Monday at TechEd

I'm sitting in a bright yellow director's chair in a sea of cafe tables and chairs in Caribbean colors, just across the floor from the registration booth. Behind me the exhibition booths stretch for acres in the cool concrete underground room of the Orange County Convention center. Off to the right as far as I can see the Track Cabanas and Hands on Labs swirl with activity. Thousands of tech folks are swarming around.

I keep hearing bits of conversation: "But if the RAID array fails how does....", "The dependency of the ,NET Framework 2.0  can be explained by an examination of...", "Dude, if you can't VPN just OWA." It's awesome. 11,000 IT folks, developers and admins, all here for a week of geek speak with peers. Networking opportunities, educational opportunities and the chance to stay ahead of the curve in the ever changing landscape of modern IT is the promise of TechEd. All around me I see that promise fulfilled.

Sitting across from me, looking curiously like the gopher from Cady Shack, is Keith Mazzuco. Keith is our Webcast Content Manager; he works like a dog to bring you the best webcast experience he can. The dude, rocks!

We're having beers with SteveB, after an awesome keynote. "Well done, Steve." I say, "Is there anything you'd like to add for all the folks in the blogosphere?" "Absolutely, Murph," says Steve, "I am soooooo stoked by what I see here! I see our customers interacting with our people on the latest and greatest Microsoft Technology. I see our Partners engaging with our customers and showing off what they can do. I want everyone out there to know just how darned excited I am to see everybody here. And if you didn't make it this year, I hope to have the chance to see you here next year! Rock on!" ****

Well, I'm headed to the Hands On Labs to earn my keep!

***Please note. Mr. Ballmer and I have never met and I made the whole thing up. This is sheer parody and in no way should be taken seriously or be considered to reflect either negatively or accurately on Mr. Ballmer.