Mikael Sand - Trying to be different

I got an e-mail from a company that wanted to know what I thought about TechEd and if I would consider going again and why and such.

I have got to say this right off the bat. Some people that went to these spectacles before said that this year felt like “they” had cut down on everything.

For me, that had no such experiences, it felt like a week in heaven or how school really aught to be. Interesting people and topics, highly motivated students and teachers that go of out of the way to impress. Really, if school was like that I would have still been there.

Berlin

First time ever in Berlin and I really don’t know what to think about it. If you asked me I would say “different” but I am undecided. I don’t know if I like the fact that everything older then 60 years seems to be gone and all buildings since then have been built with total disregard to the surroundings. My home town Stockholm was just voted one of the most architecturally boring cites in Europe. Berlin is not.

I took one of those tourist bus tours that take you round the city in two hours. €20 well spent if the weather is nice. Try it if you are in the mood. I also loved the S-bahn and the fact that you simply buy your ticket and just hop on. No guard/gate/fence or noting. I have never seen that before. I was in fact so taken away by it that I rode the system for three days before I discovered I never validated my week-ticket the first day (oops).

The conference

So the conference or tech-summit or what you would like to call it had (for me) only two bad features.

Firstly all sessions was published online 24 hours after the session ended. This is great if you is not a conference attendee but it made part of actually being there moot. Why should I bother to get out of bed if I can just watch the thing online tomorrow. Also one reason why you might want to go to TechEd is the gain a little bit of edge on the competition. Now that edge lasted 24 hours.

Secondly; it was a bit too much marketing in the sessions on Microsoft’s part. It was just way too good sometimes.

Good things, everything else! I am not kidding! I had no single complaint thru the week. Everyone working there was super-nice. Some complained a bit about the food but…hey you are in Germany. Food is not their forte. They make the stove and then let someone else cook the food  

Special mentions

Mario Szpuszta (yes that is his real name), who held the last session of the conference. Check out the video, not only is the topic exiting but most of all; that guy types like you or I use copy/paste. Not only that but the “hack-thing” he uses in the end of the video had me laughing. It was just so brilliant.

The cleaning staff at my hotel that refused to take my tip that I left as a motivation for putting more than usual amounts of insta-coffee in my hotel-room. Also the hotel was, really good. I will try to stay there the next time I go to Berlin.

Ron Jacobs, for not only being a great presenter but he also seems to be a nice guy and let me have a picture taken with him.

Intel, that made me submit all my info (in order to win a tablet PC) using a French keyboard!

Would I go back?

Hell yeah!