TechEd 2012–Day 2

Thursday was a busy day. I got to these sessions:

• DEV221 – Design and Layout for Windows 8 and Windows Phone Style Apps
• WPH323 – Build smart: Developing for Windows Phone and Windows 8
• DBI225 – Big Data for Relational practitioners
• DEV326 – Agile planning tools in TFS 2012

I also helped in the hands-on labs and assisted with “ILL102 - Creating an Windows 8 Line of Business Application - HTML & JavaScript from Start to Finish”.

In the evening was the party night – lots of food and entertainment options! I watched Ben show off his prowess on the racing simulator, then after a good feed we headed to the main arena to catch some comedy, quiz show and an ‘open mike’ band bash. Turns out there’s some pretty talented musicians masquerading as IT/Dev-types!

TechEd 2012–Day 1

Wednesday I caught the following sessions throughout the day:

• DEV211 – What’s New in VS2012 with Adam Cogan
• DEV212 – Windows 8 Development with Nick Hodge
• DEV214 – Windows 8 Development Part 2 with David Burela
• DEV215 – .NET 4.5: Just the good stuff with William Tulloch

I ran my first ‘ExamCram’ session – on Exam 70-599 - Pro: Designing and Developing Windows Phone 7 Applications.

With Windows Phone 8 just around the corner, I wasn’t sure if I’d have many takers. As it turns out, I had exactly one person. A high student-teacher ratio!

I was also on the late-shift for helping in hands on labs today, from 5pm – 8pm.

TechEd 2012–Day 0

A few weeks late, but I’ve finally got around to writing about this year’s Microsoft TechEd conference held in September. Tuesday morning, Narelle and I flew up to Brisbane then caught the train down to the Gold Coast.

This year I’d booked accommodation at Island Beach Resort, quite close to the convention centre. It might have ‘Resort’ in the name, but it’s really just some nice apartments.

After checking in, I headed down to the convention centre for registration and then the Technical Learning Guide orientation meeting. Unfortunately this was at the same time as the the first “kick off” session. The meeting was useful as there was a different company organising the hands-on labs this year.

The keynote welcome included some interesting Kinect-inspired performance art, and then a talk (and videos) from Jason Silva. Jason was a very intense presenter – much the same as in his videos. I did like his positive attitude towards the future. His talk was very fast-paced and full-on, such that I think I’m still chewing over the things he said (even a week later).

I happened to see him again as one of the guests on ABC-TV’s QandA program about a week after TechEd. To my surprise he said almost exactly the same things, word for word. Not quite as impressed after that.