so turnout was light, but I did get to sign a couple of copies of Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 24 Hours. (Unfortunately, there was a shipping mixup so my ASP.NET Data Web Controls Kickstart books were not available for purchase during TechEd...)
I'm very glad I went to TechEd this year, it was a truly rewarding experience. I got to spend some face time with people I only get to communicate with electronically, got to hear some interesting talks, ate too much, and got my butt kicked in Halo. And all within 10 miles from my front door.