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Zeichick’s Take: Postcard from Microsoft TechEd (almost)


By Alan Zeichick
May 11, 2009 — 
Greetings from the Los Angeles Convention Center, home of Microsoft TechEd 2009, the leading technical conference for developers and IT professionals using Microsoft’s server platforms.

Well, to tell the truth, I’m not at TechEd yet—I’m writing this essay on Friday, May 8, up in San Francisco. I’m heading down to Los Angeles on Sunday.

Of course, that’s not going to stop me from making some comments about the conference, which is one of my favorite IT events. While I do mourn the passing of super-huge trade shows like Comdex and PC Expo, there is something uniquely energizing about big conferences like TechEd, Microsoft PDC, Sun’s JavaOne, the IBM Rational Software Development Conference, Oracle OpenWorld, ACM SIGGRAPH, and so-on.

It’s true: I draw energy from the crowd of thousands—or tens of thousands—of attendees, the huge exhibit hall, the jam-packed keynotes, the rows of buses shuttling people to and from the hotels.

While mega-conferences like TechEd are halfway between a zoo and a three-ring circus, they remind us all that information technology is also huge. It’s pervasive. It’s not just our pizza-and-pocket-protector world, it’s the real world.

Perhaps TechEd this year will be reduced to a two-ring circus. The reality of today’s world is that times are tough. A month ago, Microsoft warned TechEd exhibitors and sponsors that the 2009 conference will be 30-40% smaller than last year’s TechEd, like just about every comparable event.

Will TechEd still be energizing? I expect so, despite the reduced attendance. In our world, developers, administrators and other IT professionals need constant education to keep up with emerging technologies and to help them take full advantage of what they already own. There’s no better place to get that education, while recharging your mental batteries, than a technical conference.

Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/zeichick. Read his blog at ztrek.blogspot.com.


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