A few more “wish you were here” postcards from Orlando, hosting the record 5th Orlando TechEd in its history. This is the 15 year anniversary of TechEd and Orlando has had the most so far – even heard some rumors that it will be here next year as well!

So in honor of the 15th anniversary, and perhaps in tribute to “Make your mark” tagline, they have a giant billboard that people are signing on to for every year they attended TechEd. Pretty cool idea!

This is one of the TLC (learning) areas I mentioned yesterday. This is what its usually like and its perhaps the heart of TechEd. Here you can meet the product managers and people that actually produce this Microsoft software. The stuff you run… well, its their child… so you’re not going to get a better sales job on it – anywhere. Which, again, its important for people of all IT segments to participate and attend, you can’t pick this type of stuff anywhere!

This is the Hands on Lab. Will write in full detail about them later but I’ve gone through about 5 today and they are absolutely phenomenal. If you’re like me and like to dabble in a lot of different areas then you can probably appreciate just how difficult it can be to get to “Hello World” – I can figure it out from there, but I need that initial kick in the butt and someone to explain the fundamentals so I do it right. Thats what Hands on Labs are. Much like the Technet Virtual labs, TechEd labs are also virtual….

…. running on a dual head display with one holding the actual virtual machine you are running and the other holding the lab manual. New this year – the second monitor. Thats right, no more binders or flyers chained to the table, you can not only just follow on the screen but also email yourself the lab back home. Great way to learn and also helpful to have so many MCT’s and MVP’s around that can help you if you get stuck. You get someone with phenomenal expertise in the product to guide you through the first steps and give you an overview of everything you need to know. I don’t know when the last time you took a class at a training center was, but compared to those fees the <$2K TechEd ticket is a steal!

This is one of the big sessions. The gentleman presenting the content is not just the product manager for SharePoint, but also one of the guys that did Fantastic 40 SharePoint templates that are in use everywhere else. Why is that important? Well, think about it – this dude was not only in charge of the product but also wrote code for it, managed the release, is here training IT professionals from Microsoft’s biggest customers… do you think he may not be able to answer your question?

When you compare someone with that level of expertise with the collection of rejects that couldn’t get their books published by O’Reilly you kind of start to understand just what the potential for this type of an event is when you do it right and make those kinds of connections. 

The schedule is brutal. The evening ended with the sponsor party where I really wanted to take a picture of my competitors in the antispam and hosting world. You know, the fish appliances and wannabe infrastructure masters that train my customers to part with money and then they come to the OWN solution that really works? I really wanted to give them a plug but there were many people walking around with alcohol and I didn’t want too make anyone look bad.

So that’s day 1 postcards. Obviously there is a LOT more to this that I will be sending exclusievely to my partners, the summary of where things are really going, whats hot and what to look at now. But as that requires a spell checker you won’t see it on Vladville, gotta keep some exclusivity you know?

Finally, some old friends – Alun Jones, Security MVP. Chris and I used to have a running joke where we’d thank our grandmothers for constantly refreshing the blog pages to drive up traffic, but thanks to TechEd I can see where so many of you come from. I met some people from very, very large companies that read my blogs all the time (I’m shocked that my stuff can actually make it past the corporate content filters) asking to take pictures. I had 40–50 people in my BOF session today, considering that only 18 registered for it and that it happened during lunch… Happy with the community, thats all I can say.

(i really really really need to stop taking pictures like this)

So yes. Writing down my impressions in my OneNote, will publish them to partners when its all said and done and I have a moment to collect my thoughts – it’s cattle call time, they will be closing the place down in a few minutes so I gotta jet.

Wish you were here.

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