So many TechEd conferences

For those of you in the USA, you are probably thinking that there is just one TechEd conference, a rather large event held every June covering just about any Microsoft software product you can think of.  But for the past few years, there have been two events in Europe, catering to two different audiences:

  • TechEd: Developer.  This conference, taking place in Barcelona this week, focuses on developer content, including Visual Studio, SQL Server, and a variety of related topics.
  • TechEd: IT Forum.  Next week, IT pros converge on Barcelona to talk about server, desktops, infrastructure, etc.

This week, similar changes to the US event were announced.  See Kevin's blog posting at https://blogs.technet.com/kevinremde/archive/2007/11/05/teched-2008-breaking-news-big-changes-to-teched-u-s.aspx, and the TechEd 2008 FAQ at https://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/teched2008faq.mspx for more details.  Basically, the US event will now be like the European event (although bigger).

So what does that mean for the "other" big US conferences?  Well, as the FAQ mentioned, PDC isn't going to be a regularly-scheduled event, instead aligning with Microsoft's platform technology waves.  What about the Microsoft Management Summit?  No mention of any changes there, so that will still be a more focused IT pro event, looking at management technologies.

There are also lots of regional TechEd events offered, all over the world.  One of these days I'll be able to attend some of those events :-)

p.s.  If you are planning to be in Barcelona next week, be sure to track me down.