Okay, first of all, I am not a figment of someone’s imagination, I really do exist. a number of you met me at Tech.Ed so you know this is true. I’M A REAL GIRL! (I swear I heard Pinocchio in my head when I said that…)
The next few blog posts are pretty much going to be a blow-by-blow of how my Tech.Ed went down, the sessions I sat in, the social events I went to and, most of all, a shout out to the awesome people that I spent my time with while cramming as much Microsofty-goodness into my head as I could…that sounds worse than it actually was 🙂 I’ve had to split this up over multiple posts because just the first day alone has come in at about 1K words O.o I also apologies if I manage to get things mixed up or confused in my head, you have to remember that I’m currently on a almost-zero-sugar diet kick at the moment, was functioning on very little sleep during the conference and alcohol may or may not have been consumed while at Tech.Ed >.>
Tuesday, 3rd Sept:
Drove down to the Gold Coast on Tuesday around lunchtime. I was impressed that a) I wasn’t killed and b) I didn’t kill anyone else (as you would have read previously, my driving skills apparently cause people to have fits of rage).
Checked into the hotel with what appeared to be a large number of geeks. Was very happy they let me check in a bit early, needed some time to get things “organised” (I am a woman after all) before heading off to the IT Pro Kick off session and Keynote. Finally got things *just* the way I wanted them then headed out the door to meet up with some other conferences attendees at the bottom of the Sofitel. One LLB down and away we went to sign-in, collect our backpacks (that didn’t include a free Surface, cue sad faces 🙁 ) and then grab a good seat for the IT Pro session. Bumped into some work mates on the way, so our little group of 6 headed off and got some decent seats smack in the middle.
I won’t give you a blow-by-blow description of the IT Pro session and Keynote, purely because you can view that online. (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Australia/2013) My opinions of it were coloured by a few things – excitement of being at Tech.Ed, knowing that I’ve got 3 to 4 days of information to cram into my head, knowing that I’m meeting up with a whole bunch of people I only get to see once a year (I’ll give you guys a shout out a little later, promise!). So I enjoyed the IT Pro session, even if I had seen some of it before. Much of the information was displayed and presented at the Brisbane Infrastructure User Group meeting the previous night, but that was primarily to people who *weren’t* going to be attending Tech.Ed. I felt quite lucky to have been able to see it twice!
The keynote was good – the display of the new Kinect was pretty darn awesome and had me double-guessing myself as to whether we’d get one or not (I’m still a Sony fan-girl at heart when it comes to consoles, I’m sorry Microsoft!). There was a lot of management speak, as I’d put it. Also known as “buzzword bingo”. I’mnot a big fan of couching ideas or thoughts in big fancy words just to make you look smarter or brighter. I like to the point. I like succinct. I like you to tell me EXACTLY how it is. The keynote was a bit waffly and a bit sales pitch-y, but that’s what you expect. It’s a Microsoft conference, of course they’re going to pitch their stuff!
Everyone seemed happy when it ended and off we all wandered down to the Expo hall to meet the exhibitors/grab swag. Everyone knows it’s a swag grab. But the exhibitors get a benefit from it too, don’t you worry about that – everytime you walk up to a booth, you’ll get scanned. I know my email address is now floating around a multitude of companies, I just thank the gods for filtering rules!!!
Drinks and food provided (which was delicious, when I finally managed to snare some at around 8:30pm!) and I have to admit to consuming quite a number of the glasses of sparkling wine. I can’t help myself, it’s just too delicious! Around 8:45, decided it was time to hoof it back to the hotel to get some sleep before an early start the next morning. A co-worker was staying in the same hotel and kindly offered to walk back with me (always good having lovely males around willing to keep you company/protect you…although I think I probably would’ve been more dangerous considering the state I was in :P).
Got back to hotel, unpacked my swag bag, got my bag ready for the following morning, played with some of the NanoBlock sets I’d brought down with me (an annual tradition now) and then promptly fell asleep……only to be awoken by a text message from a fellow Twitter user saying they were still out at and continuing the party at the Bavarian Bier Cafe. I can tell you’re thinking the same thing I was: “THERE’S A BAVARIAN BIER CAFE AT BROADBEACH?! Holy shit, I’m SO there!”. so at 10:30pm, got up, got dressed again, grabbed my handbag and wandered out the door to catch up with this guy and hopefully get another drink or two in me to keep me awake.
Had a lovely time, met some new people and caught up with a few others that I hadn’t seen since last year. All in all, really pleased I went back out again. Was walked back to my hotel by not one, but TWO, lovely gentleman – which was good considering it was gone midnight by this point.
This time I really did go to sleep…after ensuring my phone was on silent!
Up next – “Tech.Ed 2013 – Day 2, Wednesday 4th September” – bet you didn’t see that coming? 😛