Tech Ed 2003 - A Look Back, Part 1 [Archive]

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Philip Colmer

06-13-2003, 08:00 PM

Microsoft describes Tech Ed as "the definitive Microsoft conference for building, deploying and managing connected solutions". This article is the first of four parts looking back at the 2003 conference that was held recently in Dallas. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-03.jpg" /> <!> A bit of history In previous years, in addition to Tech Ed, there was the Microsoft Exchange Conference, designed to promote and focus on Microsoft's collaboration platform. As the server offerings grew to include products like ISA and SharePoint, so did the focus of the Exchange conference, until it just became known as MEC. As MEC grew to encompass more and more IT professional related sessions, so Tech Ed became more and more developer oriented. Until now. Microsoft decided that the 2002 MEC would be the last one. This year, Tech Ed appeared to be firmly focused on delivering sessions for both the developer and the IT professional communities. At previous Tech Eds, I've sometimes struggled to find an "IT Pro" session that would be useful to me. This year, I didn't have that problem. The structure of Tech Ed Tech Ed ran from Sunday to Friday. Sunday was "pre-conference session" day, providing lecture sessions on Active Directory, security, XML & Web services, databases & SQL server, plus hands-on labs for Exchange deployment, Windows troubleshooting with Sysinternal tools, Visual Studio .NET RAD and building Web services. These sessions lasted the whole day and were an optional add-on to the main part of Tech Ed. The rest of the conference consisted of nearly 400 sessions, hands-on labs and lunchtime sessions, plus evening entertainment for those who could keep going until the early hours! Accommodation, travel and food Microsoft made it easy for delegates to book rooms, get to their hotels and travel between their hotel, the conference centre and other external events. To that end, delegates had a choice of 15 hotels with discounted room rates. You were, of course, free to get a room anywhere else, but the coaches that ferried delegates to and from the conference centre only ran to the nominated hotels. I decided to stay at the Renaissance hotel, primarily because of my Marriott reward card. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-01.jpg" /> What I hadn't realised was just quite how far from the conference centre my hotel was … although Microsoft laid on coaches, it would have been nice to have been able to walk instead - if for no other reason than to try to work off some of the naughty nibbles they were feeding us like doughnuts, cookies, Ben & Jerry ice cream, Twinkies … To give you some idea of just how far my hotel was from the convention centre, let's take a look out of the bedroom window. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-06.jpg" /> Now, there are two buildings in the right-hand foreground - the Wyndham Anatole hotel. See the tower between them? No? Try the next photo … <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-04.jpg" /> See it now? Oh, OK - one more close-up … <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-05.jpg" /> Well, that structure is a couple of blocks away from the conference centre. Much as I might have loved walking all that way, I don't think I'd have enjoyed the conference day very much afterwards :( Speaking of food, Microsoft's planning and execution of the food hall was of the typical high standard. The hall could seat 8000 delegates, and the flow of attendees through the doorway was impressive. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-13.jpg" /> During both breakfast and lunch, a variety of bands played live music. Sometimes it was a bit hard to take if you were struggling to get going first thing in the morning, but most of the time it was welcome. <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/pcolmer-jun03-teched-14.jpg" /> Deems, pictured above, is a regular at Tech Ed and, indeed, the evening jam sessions. Coming next ... Over so soon? Well, there are a lot of images to share with you, so I've deliberately kept the article size down. Anyhow, in the second part, find out about the keynotes, what the sessions were all about, the hands-on labs ... and what you could find out about Pocket PC 2003 at Tech Ed!

schergr

06-13-2003, 08:32 PM

The food was awful...Absolutely A..W..F..U..L. After the first two days, I decided to take a bus over to N. Market street and have some good Mexican food at Cadillacs.

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Greg

Greg Scher
Senior Engineer, UBS
Perot Systems Corporation

JonnoB

06-13-2003, 09:07 PM

The food was awful...Absolutely A..W..F..U..L.

It did not taste too bad (not very good either) but the problem I had was why it took 100 servers to line up and direct people where to sit? I wanted to find a friend to eat with and they refused to let me find them. They also wasted about 50% of the desserts by leaving them out on the table where no one was sitting.

Although the meals were not great, I did enjoy the all-day all you can eat snacks. They were everywhere!

Oh, and if you wanted to see Pocket PC 2003 (Ozone), all of the mobile sessions were used demonstrating Ozone on XDAs. There were no secrets being kept.

exchguy

06-13-2003, 09:13 PM

I have been a MEC and TechEd attendee since 1997, and also attended TechEd this year. The food is always pretty bad, considering the quantity of the food that has to be served you can plan on it not being too tasty. Don't think I've been to one yet that was any good. Although, the food at MEC in Boston in 1998 had some of the best at many of the parties. Lots of fresh seafood being that it was in Boston.

Couple of comments: Just an opinion, but I actually prefer the split infrastructure conference that was the MEC because I thought it offered a lot more in the way of true infrastructure sessions. Even though the conferences were supposed to be 'combined' I still thought that of the 17 sessions offered in a block, there seemed to be a lot more dev focused sessions than infrastructure. I would like to see the MEC format back. Developers have the PDC and TechEd conferences. Infrastructure people only have TechEd now.

The first few days, the small 'broom closet' rooms in the C and D halls were packed solid and if you didn't get to the session 15 minutes before, there was no room to get in. I think the Dallas Convention center was pretty much at it's max with the amount of people there. If they have the kind of numbers of people, it would be better to have the conference somewhere that also has much larger rooms. The Orlando convention center has about the best facilities there are. I agree with the author that in Dallas most of the hotels are pretty far out from the convention center.

I could tell that the vendor participation in the Expo hall was way down this year as compared to previous years. May have been due to the economy or the fact that a lot of the infrastructure vendors thought that there was a MEC conference coming up later in the year. This brings back the point about a dedicated conference for each type of attendee.

Another thing I could tell is that the quality of the CommNet was really bad this year. In the past, they have really made a big deal about the CommNet to show off all of the new servers and other new toys. This year there was no conference email system and barely anything to see in the CommNet. Also, the wireless LAN really struggled there. Not sure if the quality of the CommNet was due to budget cuts or what, but the quality of what was avaliable was not comparable to what I've seen in the past.

Philip Colmer

06-14-2003, 01:28 PM

... but the problem I had was why it took 100 servers to line up and direct people where to sit?
They also wasted about 50% of the desserts by leaving them out on the table where no one was sitting.

Both of these seem to be the way that Microsoft handle meals at Tech Ed. I don't know about their other large conferences, but it has certainly been conducted that way at the ones I've attended, so I get the impression that Microsoft probably provide the equivalent of a mealtime operations manual :-)

Although the meals were not great, I did enjoy the all-day all you can eat snacks. They were everywhere!

Yes, I enjoyed them ... too much - I came back home a few pounds heavier than :oops: Still, it was nice to have some doughnuts and my wife particularly appreciated the fact that I took some Oreo cookies home for her :-)

--Philip

Philip Colmer

06-14-2003, 01:52 PM

The food is always pretty bad, considering the quantity of the food that has to be served you can plan on it not being too tasty.

I think that the quantity is largely the problem, though, isn't it? If you are trying to feed 9000 people, there just isn't any way you can please them all. There was some choice of food and you were free to take as much or as little as you wanted of each part.

Couple of comments: Just an opinion, but I actually prefer the split infrastructure conference that was the MEC because I thought it offered a lot more in the way of true infrastructure sessions. Even though the conferences were supposed to be 'combined' I still thought that of the 17 sessions offered in a block, there seemed to be a lot more dev focused sessions than infrastructure. I would like to see the MEC format back. Developers have the PDC and TechEd conferences. Infrastructure people only have TechEd now.

I never had the chance to go to MEC. I was initially drawn to Tech Ed because I liked the flexibility of being able to pick both infrastructure & development sessions. Interestingly enough, Microsoft's statistics showed that the job role mix for attendees was: 38% IT professionals
21% developers
18% architects
13% business professionals (e.g. trainers, consultants)
9% executive managementI did come across some complaints that the sessions weren't detailed enough, and there is a ring of truth to that - Microsoft could have done some more level 400 or even 500 sessions. For people who are registering advanced interest in Tech Ed 2004, there is the opportunity to take part in a session survey, so it will be interesting to see how next year's conference shapes up.

The first few days, the small 'broom closet' rooms in the C and D halls were packed solid and if you didn't get to the session 15 minutes before, there was no room to get in. I think the Dallas Convention center was pretty much at it's max with the amount of people there. If they have the kind of numbers of people, it would be better to have the conference somewhere that also has much larger rooms.

Yes - what was particularly annoying about this aspect was that participants were invited, before Tech Ed started, to let the organisers know which topics were of most interest. Indeed, if the participants went on to use the CommNet facilities to organise their time & pick the sessions, the organisers could have seen which ones were popular, but it is likely that not everyone used those features.

Microsoft have stated that there was a 29% increase in attendance over 2002. I don't expect Tech Ed to continue to grow at those rates, but it will start to limit the places that Tech Ed can be held ...

The Orlando convention center has about the best facilities there are.

Well, if they are big enough, I'll certainly look forward to going there - my wife & I love visiting Orlando :D

I could tell that the vendor participation in the Expo hall was way down this year as compared to previous years.

Looks like MS disagree with you - their figures show a 47% increase on 2002. However, maybe 2002 was also down on previous years and we are just starting to see it pick up.

Another thing I could tell is that the quality of the CommNet was really bad this year. In the past, they have really made a big deal about the CommNet to show off all of the new servers and other new toys. This year there was no conference email system and barely anything to see in the CommNet. Also, the wireless LAN really struggled there. Not sure if the quality of the CommNet was due to budget cuts or what, but the quality of what was avaliable was not comparable to what I've seen in the past.

I'd agree with these comments, and indeed I do pick up on them in part 4 of the series.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply - really good feedback, both on the article & on Tech Ed.

--Philip