Well it's Friday afternoon at TechEd on the Gold Coast and I need to quickly post about the party last night. Wow! I haven't been to a theme park in about 15 years so it was pretty exciting for me. The atmosphere was surreal upon arrival with the rent-a-crowd cheering us on the red carpet into the park and then characters in full costume roaming the streets as waiting staff stood at impressively stocked drinks tables. The food was even more impressive with a smorgasboard of different tastes available all over the park. We managed to go on 3 of the 4 open rides: Scoobie Doo Spookie Coaster, Wild West Ride and Lethal Weapon. All were great, but the Lethal Weapon takes the cake as the most insane thing I think I've ever experienced. The build up helped as standing in line approaching the ride over 1/2 an hour, the sounds of screams and the blur of passing riders only grew louder and faster. I was seriously packing myself by the time they strapped me in. What followed was an unstopping journey of pure speed and terror. Unreal! I couldn't walk straight for 5 minutes after I got off! Too cool.

 

I splet in a little longer this morning as a result of the party last night but still made it here in time for the first session. I have been having a little trouble picking sessions that actually go into a level of depth I am satsified with. I am finding too many end up being quite high level or just repeats of what I have seen previously at user group meetings and the like. I think what is needed is more session like there were at Code Camp this year, with real world examples of how to do enterprise level stuff, not just brochure-ware demos of new & upcoming MS products, although of course they have their place too. Perhaps the levels assigne to the sessions needs to be readdressed or something, not sure, but I definately would like to see more experts showing best practise ways to deliver solutions, and using products that I use right now, not what I'll be using in 6 months.

 

Photos will come shortly once I can get them out of my SmartPhone. Ciao for now.