PDC Registration and Channel 9 Dinner
Sunday, 11th September, 2005
After an excellent dinner on a glorious sunny day in San Diego with Susan, my hostess for the last two days, I caught the Amtrak train to San Diego - a two hour trip on a clean (if rather late) train. This was very much a trip of two halves - the first featuring the beautiful Western coast line and glorious views of the beaches and palm trees, the second featuring mile after mile of graffiti and shipping containers. It was very odd getting out at Union Station in Los Angeles, having seen the station used as the venue for a kidnapping and 'shoot out' only last weekend in the UK (on the DVD set of '24' Series 4).
I am very pleased with the Hilton Checkers hotel where I'm staying, on the ninth floor of a twelve-storey building, for the rest of my trip (thanks for the recommendation Susan!). An "oldie world" building, the hotel features old-fashioned service and has a lot more character than the average American corporate hotel. The rooms are amazingly quiet considering their very central location, and the deal for Internet access (Ethernet high-speed access is just USD22 for the week!) is a real plus.
The convention centre, where PDC is being hosted, is a 20 minute walk away. There is a free shuttle service that runs every 15 minutes but on such a glorious day it made sense to walk. It's two days until PDC officially kicks off on Tuesday, but today and tomorrow comprise optional 'pre-conference' workshops that have to be paid for. I decided to register today as I am in a class on ASP.NET 2.0 tomorrow but wasn't sure of the start time, but on arrival the centre had all the outside appearances of being closed. Traffic was very low with very few people about and the darkened windows gave the casual observer the impression nothing was open. Inside the venue, it was amazingly quiet, presumably because most attendees arrive tomorrow or Tuesday. For me this was good news as it meant that registration was swift and that the Internet Alley PCs and the official convention shop (the only parts of the exhibition and lab area that were open) were all but deserted, making internet access and sales assistant service very swift. I suspect it will be a very different story in a couple of days time!
With things being so quiet I took the opportunity to get the 'geek shopping' out of the way, and purchased a few polo's and t-shirts, although none compared with the freebie 'Have a nine day' t-shirt that Robert Scoble gave me at an impromptu Channel 9 dinner 16 of us attended later in the evening (Thanks Robert!).
I guess I've been spoilt by TechEd Europe, because I thought the official merchandise shop was rather disappointing. Lots of irrelevant 'useless crap' with the word 'Microsoft' printed on it was the overall impression. The book section had a copy of the new Framework Guidelines book (in hardcover no less) from Addison-Wesley, but otherwise didn't appear to offer anything I haven't seen in British stores already. Alas, I got the 'new operator who doesn't know how to enter things into the till' serving me. This was annoying enough at the time, but even more so when I got home and found the assistant hadn't put the book I'd paid for into the bag he'd handed over. It's going to be fun going back to try to persuade them to give me what I've already paid for tomorrow!
The free conference bag is a stylish briefcase affair, but if you want the backpack that is the more traditional TechEd giveaway that'll set you back a cool USD60 in the official store. Ouch! For those who've already emailed me wanting details, there is nothing major in the freebie bag - a session guide, a few magazines and demo CDs and a couple of small posters - one a 'Vista Developer's Guide' summarising the new .Net classes, the other a marketing (content free) list of 10 items under the heading 'Lighting up on Vista - Developer call to action'. The main goodies (a set of DVDs stuffed with beta bits) are scheduled to be handed out later in the week after the keynotes have been delivered.
Channel 9 Dinner
Sunday night saw an informal, hastily-arranged Channel 9dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen in South Figuera Street. The company was excellent (I met three interesting guys from Bradford and Leeds) and the conversation never stopped. Channel 9 staffers Robert Scoble and Adam Kinney attended and I'd love to show you some pictures, but I lugged 'the monster' (Canon EOS 1Ds) to the dinner, only to find I'd left the Compact Flash card it needs to take photos in my laptop back at the hotel after transferring the pictures shown on this page earlier in the day. Doh!
One way and another it's been a tiring day, but enthusiasm is running high and there is a palpable air of excitement about all the announcements that are going to be made over the next few days. One senses that this is going to be the event where 'Microsoft kicks back' at charges that it's losing its innovation, hasn't done anything new in the last few years, and is being beaten on nearly every front by its competitors.
Tomorrow the real work starts, with my first pre-conference workshop, and I suspect the pace is going to accelerate to breakneck speed. Early indications are that Office 12, which is rumoured, in its Beta 1 form, to be part of the official goody bag, is going to 'steal the show', which in a conference that features so many new technologies and announcements from Microsoft, is going to be no mean feat if it proves to be true!
