Pre-con Workshop: ASP.NET 2.0 and Channel 9 Drinks
Monday, 12th September, 2005
Let's get the bad stuff out the way first...
The pre-conference workshop on ASP.NET 2.0 was pretty disappointing!
Fritz Onion, who gave the workshop, is the author of the excellent 'Essential ASP.NET' published by Addison-Wesley, and his recent webcasts on ASP.NET 2.0 (a fifteen part series that is still ongoing) have been well put together. For this talk Fritz was joined by Ted Pattison. Ted gave the best training I've ever received, in a one day workshop at VBITS a few years ago, so I had high hopes for this session. Alas these hopes were quickly dashed and, in my view, this was a pretty uninspiring mess of a workshop, with the only real excitement coming when a power cut, which hit large sections of Los Angeles, caused an unscheduled 45 minute break.
Workshops should be planned and rehearsed. After all people have paid for them as 'training' (the workshops are additional cost items on top of the conference fee) so that a marketing demo of a flaky beta product which might be acceptable elsewhere, is not acceptable here.
The main problem, I felt, was that too much of what was presented was given 'off the cuff' in response to questions most of the audience couldn't hear because microphones in the aisles were never used, and Fritz compounded the problem by forgetting to ever repeat the question over his own microphone that attendees COULD hear. This is pretty basic 'presenter rules' stuff! I think we all know what happens with 'off the cuff' demo's unless you're Don Box (who once demonstrated he could write code while naked in a bathtub in front of several thousand people, recovering from any coding errors a selected audience member made - awesome stuff!). Off-the-cuff, unrehearsed demo's always go wrong! Luckily most times an audience member was able to spot the error made by Ted and/or Fritz and fix it, but the fact the speaker was struggling with identifying the problem on more than a couple of occasions didn't inspire much confidence and exacerbated the problems with the very loose structure of the workshop.
The decision to use Ted as 'typist' was a big mistake. What should have been an intensive, zappy six hour workshop became something that, at times, was akin to watching paint dry. Part of the problem was that, by his own admission, Ted is not the world's greatest typist. But mostly the problems were down to misunderstanding between the two instructors as to what it was Fritz wanted Ted to do. It would have been far better to have had Fritz just get on and demonstrate what he wanted himself, as he does in his ASP.NET 2.0 webcasts.
I know that as I type this there are some who will say I am being too harsh (although I'm encouraged by other blog reviews that complain of a similarly dull Visual Studio Team System presentation yesterday in this world of PDC overhyping in certain quarters). All I can say in my own defence is that over lunch I heard others expressing similar disappointment with the session. I'm afraid that by 4pm when it was obvious things weren't improving I decided to leave early (just as I'd seen many others do throughout the preceding four hours). Maybe I expected too much given the profile of the presenters and previous experiences of their teaching, but all-in-all I felt this workshop was a rather poor advert for PluralSight.
On a happier note, I had a good day in many other respects.
One positive aspect of blogging is that people you've lost contact with suddenly make contact out of the blue. It was good to get an email from Neil Kidd at Microsoft, who I used to work with at Ford, as a result of my being listed on the PDC Bloggers site, and I'm looking forward to hearing his news when we meet up tomorrow.
On the logistics front, it's hard to see how things could be any better than they are. Microsoft really are superb at making sure that attendees' basic needs are taken care of. The breakfast provided this morning before the workshops started, was superb, comprising assorted melon, cereals, fruit juices, yoghurts, muffins, donuts and coffee. Throughout the day an endless supply of soft drinks, fruit juices, fresh fruit, chocolate bars and ice creams are available gratis. Other companies could learn a lot from the way this is handled.
The wireless connectivity has worked flawlessly, enabling attendees to keep in contact with each other even when in workshops, and blog updates are happening in 'real time' in many cases. The shuttle service is also going very well. There are several routes, constructed such that no one shuttle calls at more than a few hotels, ensuring that any return trips to the convention centre are pretty fast.
Today also saw the slides for all the sessions (in PowerPoint AND OneNote format) made available via the internet to all attendees. This will help narrow down the seemingly impossible choices as to which sessions to attend, although it will take time most of us don't have. 'No sleep at PDC' is a phrase I've heard more than a couple of times over the last two days!
More attendees arrived today and it's obvious things will get pretty hectic tomorrow, with a very early start too (7am for breakfast in the convention centre, Bill Gates keynote at 8.30am sharp). Despite that there's a lot going on this evening, with Birds of a Feather forum discussions, invitations for cocktails at a 'Meet the evangelists' meeting on security, and a hastily arranged 'Channel 9 meet for drinks' session too (which is the event I shall probably attend). I may update this report later this evening if I get some good pictures (and don't feel too knackered, given the early start tomorrow morning!)
