What a GREAT week here in Boston. I'm just about to pack up and go home (kind of). Right now it's early and I think I'm still feeling really good from last night's fun. The big party at Fenway, dinner on the town, walking around the city, etc... It was a beautiful spring (almost summer) night last night and the stars were out. We couldn't have asked for a better day (weather-wise) to end the week. There's still one day left at TechEd but this is when a few of us start heading out. I'm going to Chicago for the night to hang out with my Father (don't forget it's Father's Day this weekend) and then on Sat I head back to Seattle. I want to get back fairly soon as I'm only home for a bit under a week before I head to Switzerland to deliver a couple of master classes with my partner Trivadis.

But - part of why I'm writing this is that this was one of the best weeks I can remember at TechEd. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and for once (in a long time) I really liked the layout of the venue. Eventhough TechEd is a MONSTER conference (12K people), the venue was easy to navigate and (most of) the sessions never seemed too full. Even the Expo hall didn't feel overly crowded. Don't get me wrong - there were a lot of people in there a few times BUT, it always seemed manageable. And - even when sessions did fill, there were overflow rooms setup and capacity seemed to be managed well. So, I do feel like I walked quite a bit this year but it felt reasonable (compared to Orlando last year, this was a dream).

And - the WAY more fun part of TechEd (for me) is meeting people. I've meet quite a few customers - many of you - who read my blog and/or have attended some of my webcasts and it's GREAT to put faces with the names.

So, that was my week and now it's done (and if you didn't make it - check out Virtual TechEd). In my next few posts, I'll try to find some time to chat a lot more about the technology that I saw and the technology that I demoed. In fact, all of my demo scripts and sample code will be "tweaked" and posted over the weekend and then I have to move on to planning some of our (SQLskills) Immersion Events... At least I don't have to plan an event the size of TechEd! Our events are 5-days, hands-on, and intense technical events where we dive deep into one technology (and you can count the number of people with 2 digits instead of 5). In fact, I think that's the combination I like. Go to conferences for depth in small chunks and over a wide variety of topics and technologies (and futures too, so that's always fun/helpful). Go to training/"immersion events" for deep, technically-focused, hands-on courses to really become fluent in a specific area. I'll post all of the final details when we're all set to open for registrations (next week). But, if you think you might want to attend - subscribe on SQLskills and you'll get an early mail to let you know the details. Subscribe here!

Have a great weekend and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
kt