Microsoft Tech Ed 2004 is happening this month across four cities – Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai & Delhi. The first two cities are completed, there is only Mumbai for me to go. After which I am traveling to Redmond, USA so I will be missing Delhi this time. The topics I present this time were “Secure Coding Strategies” & “Developing Secure Web Services using WSE 2.0”.
For speakers like me, Tech Ed is a tiring event that happens every year – Sleepless nights spent on preparations, struggle with Beta Code and of course Murphy’s Law when it comes to doing demos on stages. Though these being the case, I keep looking forward to presenting in every Tech Ed. Tech Ed gives the satisfaction of sharing technical ideas with some of the most “Intelligent” people working in Microsoft Technologies in India and from various Microsoft Development Teams. It is also the largest technical gathering of these smart people in one place. Apart from this, we have extremely “Fun” moments in the speakers lounge. In general there is a heavy exchange of latest Technical ideas in the air and frank criticism on things we dislike and things that are broken badly as well.
In Chennai, one of the speakers started a discussion thread on Open Source and on Patents. My god, this went for like hours. Though, I won’t be able to publish what was discussed there, it brought out how different people understand and feel about Open Source and on Patents. Though, this discussion stole time out of my preparation for my next session, I thoroughly enjoyed the healthy discussion.
In Bangalore, one of my fellow speakers asked me on long I have been presenting in Tech Ed?. Wait a minute, it seems to me like I am presenting in Tech Ed for years. After a “LookOut” search in my PST files, Eudora Search in Pre-2000 emails and a hard-disk search, I realized my first Tech Ed India was on 1999. That makes the present Tech Ed my “Sixth” year in succession. (Do I hear a big applause here?, Thanks :-)). In Tech Ed 1999, I had presented on Top 20 UI Mistakes in Windows Apps’ (surprisingly they are prevalent even today. Download PPT here – 1MB), MS Agent Technology, Windows Installer & WebDAV.
Some photos from Tech Ed ’99:
Myself, Daniel Ingitaraj & Sanjay Vyas
Lighter moments of Tech Ed ’99 – Speakers & Logistics folks unwinding
Though not dancing during this photo, myself in a Dance floor!!
Finally, you can read more about Tech Ed 2004 – Agenda, Speakers and once the event is over the presentations & code from here.