Thank you New Orleans, what a warm welcome and what a fantastic city, what an awesome event!
We were in a building that is 1.5 miles long, but to quote our event manager ‘yeah but we are only using one mile of it’
The event was sold out, quite a few sessions were therefore repeated so everyone could attend, the hands on labs were at full capacity nearly all of the time and we enjoyed a lot of interest in our certification pathways as people were looking at updating skills or taking the next step in their careers. People were in high spirits, business seems to be improving for many and there was a lot of interest in more in depth knowledge on new products.
The week started for us on Saturday as we welcomed the MCTs at TechEd at our ‘MCT Day’. A great way to get the community together, to share a business update and our title plan for the new year. I had some meetings on Sunday and I must add how much I enjoyed the ‘downtime’ in my schedule as New Orleans really offers fantastic music on every corner: indoors and outdoors, there is a plethora of talent out there, fantastic! The same could be said for TechEd, there were great sessions on every corner and both the community lounge and the expo hall were well attended. Have a look at the TechEd site and browse the sessions that are available online now.
We had invited Steven Holcomb who shared his stories about his bobsledding career and who seized the opportunity to look at future opportunities in IT and how to best update his Microsoft Certification. I had the honor of joining him and got to see the event through his eyes. Steven announced the winner of the IT Grand Prix (congratulations once again GOLD TEAM) and joined us at the Microsoft Learning booth where he chatted with attendees and signed caps, T-Shirts and bags. Many people asked him about bobsledding and about which things at TechEd that had his interest. We visited The Bus which was parked inside the expo hall and we had a look at the ‘Are you Certifiable?’ game show. The Community Lounge was a great place for MCTs and MVPs to relax for a bit and to catch up. As people shared ideas and their excitement about the areas they specialized in, it made me realize once again how many opportunities people have in IT, if you have the skills and the passion you can really change your line of business in just a few weeks whenever you want to.
A big ‘Thank You’ to everyone who attended or who worked at this great event and to the kind people of New Orleans for their warm welcome!