Two big conferences coming this fall: should I choose PDC or TechEd EMEA?

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I’m just soooo lucky: getting to be there at PDC AND also TechEd EMEA seems too good to be true. I just thank my manager :)
We’re going to PDC with some people from the community and some customers, I’m the one from DPE Belgium who gets to go with them! And then TechEd is also quite important for me as it is the biggest European Microsoft conference. We have quite a lot of Belgians going. It’s a great opportunity to meet with your peers from all over the continent.

So, for the majority that needs to choose either TechEd or PDC, what do you do?

Professional Developers Conference (PDC), 27-30 October in Los Angeles, USA

Blog Bling BrainPDC is Microsoft’s big conference for major announcements and releases. It’s the only conference where Microsoft gives you a long term view of the future of the development platform.

Last one dates back to 2005, last year the conference was cancelled. The fact that it is taking place later this year in October does mean something: you can expect lots of new around Microsoft’s technology platform for the future.

Just a selection of topics and sessions that have been announced:

  • Windows 7
  • Live Mesh Platform
  • Velocity Framework
  • Oslo: Managing Software + Services Applications
  • Silverlight
  • WPF
  • ASP.NET Futures
  • Entity Framework
  • Parallel Programming
  • A Day in the Life of a Cloud Service Developer
  • And much more…

Also worth mentioning is the opening keynote with Ray Ozzie. I had the chance to see Ray Ozzie doing a keynote earlier in July and it was very inspirational. I’m looking forward to this public one.

Win your ticket: check out the t-shirt design contest for a chance to win your free entry to PDC. hurry because the contest entries must be submitted by August 26 2008.

TechEd EMEA, 10-14 November in Barcelona, Spain

TechEd EMEA is the developer conference organized every year by Microsoft. Note that there is also a conference focused on IT Professionals the week before: TechEd EMEA IT Pros 2008.

This year’s conference has more than 300 sessions divided over 15 tracks, from Architecture, Developer Tools and Languages, Office Development, , Web and User Experience, Windows Embedded, to Windows Mobile. Compared to PDC, TechEd is a conference that is geared more towards already released products and technologies, giving you guidance and training on how to use these technologies.

In addition to the breakout and interactive sessions there is also an opportunity to meet the Microsoft Community: MVPs, Regional Directors, User Groups, meet them at the Microsoft Community Lounge. And not to forget the chance to ask all your hard questions in the Ask The Experts booths.

If you choose to go to TechEd and are hoping for some PDC content you will be happy to see there is a special track “PDC Highlights”.

 

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