I somehow managed to talk my boss into letting me attend Tech-ED this year, this was also my first time at Tech-ED and I can see why some people have become Microsoft evangelists. I thought I would write up about my impressions of the event, and any tips I figured out along the way.

A small disclaimer about the following: I was registered for Microsoft’s Partner Summit which gave me access to a lot of things that the Tech-ED delegates would not have had access to. Being Registered for Partner Summit gave you access to both Tech-ED and Partner Summit sessions, as well as a Black-Tie gala dinner on the Tuesday night.

What to do before

I highly recommend that you plan your sessions before getting to Tech-ED. You do get a comprehensive booklet with session schedules so you can see clearly what is on when and where, but it doesn’t give you a description of each session, for that you need to get on to the website. Since you only have 15 minutes between sessions except for the lunch and drinks breaks, you won’t be able to read all the descriptions of the sessions in the next slot.

You have to remember that there are multiple tracks available, from developer to infrastructure, so don’t stick to your job track, I attended some sessions that had nothing to do with my job but I walked away with some get ideas for the future.

If your company is sending you, I suggest you find out if they require to you adhere to a certain dress code, such as wearing company shirts etc. I have to say that try to dress in as comfortable clothes as you can. The first session starts at 8:00 am, and the last session ends at roughly 6:15pm. It is a long day so you will need to be comfortable, also wear shoes that are comfortable, cause even though you are sitting a lot, you are on your feet a lot too.

It is also a good idea to follow the Tech-ED twitter feed, @teched_africa. Also try to tweet about the sessions you attend, and any tweet that has anything to do with Tech-ED should have the hashtag #techedafrica in it. Delegates at Tech-ED share a lot over twitter!

@ Tech-ED

When you register you will be given a free bag amongst other things, and I recommend you take this with you to all sessions, as they give away a ridiculous amount of swag (Stuff We All Get). Swag is not only given away at the sessions but also in the expo area as well. Generally, the Swag given out in sessions are for asking questions, and usually consist of books, earphones, T-Shirts, and mugs. The give aways in the Expo ranged from hats and T-Shirts to Galaxy tabs (10.1”) and XBoxes.

Don’t panic if you find you don’t have a session to attend in a slot, this is a good thing trust me. I found that having one session slot free in the afternoon helped me make it through the day, plus it gives you a chance to walk around the Micropolis (Expo)!

the Parties

These are a great thing to attend, Microsoft does go all out for Tech-ED and Partner Summit. A ridiculous amount of alcohol is available, but Microsoft have taken this into account and there are shuttles going every where.

The Opening, closing, and Partner Summit Gala dinner are a great time to meet new people and network. Introduce yourself to people, and you may just end up with a new client or two.

The Sessions

Don’t worry about taking notes, you can if you want, but the speakers are only happy to make their slide decks and any code available to you. I also suggest taking a bottle of water with you as well.

Ask questions, the speakers love it when delegates ask questions, and they are only happy to share their knowledge. Also remember to fill in the evaluation forms after the sessions on the CommNet. Try to give comments, while the numbers are helpful, the speakers really love actual comments.

The sessions I attended.

I think I had only two slots on the 3.5 days of Tech-ED that I didn’t attend a session, these were spent chatting to other delegates and speakers, as well as abusing the free coffee/cappuccino bars, this down time allowed me to relax a bit so I was not exhausted and falling asleep in the later sessions.

Various sessions I attended were brilliant and I had a couple that were not really great, such as the one about Test Driven Development (TDD), a more appropriate title for this session was “How to do TDD with my framework”, it was just the speaker selling his custom TDD framework.

But on the other end of the scale, the following sessions really inspired me:

• - Building Business Applications with Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch
• - SharePoint Security in an Insecure World: Understanding the Five Layers of SharePoint Security
• - Upgrading your C# programming skills to be a more effective Developer.
• - Extending Visual Studio
• - Agile Anti-patterns
• - Our Team sites have sprawled out of control. Okay, but so what?
• - Scaling document management on Microsoft SharePoint 2010.
• - Creating and consuming Open Data Protocol (OData) services.

Special Mention

Two speakers really stood out from the rest, these were Robert Maclean and Martin Cronje.

Both Robert and Martin are great speakers and are in the very unique position of being brilliant geeks who can clearly get their knowledge across to any level of delegate without leaving them with a “What the?” expression on their faces. I found both to very passionate about the topics they spoke on.

They are always happy to share their knowledge and help you out were possible, I am hoping that we will see them back presenting at next years Tech-ED. Considering that all their sessions were full, I am sure Microsoft will be inviting them back to speak next year.

A little info on the two of them:

Robert Maclean

Robert currently works for a company called BBD, and his primary focus is on bringing in new technologies into the company and working on up-skilling the developers at BBD. his website is a great source of information for .Net development. Robert is also heavily involved with the Microsoft Dev community.

- Twitter:  @rmaclean

- Website: SADev

Martin Cronje

Martin is a developer and Agile development coach. he currently runs metagen systems.

- Twitter: @martincronje

- Website: metagen Systems