PDC - Summary

Well PDC has come and gone.  I had hope to blog each day on each keynote / session that I attended, but there were too many sessions and too little time...  ;-)   

What I like about PDC:
1) I really enjoyed the Keynote speakers  / sessions.  They did a great job on product announcements and had some very cool demos!  Plus I really enjoyed learning all the new techologies!  The future looks bright!   ;-)

2) I really enjoyed meeting with my fellow MVPs, INETA speakers, and Microsoft friends.   It was good to finally meet “the person behind the name” (in MSN IM / Newsgroup posts)

3) The conference transportation was excellent.  I always found a waiting bus to and from my hotel. The conference even provided buses to the LAX airport on the last day.

4) I enjoyed helping out with “Ask the Experts”.  It was interesting to hear all the different kinds of questions folks had on their mind.  I help out in both the ASP.NET and ADO.NET tables.

 

What I did NOT like about PDC:
1) The conference was way too crowded.  Most of the top sessions were standing room only OUTSIDE in the hall way (for the monitor).  Because of this, the conference folks said they would put the top 10 session video on CD and mail it out to everyone a few weeks after the conference.

2) I was disappointed that there were no sessions on CURRENT tools and technologies.  I was expecting to see some lessons learned, tips and tricks, etc.   But all of the sessions dealt with products which were still one to two years away.  Granted it's nice to know about these things, but many of us professional developers are still coding with current (and older) tools and technologies.  I guess I'm use to TechEd / VSLive conferences.

3) The conference's wireless (and lan) network kept going out the first few days. Plus when it was up, it was very, very slow.  Granted they finally got it working the last couple of days of the conference.

4) I was also a bit disappointed in www.pdcbloggers.net.  The main feed was being filtered so much that if you were not the first to post something about a session, your post did not make it through.   I guess I am used to http://weblogs.asp.net/

Overall I'm glad I went to PDC. It was the first one I ever attended.  I got to see what new products Microsoft will be releasing in the next year or two.  And given the choice I would go again!   Thanks for all the hard work guys!

8 Comments

  • Thanks for the feedback. I was afraid I wasn't filtering enough. I have to look back over the statistics, but the feed had 150-300 posts a day. The timing of a post has only a part of the impact. I was looking for depth of content, unique angles on a session or technology and I needed quotables - something I could quote from the post.



    Typically, I filtered posts that were only name dropping, daily schedules and posts that included "I was here, then here" with no depth in reviews or commentary of sessions/happenings.



    I want to hear more of your feedback on the site. Just because I do it one way today, doesn't mean it was the best way. Your feedback will help improve it.



    Thanks again!

  • Drew,

    I wish there was two feeds.



    One unmoderated so you get the feel of what everyone is currently thinking / doing at PDC.



    And one moderated so you can come in and get the highlights... ;-)



  • Just an idea. In some news aggregators you can subscribe to an OPML list on the Internet. So, one could subscribe to the PDC Bloggers OPML list, then you're aggregator would have an unmoderated list (Actually, you'd be subscribed to all the bloggers). You'd also have control to delete feeds that didn't meet your needs.

  • "This is the greatest post I have come across so far.I am really pleased to post my comment on this blog .I love your blog by the way, I am gonna have to add you to my list of watched blogs .Thank you for this very useful information. stored it.Thanks again and keep up the good work.
    "

  • Do what you say,say what you do

    -----------------------------------

  • -----------------------------------------------------------
    "Hello. That is type of an ""unconventional"" query , but create other guests requested you the way get the menu bar to appear like you've got attained it? I even possess a weblog and am seriously seeking to alter across the theme, nevertheless am scared to dying to mess with it for concern in the main engines like google punishing me. I'm very new to all of this .
    ..so i'm simply not constructive precisely how one particular can attempt to to all of it however. I am going to merely hold working on it ultimately at a time Many thanks for any support you probably can provide here."

  • -----------------------------------------------------------
    "Looks to me like Obama took out the troops to soon if we cannot get any NATO troops ? Does Obama ever talk about this ? Just what's heading on in Afghanistan. Seems our troops are sitting ducks nowadays. Seems Iraq and also the 30,000 American troops are heading to find out a whole good deal considerably much more fighting inside the subsequent few months. Will Obama even look to determine what's happening?"

  • Have you ever regarded adding a little additional than just your thoughts? I am talking about, what you say is critical and every thing. But its got no punch, no pop! Maybe if you added a pic or two, a video? You could have such a a lot more powerful weblog when you let persons SEE what youre talking about as opposed to just reading it.

Comments have been disabled for this content.