TECHED: Why crap tracks are great news

Last week we started seeing some of the TechEd Australia tracks being announced. Web is the first.

There was a little bit of Twitter backlash and the odd blog post noting that the track might be missing an important topic or two. (I’ve deliberately not linked to any of the blogs or Twitter feeds in case I misrepresent people, but they are easy to find).

Whether the track could be better (and how that might be achieved) is not my concern in this post.

Here’s why its a good thing

My thinking is this: Microsoft has come so far in the last 12 months that there is just way too much stuff to adequately cover.

Surely this is a good thing!

Whereas in years gone by we’ve been forced to sit through sessions hyping up technology that is ages away from being released, this year we have so much new (and released!) stuff that it can’t all be shown.

Conferences

Conferences are always a juggling act, with so many planning decisions to make, topics to choose from, and speakers to accommodate. You’ll never get the mix exactly right. And with Australia only having capacity for 2,000 or so attendees (the US can service 14,000+) there’s gonna be tough calls all along the way. Perhaps there should be 2 web tracks, or more sessions, or shorter sessions, or whatever… I’m sure there’ll be some careful analysis post event. But don’t let that get in the way of your attending…

See you there

For me , I reckon this year’s TechEd is likely to be the best I’ve attended (it’ll be my fourth). Microsoft, please don’t disappoint me.

Will you be there?

Disclaimer

This post is covered under my ‘well duh‘ disclaimer, and I fully realise I’ve had the odd whinge myself in the past (here and here for example).