TechEd-Developers : Day 1

Today was the official start of TechEd-Developers and it was awesome.

In the morning I attended the MS Influencers Community Camp which was run as an Open Space event. These types of events bring together a range of people, to discuss issues around a central theme, and are based around workshops that participants create and manage themselves.

I participated in discussions on "How to prepare a real community meeting to increase the number of participants from 20% to 60% of registered users." and "How to motivate your colleagues in the UG" as these were issues that I faced with the Canberra SQL Server User Group back home. I've picked up some great tips and it was interesting to see that most of the other UG's represented at the camp were also struggling with attendance so obviously it's a global issue, not just an Australian one :-D

In the afternoon I had my first proctor shift. The lab area was very quiet as my shift coincided with the first speaker sessions of the event. Although a little disappointed with the turn-out, I at least got some time to finish the labs I was looking after.

Tonight was also the first Wave of Speaker Idol (as well as the welcome party) and two of my friends (Karl Davies-Barret and Maciej Pilecki) were contestants. Karl was up first and blew everyone away. He delivered an absolutely flawless presentation on Windows Forms and WPF and kept the audience on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. If this was setting the standard of the competition I was in trouble!

Maciej spoke second and just like Karl, delivered an awesome presentation. Maciej's presentation was on the misconception that because Table Variables were in memory, they always performed better than temporary tables. Great topic.

Well, Maciej won and Karl came second. I can't comment too much on the decision as they are both good friends of mine and I'm glad one of them won. All I'm prepared to say is that it was a big surprise for a lot of people and I wish Maciej all the best in the final.