Thursday, June 7, 2007

TechEd 6 (Thursday 6/7)

Since we have a longer lunch break, I decided to sit and post something early today.

The rain eventually ended last night around 11:00 PM. Amazingly, it rained steadily (very hard at times) for 8 hours starting at 3:00 PM. That's a lot of rain. I actually headed over to MGM around 9:30 to hit a few rides. My shoes are just now getting to be completely dry. I went on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror twice, the Aerosmith rollercoaster twice, and the Great Movie Ride once. All in all, it was a nice evening even with the rain. What's the deal with Aerosmith and roller coasters by the way? I don't understand the tie-in, but it was a good ride none-the-less. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the camera due to the rain. So, I don't have any photos to share.

If any of you are thinking that TechEd might be fun next year (in Orlando again, by the way), let me add a little fuel to the fire. EMC has been giving away $6000 ($1000 x 6) to six different developers each day. All you had to do for a chance to win was register at their booth and show up at the designated times when names were selected. One company is raffling off 42" LCD TVs. Others have Zunes, PSPs, Wiis, XBox 360s, PS3s, Windows Mobile 6 phones, Sling Boxes, etc. Quest Software is giving away $15,000 today ($2500, $5000, and $7500 to three winners).


Finally, another company whos name I cannot recall at the moment is raffling-off a Ducati motorcycle, and the tickets are free (one per person). Even if you're not excited by t-shirts, hats, and other swag, those larger prizes have probably caught your attention.

Just a note... I don't mean to play down the educational aspects of this conference. If you put in some time and pay attention, you can definitely learn a ton of useful stuff. I'm bringing back hundreds of pages of slides and my personal notes. For this blog, I've just opted to stay light-hearted and focus primarily on some of the more "fun" aspects.

I'll try to post again tonight with pictures from the attendee party at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. If not, then I'll put them up tomorrow or over the weekend. Time for another session...

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