Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to be sent to Microsoft TechEd by the company I work at. It was such a busy week and another week of catching up with real life I am just now getting around to blogging about TechEd.
Warning: Long blog post!
This summarization of TechEd does not do a justice to how fantastic the experience is and how much you learn while there. …
“The Krewe is a group of hard working/fun-loving IT Pros and Developers. We gather every year at Microsoft TechEd North America, the largest Microsoft technology education conference. Our mission is to build a dynamic networking community through various activities and gatherings.” – TechEdKrewe.com
In the months leading up to TechEd I decided to become much more involved. I vowed that I was going to Network all throughout TechEd. I posted on #TheKrewe Facebook page which I had been involved with the year before; but did not really network much. I asked how I can break the ice with people when by nature I am not the most social until I know people. Many people told me I was already doing a decent job being involved with #60Days2MCSE, and promoting myself on Twitter before TechEd.
After posting that I was approached by Michael Bender asking if I’d be interested in helping with #TheKrewe Meet N Greet party which was a good time last year, and I was planning on attending anyway. I went ahead and offered to help, and then became the person coordinating the volunteers for the event. It wasn’t much work, and I figured it’d be a good way to get to know more people.
All I had to do was create a sign up form, promote the form and coordinate some people, that’s simple! We also had some emails going back and forth about a #TheKrewe T-shirt, my design abilities and the ones that were already provided I felt could use some improvement. I suggested a T-Shirt Design contest which I took on the lead of. I posted the contest and didn’t get too many entries but we got enough good designs for a really sweet looking shirt. …
The drive from Indianapolis to Orlando wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. I arrived within 16 hours (including stops) and the hotel was able to get me checked in early with no problem. Once I settled into the room I went on to the convention center to get registered. It took forever to find registration because I had no idea I were in the wrong building. I have to say the OCCC is so massive it’s amazing.
Once I registered I poked around a bit, took some pictures and discovered The Detroit Project car which is just amazing at how much technology they have crammed into it.
Once I was done in the expo hall I moved into the Alumni lounge with my buddy @IT_JOSH. While we were in the alumni lounge we met up with some fellow #TheKrewe members that I know on twitter and was thrilled to finally meet in person.
Later on that night was #TheKrewe Meet N Greet, this was exciting for me because I was coordinating all of the volunteers. I arrived and already had someone there starting to unpack the boxes of swag for #TheKrewe survival kit. We originally had 13 people scheduled to volunteer and had 22 people show up, we had 350 survival kits to assembly and completed it in 40 minutes. The night was fantastic and it couldn’t have been done without the help of all of our volunteers.
I have to say the Meet N Greet was the best networking opportunity ever, I was able to meet people from around the world, I even met someone who lived 30 minutes away from me and have made great connections I will be certain to maintain.
Day 1 is coming to a close as I write it sitting pool side using the Samsung Series 7 Slate. I have learned a lot of new cool stuff is coming to the Microsoft world in the area of virtualization. However I am disappointed in the lack of technical knowledge that I’ve gained.
It is not that the technical knowledge wasn’t available, it was that I spent my day taking certifications. I started my day early at 7:30am for the Twitter Army, which lead up to going into the TechEd Keynote, I had to leave the keynote early to get to my first certification exam.
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Ever since last year when I first attended TechEd I knew I wanted to come back. I decided to wait until I was closer to becoming full time before I requested to go. Back in January of this year I spoke with my boss about attending TechEd 2012, he went ahead and moved it up the ranks to get approval and I was lucky to have been approved. I was told to schedule everything then ask for the credit card. I got myself setup for a conference pass and staying at The Rosen Centre Hotel which is right next door.
Over the past few months I’ve been getting myself more involved with the community which is one major thing I had regretted last year, this time around I am doing it right. I decided to take the #60Days2MCSE challenge which I then moved into getting more involved with #TheKrewe. I am now ready to take my 70-246 and hopefully become MCSE: Private Cloud Certified. I am also ready to meet up with all of the new friends I’ve made withing #TheKrewe and I am ready to help throw one of the best TechEd 2012 parties!.
Over the past week is has been crazy for me, getting my schedule finalized, getting last minute studying done, getting bills paid before I am out of town, packing… oh yea and working. However I have everything packed now, and at the time of writing this I am T-24 hours from leaving my house in Indianapolis, IN and driving down to Orlando, Florida to have the best week of the year. It is going to be jam packed and exhausting but I would not change it for the world.
I will be tweeting my whole drive down to Florida (only when we stop of course!) I will also be tweeting our arrival and how the Hands-on-labs are once I get myself registered! If you are unable to attend TechEd I highly encourage you watch my twitter feed which I will be posting pictures on, and hopefully I will get some time to blog too!
