Tech Ed 2006 Summary
Its a few days in coming, but here is my summary of Tech Ed 2006.
I spent quite a bit of time talking to attendees. I found that developers tended to like the keynote, while infrastructure types didn't really like it much. The keynote was oriented around the web with George Moore and Scott Guthrie both playing key roles in the keynote (do ya like the pun?).
Feedback on speakers was that they were all very good overall. I heard the odd comment about demos failing (I really feel sorry for the Softricity guys whose systems failed quite spectacularly). I also heard the odd bit of feedback around speakers not being good speakers, but I guess the feedback will tell us the real story (yes we really do pay attention to the feedback).
The event seemed to flow really well this year. We didn't have problems with room sizes like last year, and I actually felt that the place didn't feel quite as packed as last year. I'm interested in hearing what you thought of this though.
I spoke to a bunch of sponsors in the marketplace, and they all felt that they got good value from the event. Of particular interest was AbsoluteIT, who were the only recruiting company present this year (I dont recall seeing recruiting companies there before). They were thrilled with the event - it was the perfect audience for finding both employers and candidates.
It was also great to be able to catch up with lots of you while there. I'm getting to know more of you now and its great to catch up at Tech Ed.
Nigel has some photos on his blog, flikr also has some (thanks to DigitalMelon, Wonderferret - and here), and make sure you check the pics at TechEdLive. By the way - I found out that those Geek shirts you see on some photos (See the pic of Helen Robinson in Nigels blog) are limited edition. Huffer have only made 120 of them and they aren't making more.
I really enjoyed Tech Ed. The atmosphere was great and it all seemed to go smoothly. See you again next year!