TechEd Amsterdam 2004

Although this year's annual TechEd Europe event is a few weeks behind us now, I am just now finally catching up from it. While other speakers also felt that this year was unusually hectic and pressured, I know that for me it particularly so.  This was mainly due to the fact that my schedule was REALLY packed.   First of all, I was giving 5 different sessions - 2 of them at 8:30 in the morning !  It was a nice mix of 2 "regular" presentations, 2 Birds Of a Feather sessions, and 1 Chalk & Talk. 

The sessions were:

DEV305 Building with Blocks is Quick, Easy, and Reliable

DAT331 Notes from the Field: ADO.NET

CHT012 VB6 Upgrade Clinic

BOF010 Now What Are They Going to do to My VB ?

BOF006 MS Patterns & Practices – are they relevant to me ?

It was nice that I had the opportunity to present and talk about three of my current passions/areas of expertise: VB.NET, ADO.NET, and Patterns & Practices.

The smaller, interactive sessions are always fun, but challenging.  Especially the Birds Of a Feather (BOF) sessions, since there isn't even a projector in the room.  Part of the problem with BOF sessions is that people don't really know what it is or what it is supposed to be.  In fact, I was pretty surprised by the makeup of the audiences in my 2 Patterns  & Practices sessions.  The BOF had mostly people who knew little about P&P, and wanted to learn the basics.   In my "regular" presentation on the Application Blocks, most of the people were familiar and experienced with the Application Blocks.   The makeup of the audiences should have been exactly the opposite !

In between giving sessions, I was trying to sit in on a few sessions as well.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch as many as I would have liked, since I also had meetings scheduled with various MS people - and other colleagues and friends.