Friday, June 20, 2003
Tech Ed 2003 - A Look Back, Part 4
Posted by Philip Colmer in "THOUGHT" @ 11:00 AM
Microsoft describes Tech Ed as "the definitive Microsoft conference for building, deploying and managing connected solutions". This article is the final part in the series looking back at the 2003 conference that was held recently in Dallas.
Goodies, competitions and other naughties
Well, I guess the number one goodie is the Tech Ed bag. After all, you spend all week with it … and maybe a long time afterwards. I'm still using my bag from last year at work. Sensibly, Microsoft changed back from a shoulder bag last year to a rucksack this year (although you could use it in a shoulder configuration if you so desired). Unfortunately, the quality of the bags left a bit to be desired and started ripping, but Microsoft has promised to mail new bags out to everyone.
There were some good and not-so-good competitions. The good ones? One of the best was Wireless Wanda. This involved adding WW to your list of messenger contacts. Her description would change every break time to tell you where she was. You found her, got a token from her, took it to a participating exhibitor and got a key ring and entry slip in return. The entry slip went into a daily draw for a Pocket PC. Not bad at all and a lot of fun to take part in, even if I didn't win.
The not-so-good? Well, it wasn't really a competition as such, but in order to get your Tech Ed t-shirt this year, you needed to visit five sponsors and 10 exhibitors to get a stamp on a card in your guide. That went down so well (not!) that they ended up giving the t-shirts away during Friday's breakfast :)
There were a lot of giveaways - t-shirts, key rings, propeller hats, stress balls. I think that Dell won the prize, though, for the best giveaway - a radio controlled miniature car that the Tech Ed Mall was selling!
Not that anyone just goes for the goodies :)
Internet access
Being away from home and office for a whole week, and suffering a six hour time difference, can be a nuisance if you don't have access to email.
The company I work for uses iPass for roaming access to the Internet. iPass have recently announced that they are going to start making STSN points available to iPass subscribers. STSN is present in a lot of hotel rooms, including most of the Marriott chain. I've never used STSN before because I think it is too expensive given that you have to pay for a whole day's access - who the heck stays in their hotel room all day? I'm hoping that iPass will charge a more reasonable time-based fee.
iPass also supports wireless broadband access and there are a number of points in Dallas on the iPass dialler. Unfortunately, the Renaissance hotel I was staying in wasn't one of them. Dallas Forth Worth International airport was though! Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work as I waited for my homeward bound flight. From what I could gather, the reseller we use for iPass (PSINet) haven't enabled or don't support the wireless add-on for iPass. Time for my company to buy iPass directly, I think :)
So that left me with dialup or the conference centre. Microsoft, as ever, did a great job of providing their Commnet Internet Café, along with wireless networking to compliment and widen the network throughout the conference centre.
Unfortunately, I experienced two issues with the service this year:
Before I conclude this article, I thought I'd mention a little bit about Dallas itself. I didn't stray too far from the convention centre, but it was clear that it is a very striking city. There is some beautiful architecture and a few areas in the city where they've created havens of peace with water features, or turned an open space into something that really is special to look at.
Conclusions
If or when Tech Ed returns to Dallas, I'm definitely (a) going to stay in a hotel closer to the conference centre and (b) make sure it isn't next to a freeway!
This was the best Tech Ed so far for me, out of the four that I've been to. Part of the reason for that is because we are definitely deploying Windows 2000/2003, Active Directory and Exchange 2000/2003 this year, along with the other new technologies like SharePoint and Office 2003. That means that the sessions were more relevant this time because I can really put what I've learned into practice.
If you aren't sure if Tech Ed is for you, you can order the DVD of the sessions - it is still quite expensive, but it is cheaper than attending the conference if you want to find out what the sessions themselves are like.
I hope that my boss continues to let me attend them and, if so, maybe I'll see you in San Diego next year!
Goodies, competitions and other naughties
Well, I guess the number one goodie is the Tech Ed bag. After all, you spend all week with it … and maybe a long time afterwards. I'm still using my bag from last year at work. Sensibly, Microsoft changed back from a shoulder bag last year to a rucksack this year (although you could use it in a shoulder configuration if you so desired). Unfortunately, the quality of the bags left a bit to be desired and started ripping, but Microsoft has promised to mail new bags out to everyone.
There were some good and not-so-good competitions. The good ones? One of the best was Wireless Wanda. This involved adding WW to your list of messenger contacts. Her description would change every break time to tell you where she was. You found her, got a token from her, took it to a participating exhibitor and got a key ring and entry slip in return. The entry slip went into a daily draw for a Pocket PC. Not bad at all and a lot of fun to take part in, even if I didn't win.
The not-so-good? Well, it wasn't really a competition as such, but in order to get your Tech Ed t-shirt this year, you needed to visit five sponsors and 10 exhibitors to get a stamp on a card in your guide. That went down so well (not!) that they ended up giving the t-shirts away during Friday's breakfast :)
There were a lot of giveaways - t-shirts, key rings, propeller hats, stress balls. I think that Dell won the prize, though, for the best giveaway - a radio controlled miniature car that the Tech Ed Mall was selling!
Not that anyone just goes for the goodies :)
Internet access
Being away from home and office for a whole week, and suffering a six hour time difference, can be a nuisance if you don't have access to email.
The company I work for uses iPass for roaming access to the Internet. iPass have recently announced that they are going to start making STSN points available to iPass subscribers. STSN is present in a lot of hotel rooms, including most of the Marriott chain. I've never used STSN before because I think it is too expensive given that you have to pay for a whole day's access - who the heck stays in their hotel room all day? I'm hoping that iPass will charge a more reasonable time-based fee.
iPass also supports wireless broadband access and there are a number of points in Dallas on the iPass dialler. Unfortunately, the Renaissance hotel I was staying in wasn't one of them. Dallas Forth Worth International airport was though! Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work as I waited for my homeward bound flight. From what I could gather, the reseller we use for iPass (PSINet) haven't enabled or don't support the wireless add-on for iPass. Time for my company to buy iPass directly, I think :)
So that left me with dialup or the conference centre. Microsoft, as ever, did a great job of providing their Commnet Internet Café, along with wireless networking to compliment and widen the network throughout the conference centre.
Unfortunately, I experienced two issues with the service this year:
- Microsoft had firewalled the Internet connection, which mean that only expected protocols were being allowed through. This meant that I couldn't use my VPN client to access my corporate email. Roll on later this year when I’ll be able to use Outlook with HTTP.
- The construction of the conference centre seemed to have a very detrimental effect on the pervasiveness of the wireless network. Unlike previous years, it seemed to be very difficult to get a signal much beyond the immediate vicinity of the access points.
Before I conclude this article, I thought I'd mention a little bit about Dallas itself. I didn't stray too far from the convention centre, but it was clear that it is a very striking city. There is some beautiful architecture and a few areas in the city where they've created havens of peace with water features, or turned an open space into something that really is special to look at.
Conclusions
If or when Tech Ed returns to Dallas, I'm definitely (a) going to stay in a hotel closer to the conference centre and (b) make sure it isn't next to a freeway!
This was the best Tech Ed so far for me, out of the four that I've been to. Part of the reason for that is because we are definitely deploying Windows 2000/2003, Active Directory and Exchange 2000/2003 this year, along with the other new technologies like SharePoint and Office 2003. That means that the sessions were more relevant this time because I can really put what I've learned into practice.
If you aren't sure if Tech Ed is for you, you can order the DVD of the sessions - it is still quite expensive, but it is cheaper than attending the conference if you want to find out what the sessions themselves are like.
I hope that my boss continues to let me attend them and, if so, maybe I'll see you in San Diego next year!
