TEch.ed 2K10 – A virtual experience
Today is April 23. It has been exactly 9 days that this years TechEd concluded in the Silicon Valley of India – yup our own Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore). I wanted to post this blog as soon as TechEd ended – but as always i was very lazy to sit and write at least some 100 lines of content :). Today made up my mind to finish this at any cost. So here is my experience – a virtual experience of Tech Ed 2010, read on and hope you enjoy.
Now for those of you wonder as to what is TechEd – here is the Wikipedia definition of TechEd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TechEd) -
“Tech·Ed is an annual conference for developers and IT professionals put on by Microsoft. It is held in several locations around the world.
The conference consists of multiple days, normally between 3 and 5, of presentation and whiteboard sessions and hands-on labs. Opportunities to meet Microsoft experts, MVP's and community members are enhanced through parties, community areas and Ask the Expert sessions. The event also includes an exhibition area where vendors can show off technologies and sell products”
So this time the Tech Ed 2010 was a 3 day event in Bengaluru. The official website for Tech Ed 2K10 was www.microsoftteched.in. What was the speciality of this year’s Tech Ed – well i think this is the first time that Microsoft decided to do something different, went away from the traditional tradition. What was the tradition you ask – A product would first get launched in US then followed by other geographies. Where as this time Microsoft used the Tech.Ed platform to do a global launch of the much awaited, much talked about product Visual Studio 2010. Yes this was the first time that MS went out with a Global launch of the product – meaning the product was launched simultaneously at the following locations on the same i.e. Apr 12 -
- Las Vegas, Nevada, USA – Bellagio Resort,
Microsoft Visual Studio Conference & Expo
Key note by Bob Muglia - President - Server and Tools Business
- Bengaluru, India
Tech.Ed 2010 – Key note by S. Somasegar (popularly known as Soma). - Beijing, China – Royal King Hotel
Visual Studio 2010 launch event
Key note by Julia Liuson, General Manager – Developer Division - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre
Visual Studio 2010 launch event
Key note by Dave Mendlen, Senior Director - Developer Tools - London, UK – VUE Cinemas
Visual Studio 2010 launch event
Key note by Jason Zander, General Manager - Visual Studio
So from the time zone perspective – it was launched first in China, Malaysia, India, London and followed by USA. ( http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/visual-studio-events )
Now coming to Tech Ed 2010 in Bengaluru – There was a special thing that MS did this time ( i need to put a disclaimer here - I am not aware if this was tried before ) – The whole of Tech Ed 2010 has a virtual experience added to it. Tech Ed 2010 had a live stream going on all day and people who couldnt attend the show in person could get all the fuzz and the fizz of the event sitting right at their desktop. What was much more interesting was the Tech Ed Studio as part of the live stream which was hosted by our own Bengaluru boy – DJ – VJ – Architectural Engg – Nikhil Chinappa. He was a fun to watch.
Coming to the the key note for the event - it was presented by Mr. Somasegar. He flew all the way from Redmond, WA to Bengaluru just to present the key note. As expected the VS.NET 2K10 was launched as part of the key note. Some cool demos were shown. I was blown away by the fact that using the same IDE that i have been working for almost 9 years now – i can program to the much awaited Windows Mobile 7 platform. After the Key note Nikhil interviewed Mr. Somasegar in the studio. Nikhil was posing the question from a lay mans perspective. It was nice to watch Nikhil understand what ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) :). One of the interesting question asked was What is one thing that Mr. Somasegar likes to enjoy when he comes to India. Believe it or not its none other than Masala Dosa. I have stayed in LA for 2 years and one thing i craved for was a nice south Indian filter coffee. So its not surprising the Mr.Somasegar who is from Chennai does have a craving for MD – Masala Dosa.
Another interesting interview i remember was with Mr. Kamal Hathi. Mr. Kamal is responsible for the BI initiative. He is the man behind the Power Pivot – which was code named as Gemini. More than the tech talk in the interview with Nikhil – it was fun hearing to outside of the technology. Mr. Kamal is an avid mountaineering guy. He has trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro. So a lot of things were discussed on the mountaineering.
One more interview i liked was with Mr. Kevin Smith – Senior Director of Intel. He had a session where he had a talk on the how parallelism is achieved in multi core Intel chips. When he was interviewed in the studio he was asked how he was feeling being in our Bengaluru. So he made a statement that he had asked his friends/counterparts any special tips when being in India. He was told not to cross the Indian roads at any cost. So he joked saying like to get a building next door he used his car :). He said that he was surprised to see Cows on the road. Believe me for anybody who is from US – Indian road are a big mystery and seems a tough job to go through. I have the experience of both the roads i.e. US and Indian and each have their own merits and demerits which i don’t want to get into here ;) .
One more interesting thing in all of the event was Buddy Home – a concept of Mr. Ramaprasanna Chellamuthu – a Developer Evangelist. He works mainly on Robotics. Buddy Home a cool and revolutionary concept that he has put together by making use of Azure + Robotics. Check the Buddy Home video at the following location - http://www.msigeek.com/3966/buddyhome-a-hobby-robot-project-by-ramaprasanna-chellamuthu. Great concept – it surely will blow you away.
Another fantastic thing about this years Tech Ed 2010 was what is known as “Roving Camera”. Mr Pandurang Nayak and Mr. Shabbir were the men who had mike in their hand and going thro all places of Tech Ed. What was fun to watch was when Mr. Pandurang made the participants show their excitement of being in Tech Ed. Mr Shabbir was exceptional in reaching out to people all over whether they were eating or sipping copy of having a fag – he would reach out to them and give virtual watchers what its like to be present in person. I used to envy him :). One thing i have to mention is the way Shabbir made Mr. Mark Conway of Micro Focus do 2 finger push ups. Conway was able to put 20 push ups and he was unchallenged. There was a Chocolate fountain near one of the stalls – Mr Shabbir did make me realize what i was missing by not attending in person by dipping his hand in the choco fountain and sipping it. :). Overall an excellent show by the roving camera team.
Last but not the least – day 3 saw one of the unique things in – may be i can say it as – Tech Ed India history – Dr. Sam Pitroda - Internationally respected development thinker, telecom inventor and entrepreneur delivered his key note from his home office in US. It was a remarkable speech from Mr. Sam Pitroda. One of the quotes he made during the key note did really circle the tweets and blog world. Think this - “If India can be back office to US – why cant Villages be back office to Urban India”. Isn’t that a fair question ? Just think. What was interesting was the fact the Mr. Sam Pitroda did a remote key note using Skype. Man that’s technology to the core. Skype connection right in the TechEd venue and a key note – excellent i should say.
Brickbats:
Although the in house arrangements for the Tech Ed might have been excellent – the live stream was sucking big time. The key notes we could barely make out the speakers and what they were presenting. The studio rounds were good. The roving camera was also good. Because of the roving camera, at least we got the feel of the venue and things lined up as far as the stalls went. I did pose a question to one of the evangelist that the live streaming did not cover any of the technology tracks/session. He rightly said that – there has to be some incentive to be present live. Rightly said – but may be do think of having at least some sessions being re done exclusively for live stream or so. The point i am trying to make is not everybody will be able to “Convince their boss to convince their boss” to be at Tech Ed :). So do consider some of us and let us also be a big part of the show.
Overall kudos to Microsoft. I am .netter and i will always be one. Let me sign off now, i have a 5 AM clock train to catch.
Till next time happy coding. Code with passion :)
Disclaimer: If you find anything wrong/mistyped please leave me a comment so that i can correct the post. No time in the three days of the TechEd – did i ever gave my day job a slip :). I was 100% focussed onto the work i was assigned + had the ear phone plugged into my ears ;)