Real Talk about TechEd North America 2014

First published on CloudBlogs on Jan, 16 2014
Most of North America may be recovering from a polar vortex, but the sunshine and warm weather of TechEd 2014 is already on the horizon. This year’s TechEd is going to be a veritable Super Bowl of brainpower . By including the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) within this year’s event, we are gathering the most knowledgeable crowd of IT Professionals and Enterprise Developers ever assembled. Pretty exciting. I am really excited to deliver the keynote at this year’s conference and take part in such a valuable industry event. This kind of gathering means that TechEd 2014 is offering the broadest range of learning opportunities across the breadth of Microsoft technologies and solutions with technical breakout sessions, certifications, hand-on labs, instructor-led labs, pre-conference seminars. If you haven’t registered already, you can learn more here . Without any exaggeration, I can say that this event is the premiere source of deep technical content (300-400 level) available anywhere – and this content is tailor made to be taken back to your company and put into practice. To see what learning opportunities are available, check out this quick list of highlights and core learning opportunities. But, before you register (or try to convince your boss), let me address two important concerns :

1. You have always gone to MMS and aren’t sure about making the switch to TechEd.
2. You are not that excited about the idea of spending a week in Houston.

These are both valid concerns. But I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Regarding concern #1 , as I noted back in October when we announced this merger, MMS was once a small sub-set of content covered at TechEd, but the role of management in key trends like the Consumerization of IT and the move to the cloud have dramatically expanded what IT Professionals need to know. This made the combination of these conferences make sense. For those of you concerned about being able to find your peers/friends/experts from past MMS’s, there will also be targeted alumni events and networking functions. Also, consider that this expanded conference has a huge, oft-overlooked upside: A bigger draw of Microsoft and industry experts, and the opportunity for you to explore and benefit from getting out of your metaphorical neighborhood to learn and grown from seeing the rest of the metaphorical city. And speaking of cities, that brings me to concern #2 . I understand that visiting Houston may not be on your bucket list, but keep in mind that just last year Forbes placed Houston atop its list of (wait for it…) “ America's Coolest Cities .” And in case the writers of Forbes aren’t assurance enough, Rick Claus and Joey Snow recently did some reconnaissance of their own to find the best places to eat and play in between sessions and after hours. You can check out their two-part look at stuff to do during the conference here: x . ..
You can see more things to do in Houston and follow Channel 9’ s countdown to TechEd here . To learn more about this year’s event, check out the authoritative TechEd North America 2014 homepage and take the time to join the TechEd Forum .

See you in May!