TechEd North America 2009 Wrap Up

Well, it’s finally over – TechEd North America 2009 is is done and dusted. It seemed like a really long week; waiting until Friday afternoon to speak sure didn’t help. Quite a few folks turned up for a late-on-the-last-day session and asked a lot of good questions. We slung some code, handed out a few prizes (thanks to all the authors who donated books – Rob Bogue, Todd Klindt, Shane Young, and Michael Noel), and laughed at a few redneck jokes. I think it helped that I had extra swag to give away 😉 Extra kudos to the guy that came all the way from Poland. Wow!

A big shout out to Paul Andrew, Dave Pae, Heather Newman, Richard Riley, Michal Gideoni, and my new best-buddy Terri Thorne. They did a bang-up job, along with all the other Softies and non-Softies, making this a great event. A special thanks to Rob Bogue, who hung out with me all week and kept everything in perspective (he also had some great presentations on Patterns & Practices and Code Maintenance). It was fun working the Technical Learning Center with the other MVP’s and answering SharePoint questions. We got some good ones this year. I also got to see the gang from AvePoint (and got #SCUM’ed by Tony Lanni), meet up with the folks at ComponentOne, and visited with a new player in the SharePoint market, FalconStor. A very special thanks to Mike from Idera for a fabulous dinner at Morton’s. And, as always, it was good to see my TechEd Brother Bruce Scott (you need a blog, bro!).

Attendance was a bit down this year but the quality of attendees and speakers was very high. People were asking very deep and specific questions, indicating that SharePoint is penetrating deep into the enterprise. Naturally, lots of folks want to know what’s coming in 2010. All I can say to that is be sure you are in Las Vegas October 19 – 22 for SharePoint Conference 2009. You absolutely cannot afford to miss it!

On a side note, congratulations to Andrew Connell and Ted Pattison on the launch of Critical Path Training. They’re both quality guys and I know they’ll be successful. Oh, and congratulations to this year’s winner of Speaker Idol (I’ll post a link as soon as it’s live on TechEd Online). Great presentations by all the contestants.

Next year TechEd will be returning to New Orleans (June 7 – 11, 2010). That’s great news for everyone but I’m especially happy as I have family in the area (and I know some great places to party in ‘Nawlins). Put it on your calendar now – it’s sure to be a blast!