My First TechEd

Last week I spent three days in Orlando at my first Microsoft TechEd. I have to admit I was nervous about going — big events can be a bit daunting. But I had a great time.  I spent a few hours in the TechNet Magazine booth, swiping badges, handing out t-shirts, and chatting with visitors. Surprisingly, it was lots of fun.  And I finally got to meet some of our authors (whom I know only from e-mail) at TechNet Magazine’s dinner/party.  I was thrilled!

I also went to a number of terrific conference sessions and learned a lot.  Most fun was Steve Riley’s “Do These Ten Things Now or Else Get 0wn3d!” If you ever get a chance to see Steve, don’t miss it. He knows a ton and is an amazing speaker.

I also went to a great session on virtualization, “Virtualization 360: Virtualization from the Data Center to the Desktop,” which covered everything from Microsoft SoftGrid, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, Virtual Server 2005 R2, and virtualization support in Windows Server 2008. It really helped me understand why virtualization is such a hot topic.  Look for our virtualization blockbuster, coming in the October issue of TechNet Magazine.

And though I hate to admit it, I knew nothing about Search Server and federated search—but now I do, thanks to an excellent session called “Microsoft Search Server 2008: Overview and what’s New.” Expect to see some coverage of this topic in a future issue.

Did you go to TechEd? If so, tell us what you liked and what you didn’t.  We’d love to hear!