Finally! Something to write about… I’ve been rather ‘quiet’ in this space, and it’s because of current work policy that actually stops you from writing blog posts from work (which I love to do, because a problem just pops up and you’ve spent that X amount of hours figuring the solution) which means I need to bring in a personal laptop and hook up to a personal hotspot, which I have tried doing but at the moment my phone/network is just pretty much dead at my office spot (ugh!) and I haven’t figured out how to fix it… imagine how long it took me to adjust working in a total-firewall-workplace, no delicious, no googling any sort of personal on work desk…
Anyways, aside from the rambling, I finally got to go to TechEd Australia 2011 this year! You can imagine my excitement when it’s something you’ve dreamt about for the last 3 years, something that you’ve pinned on the ‘Things that I must do at least ONCE in my entire career’. When the opportunity popped itself this year, I asked my boss about going and he was pretty cool about it, but we only had the chance to nominate a specific session that we were interested in and attend TechEd for a day. A day??? There were so many topics that were interesting and relevant to my work that a day just didn’t cut it. So I took the liberty and a bold decision to ask my boss’es boss (I am in a weird structure at the moment where I have a direct report line to my boss’es boss) to ask if I could attend the entire session, and justify how it relates to my current work. Result? Green tick! One whole ticket just for myself
So I had to claim it for myself instead of ‘sharing’ my ticket around the team (selfish I know). I was contemplating whether to attend TechEd from Tues, or to just go from Wed till the end. The other issue was to organise my own transportation/accommodation, which at this stage it was very near to the TechEd date. And I had work which I was responsible for which prevented me from going to TechEd ‘unnecessarily’. In the end I decided to pass the Keynote on Tuesday because at this stage I haven’t organised my accommodation at GC yet. Bad decision..( to all out there, I would strongly advise you to go for the Keynote, beg your boss if you have to)
I arrived probably about 15 mins late for the 8.15am presentation on ARC-MID204 Disposable Architecture. Doors closed. Seriously?? I never expected geeks to be so punctual given that we normally have flexibility at work to turn up within a range of ‘acceptable’ business hours. Looks like I really need to throw my love for sleep aside and be extra-early for the morning sessions if I really wanted a seat. Loitering around the building and waiting for the next session which was my lab DEV272-HOL Microsoft ASP.net MVC 3: Fundamentals.
I queued early. By the time the lab was about to start, the queue was super long. I managed to get in because I was there early (pointers out there for all of you who have never been TechEd, be super early) but we had technical issues with the speaker’s microphone, and after that was sorted he gave a brief introduction. After the introduction was over, we started on the lab work, but VS2011 took 5 mins to load up. Every click was taking 3-5 mins response time. SeRiouSly?? Seriously…I kid you not. This wasn’t starting all too well for me. I took a snapshot of the online tutorial website and head off.
By this time the expo has opened so I went stall to stall, asking questions so that I appear interested in their products when all I really wanted was their freebies, most of the companies I have not even heard of…
Next up, ARC203 Prototypes, prototypes, prototypes and the difference between them. My thoughts? This is a neat one, I would probably rate this no. 2 on my favourites. I am so pumped up to use this knowledge in my upcoming project!
I had to leave to settle some of my personal stuff and wasn’t aware of the Spotlight going on till the very last minute ( and I couldn’t rush back ) so that’s day 1.
Day 2
COS204 Migrating your applications to Azure…I probably took not much with me given that I’m not all that interested about the cloud ( cloudy days mean rain was coming, and getting wet on the way to work rather than sleeping cozyly in bed ) but since there was nothing to do, I just tagged along with my bunch of ex-colleagues who were there too all the way from Melbourne.
DAT302 Developer features in SQL Server 2008 R2 this was an interesting one, at least for me if not the majority. Some pointers for me to take away/research on:
- dacpac ( or also called SQL server data tier application in VS2010)
- T-SQL merge, grouping sets, sparse columns
- model first/code first (new!) / database first
DEV203 Over the fence – Designer Developer Workflow this was a talk on the problems they faced working as a team (developer vs designer). I like how Expression Blend works. Heard that the price is pretty too! More to investigate on that one whether we have the funding to buy it.
ARC205 Hitchhiker’s Guide to Technical Leadership if I had 5 stars, I’ve give all of them to this. It was a very inspiring talk about becoming a leader, and had key pointers to the questions that I have in mind ( long term goal ). Some of the key points were mentioned before by my mom when I was at the start of my career, and it was a refreshing time to hear it again. What speaks to the heart touches the heart. I went teary on this talk. I had jot down several items on this but I won’t post it here, its too good that you would have to get the slides/video from the official site.
That’s it! It was a pretty intensive back-to-back 3 days for me, and I immensely miss my bed at home, but I had a great time catching up with my ex-colleagues (rare opportunity), meeting new people from different places/line of business/personalities. I definitely got something out of TechEd, and I certainly hope that I would be able to attend future TechEds.