TechEd 2009: Finding technical content

Whilst TechEd this year has been rich with interesting content, most notably on SharePoint 2010, I’ve found it sadly thin on the ground when it comes to deep technical sessions. What exceptions to this rule there have been, however, were excellent and worthy of mention.

Mark Minasi delivered an explanation of Kerberos and its usage in Windows which was both extremely informative and wildly funny. His engaging delivery and use of cartoons, animations and humour made what could have been a dry subject all the more informative and memorable. If you can get hold of the recording, I would strongly urge you to watch.

John Craddock went one better. His extremely deep coverage of DirectAccess and the IPv6 technologies which underpin it took two sessions, and has spawned a third, Q&A tomorrow morning which I shall be sure to attend. He gave a solid explanation of all the component technologies used by DirectAccess with an excellent demo rig to illustrate every step. After nigh-on three hours in his company I have come away with a much better understanding of the area, and an idea of how I can implement the technology in spite of the more readily available DA documentation implying that I can’t.

One or two of the Sharepoint sessions have been equally as useful – Joel Oleson and Todd Klindt on what you should look on your SQL server and how it’s configured to make your SharePoint perform better, and Todd again, along with his colleague Shane on upgrading from 2007 to 2010. Many others, however, were more marketing (and I learned a new word – markitechture – or should that be marchitecture?) than meat, which is a real shame.

Overall, TechEd is still a great conference for content which covers a broad range of Microsoft technologies. I have to say that I enjoyed it – I just won an Xbox in the feedback ‘contest’! I think on balance I really have enjoyed it. Mark and John’s sessions alone make it worth the ticket price; I also look forward to Sanjay’s presentation on Microsoft BUI tomorrow. Part of me does wonder though – do I need to go to a ‘vertical’ conference like SharePoint 2009 for the deep content?