TechEd 09 - it's bigger than ever

<P>We've got the low down on New Zealand's largest technology conference of the year.</P>

Each year, hundreds of Microsoft aficionados converge on Auckland for New Zealand’s largest technology conference: Microsoft Tech·Ed.

Primarily a conference for developers, Tech·Ed is the best local opportunity to hear Microsoft and its partners talk about Microsoft technologies. The majority of the speakers are Microsoft employees, with most of those brought in from overseas especially for the event; the remainder comprise local in-country experts, from respected partners such as Intergen.

Held in September, this year was no different, and was bigger than ever. With 140 sessions across 11 tracks, involving more than 100 speakers over three days there was an intense amount of information to take in, absorb and apply.

With few exceptions, the focus of Tech·Ed is on Microsoft technologies that are being shipped today. Depending on the year, and the products that have been released, the focus of the event can shift from talking about products that have been here a while, to talking about products and services on the horizon. For example, this year there were a couple of roundtable sessions on cloud computing,
a rapidly-evolving area for Microsoft.

Of those who went to Tech·Ed this year, there were three key themes they reported back on, which have been consistent with recent market thrusts from Redmond:

• 
  Virtualisation. With the movement to improve manageability and the use of
  fewer resources, virtualisation has been a significant focus for the industry
  in the past 12 months. Microsoft’s offering, with Hyper-V for Microsoft Windows
  Server 2008, has proven to be more than competitive with the industry leaders.
• Cloud Services. While Microsoft will make some major announcements at the
  PDC, discussion and speculation around what has been revealed so far has started.
• Key Microsoft platform components. .NET 3.5, Vista and SQL 2008 – all
  received significant attention at this event.

For Intergen, Tech·Ed always represents both a significant opportunity and investment. On any given year, we typically provide around half a dozen speakers to Tech·Ed, giving these individuals an opportunity to showcase their talents to a high profile audienceFor the past few years, we have also been responsible for the ‘Hands on Labs’ – a classroom-style environment comprising dozens of PCs with hours of training and interactive lessons. Preparation for all of this takes a significant amount of time and effort, and is well appreciated by those who hear the speakers and participate in the Labs.

As a strong supporter of the Microsoft development community, Intergen encourages members of the community to get involved: people learn best from people. By contributing to the community, experts can showcase their skills, raise their profile, and generally give back to other developers and experts. For those people active in the Microsoft space, Tech·Ed represents a great opportunity to pass on your experience to others, either as a speaker, or as part of the contingent helping out at the Hands on Labs. Such contributions need not only be made by Microsoft or partners such as Intergen, though. Customers are welcome to participate in the Voice of the Customer sessions which highlight how these technologies have been applied in the real world, and the benefits that have accrued.