TechEd started confusingly. We were all (myself, Alex and Dan Kent) meeting at the airport. Alex & I arrived close to each other, so joined the queue. Dan didn't appear, but that wasn't that worrying. We checkin, do the security thing, and head for the pub (a pre-trip tradition). Dan still doesn't appear. We board the plan. No Dan. The plane takes off. No Dan. Ho hum, says we, wondering where he is. Next day still no Dan, so we head for a bit of shopping, mainly to get me some new clothes and that's easier than trying to lose weight. Also restrict myself to 2 CDs so feel quite smug. It's Sunday and pre-conference day so it's not like we're skipping sessions. Mind you I did quite a lot of that. I'd previously been through the sessions and scheduled myself in for a full week, but knew I'd be spending more time in meetings. When you're travelling so far meeting people is really important, a fact proved by how much we achieved during the week.
We then head down to the conference centre and register, dump our conference bags at the hotel, and return to the conference bookstore where there is an evening reception, follwed by the SAMS author dinner. There we hear the tale of Dan, who upon arriving at the airport realises his passport has expired. Oops. The earliest he can get a renewal is Tuesday, so flights are re-arranged. Much amusement by us, and plans to rib him mercilessly throughout the week. Dinner was good, and I got to meat a whole bunch of people I've only exchanged email with. It's great to put faces to names.
Monday is keynote day, so we head to the big (and full) main hall to hear Steve Ballmer. I was a bit disappointed since it was a fairly sensible talk; no funny stuff. Saw some good demos of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System though. At mid-day the exhibition hall opened so we got to see the posters (with matching t-shirts) made for the SAMS stand - a PT Barnum style theme. I spent most of the evening reception juggling, purely to match the theme of course. We made Dan a t-shirt which we forced him to wear later in the week. In the evening I met Susan for some Tequila and Mexican food. Well, Tequila anyway, since their dumb kitched had already closed.
Tuesday, sessions, on the booth, more book signings and 'Meet the Authors' cabana. This was cool as I finally got to meet DataGrid Girl, one of the few people who are interesting enough to blog in a different colour. The rest of us stick with boring old black. At night was the Addison Wesley dinner. Again it was great to meet a load more people whom I know of, but hadn't met.
Wednesday, much the same, but this time the MVP party at Dirty Dicks, a place famed for it's abusive staff (it's in their job description it seems). A really great time, especially seeing the bizarre way to get a free dinner. Mind you there was food laid on, so this was just a way to abuse some lobsters.
Thursday, more of the same. A three hour meeting with guys from the XML and data teams was really instructive; we've nailed down the spec for the update to the First Look book, so will start that this week. We had lunch with Amy who now has some responsibility for the Software Legends. We discussed a whole bunch of ideas to take this forward, such as more events, updating the web site and making sure it is seen as beeing something fun rather than pretentious. There was a Software Legends Panel (apart from Al & I, as when it was organised they didn't know we were going to be there) was pretty funny. Quote of the week was from Billy Hollis: Lipstick on a pig. You had to be there, it was pretty funny. I was too tired for the Sea World party in the evening, and as I've been before decided to head out with the SAMS crew for a quiet meal. Actually not that quite come to think of it. A lot of laughter, food and wine. But it didn't involve traipsing around a theme park with 8,000 other people.
Friday, skipped sessions to finish editing a chapter and then Alex & I caught the bus out to Frys. The bus took forever, but this is possibly the biggest electronics store I've ever seen. Almost bigger than my entire village. Alex bought an MP3 player and I resisted everything. Just. But you know, in places like that it's either nothing or you melt your credit card. In the evening we had dinner with David Platt, which was great. David & I met at a Software Legends event last year, so it was good to catch up again.
And thus ends TechEd 2004; a full set of photos in this gallery. In all a great conference, despite not attending many sessions (I'll catch up when the DVDs arrive). I met some great people, caught up with some old friends, made some new ones, achieved a huge amount of networking and generally had a great time. Now I have to get back to work (but not tonight, as I'm going to see the new Harry Potter film; exercising my inner child).