Tech Ed – your planning helps us – and you!

This is the editorial for this edition of the MSDN Flash which will go out early next week. It's important so I thought I'd post it here too...

We all know that Tech Ed is only a week away and everyone here in the DPE team is stretched to the max to make sure you get the best experience possible. Here's some things you might be interested to know.

Last year – actually the last few years – there have been room size problems. With some sessions too many people want to go to a particular session and it hasn't been possible to fit them all in the room. We heard you.

To help overcome this we've put in Comnet this year. Comnet is a online session management system we use in all our events (in the rest of the world) including the biggies like Tech Ed USA, PDC and Mix. Why is this good? Because you can log on before Tech Ed to plan what you want to go to. Why is this a good thing? This is a good thing because if you do this we can predict how popular a session will be and make sure it will be in the right place. It also means that you will get to see better sessions because you will have scoped out all the options before you get there and won't be flying by the seat of your pants the whole time (I know it's tempting).

However there is a downside to Comnet. You may see us changing rooms of sessions – and even times at the last minute (well in the next few days anyway) due to popular demand. This means there may be some confusion about where you are supposed to be – but if you keep up to date via Comnet you'll know all the changes and you'll be prepared.

Another thing we heard is that lots of people say is that even though they aren't able to go (or can't get a ticket) they would still like to be across what's happening and watch videos of the event or see pictures of their friends who were able to go. Well, we're going to make it happen this year. If you want to see what's happening check out www.techedlive.co.nz for up to date happenings from the event.

Thats it from me for the moment, I've got three presentations to prepare for Tech Ed, among other things, so I look forward to seeing you there!