Disembarking for #TechEd_NA + #SPSORL
The back of my office door contains an ever-expanding collection of lanyards, a dense mass of event calling cards. Within this vertical mashup of string, paper and plastic are 3 
or 4 TechEd badges, 3 TechReady badges, and who-knows-how-many SharePoint event badges, including 4 from SharePoint conferences. It’s a lot, even for someone who attends events as part of my job. Not trying to be braggy – just reflecting.
And here I am, sitting in an airport (SFO) traveling to another event combo (SharePoint Saturday Orlando, followed by TechEd 2012 in Orlando). I have to say, though, that I do enjoy TechEd. It’s that once-a-year opportunity to drink from the hose on all things Microsoft. Unlike the SharePoint Conference (coming in November), I get to dabble in other areas of interest, satisfying my need to learn more about what is happening with Dynamics, Project Server, Windows, Office365, and maybe even some of that cloud stuff (I hear Microsoft is “all in”).
What’s going on in Orlando? After a very exciting day of working from my hotel room on Friday, I’ll make my way over to the SharePoint Saturday Orlando speaker dinner where my good friend Michael Hinckley and team have, I’m sure, planned for some great food and an evening of entertainment. The speaker dinner is really the primary perk of participating in these events (save the interaction with attendees, which I do enjoy), and it is always great to sit and catch up with this community of experts and to meet new faces. At this SPS, I’ll be presenting two SharePoint 101/Business topics: How Metadata Impacts Everything You Do, and 10 Best SharePoint Features You’ve Never Used (But Should) which I just gave Tuesday as a webinar (link). For those who will not be attending, you can find both on SlideShare here (minus all of my entertaining stories and examples).
Back to TechEd: aside from having off-and-on booth duty with the Axceler team (find us as booth 1813), and after packing as much content into my schedule as possible, some of my TechEd activities this week will include:
- The Krewe Party. Sunday night, link. This is Axceler’s 2nd year sponsoring this party, which consists of TechEd regulars who, for years, had been organizing ad hoc activities between friends and loose connections that seemed to only meet up at TechEd, until they finally created something a little more official. A fun group of hard-core technologists, and we’re once again looking forward to participating.
- O’Reilly booth book signing. Monday at 11am (I think) with Jennifer Mason. Unfortunately, our co-authors Wes Preston and Brian Jackett will not be attending, but you can come meet Jennifer and I, and get a copy of our book Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects (autographs optional)
- Axceler booth book signing. Can’t make it to the O’reilly booth on Monday? Try the Axceler booth on Wednesday, Booth 1813, also at 11am. Jennifer will try to make it over from the Rackspace/SharePoint911 booth. It’s yet another chance to win a free copy, and possibly decrease its value with our autographs. Watch Twitter for any changes.
- Capture videos. I am heading to Orlando with a lot of recording equipment, so watch for new episodes of my OneThing series, as well as longer discussions for the DigitalSackLunch series.
After all that, I am keeping myself open for new adventures. You never know what might happen at TechEd, what adventures await. If you see me, come say hello. It’s always great to meet people from the community, especially if you’re one of my seven blog readers (I’ve more than doubled my readership since last year!)
[Update] On the ground in Orlando….sans luggage. Grr. Venturing out to purchase another pair of pants and a shirt, as they tell me it could be tomorrow before I see everything. My lucky streak has run out. Last time I had lost luggage was returning home from my freshman year in college in May 1987.
