TechEd 2005 - Day 1
I just came back from TechEd. If you've ever been at an event like that, you'll understand that it's incredibly difficult to get the time to blog. Now that I'm back at the home base, here is a day to day account of my experiences at the event.
Saturday - Day 1
I arrived at Pearson International Airport around 7AM. The sky was dark and cloudy - as I approached the terminal I noticed an ominous looking tornado-like funnel in the distance. Luckily, it didn't end up being anything important (but foreshadowed my visit to Universal Studios Orlando on Thursday). At the airport, my flight was delayed by several hours. I learned that the air traffic control tower in Philadelphia was on fire and the authorities had to evacuate the airport. I ended up being redirected to Charlotte, SC. As soon as I arrived in Charlotte, I ran towards a flight immediately leaving for Orlando. Lucky for me, there were a few passengers still boarding the plane. I was placed on standby and ended up getting a seat. Long story short, I arrived in Orlando two hours in advance despite all the delays. I met up with Chris Dufour, a friend of mine from the East of Toronto .NET User Group. We headed to the Peabody to attend the Party with Palermo. Met up and chatted with fantastic people including Jeff Palermo, Christian Weyer, Darrell Norton, Don "DonXML" Demsak, Scott Bellware, Mike Gousset (creator of the "Team System Rocks!" blog), Rob Zelt, Laura Hunter and a few fellow canucks such as Amanda Murphy, Shane Perran and D'Arcy Lussier. It was a great opportunity to network and chat - the event was lots of fun and definitely a success. As we were leaving the B-Line Diner, Scott Hanselman, John Bristowe and Juval Lowy came in to join in. Later that evening, Caleb Jenkins (seriously one of the funniest guys I've ever met), Antonio Chagoury, Amanda, Shane, D'Arcy, Chris and I sat down for a long and fun chat at the J.W. Marriott (an amazing hotel) to discuss topics ranging from the merits of VB.NET vs C# to running an effective user group.
Day 2 coming up...