Added to my RSS readerYou have seen the marketing, listened to the PR and the sales patter now you get the chance to find out what’s really going on. 
This year was my third year at Tech.Ed I am very lucky to work at a company that understands the value of this conference and the competitive edge it provides us as we go about doing our day to day business. I leave each time confident in the knowledge that I know what’s going on in the world of Microsoft Server Applications and Infrastructure. My colleagues and I leave with a detailed knowledge of what’s available now, in twelve months and what the road map is for the future.
There is another way to achieve this level of awareness but it involves reading and watching webinars for a living. To put it simply Tech-Ed is to IT what the world cup is to football.
You get to listen to some of the sharpest minds in IT present very detailed and comprehensive presentations on the products that they are producing. You also get to seem guest speakers who are each highly regarded in there field, many of whom right the reference books that we as IT professionals turn to.
One of the best things for me is that you can actually speak to the key people in Microsoft and in the industry. I have been able to clarify a details directly with program managers, lead developers and other key personnel around range of products including BizTalk Orchestration NTFS requirements , Hyper-V’s resource management capabilities, the suitability SQL for Virtualisation, IIS ARR capabilities and many other
Fair play to Microsoft, they allow their Guys & Gals to be pretty frank and even allow constructive criticism. For me this is key to building trust that this is not just marketing gloss but real world information and for that I am grateful.
Viva Tech-Ed