Countdown to Disney World… er, I mean "Important Work Trip"

Every few years, I get to go to a Microsoft conference called TechEd for my work. While its a great place for learning about new technologies that I really do need to know to do my job, its also a week of not actually having to work. This will by my fifth TechEd. A brief history:

TechEd 98 – New Orleans. Lots of fun, good food, too much drinking. The new upcoming technology was “Windows 2000″, or maybe they still called it NT5. The attendee party was in the Superdome, with Cheap Trick and Steve Winwood for the entertainment.

TechEd 2000 – Orlando. Pam was 8 months pregnant with Mallory for this trip, so she stayed home. This was a fairly disappointing TechEd. A few months after, Microsoft announced its .NET initiative – and we understood why they didn’t seem to have anything to talk about at TechEd. It was still under wraps. Attendee party was at Islands of Adventure. We got to ride the Dueling Dragons roller coaster about 10 times in a row with no waiting.

A lot of people are fed at one time at these things.

TechEd 2004 – San Diego. This was probably my favorite TechEd. Only Aaron and myself went to this one. Our hotel was right next door to the convention center, which was the ultimate in convenience. There was a lot of good upcoming .NET technology to talk about. The food in San Diego is absolutely amazing. The weather was great as well. The attendee party was at Seaworld, and was quite fun.

TechEd 2006 – Boston. Nothing against Boston as a city, but it wasn’t the best place for a TechEd. First off there were no hotels near the convention center. The bus rides would take over 30 minutes for a one way trip between the hotel and the convention center. There was good food around town, but in the middle of the week I came down with a nasty stomach bug or food poisoning or something. I was basically in bed all day Wednesday and Thursday and ate nothing for 48 hours. I did recover enough to make the attendee party at Fenway Park – but I skipped the bratwurst! The entertainment was Buffalo Tom and Train. Both were very good.

TechEd Party at Fenway

TechEd 2008 – back in Orlando. This is the first time I’ve ever taken my family with me. We were going to stay at the Hilton in Downtown Disney. As an official hotel, there would be bus service between there and the convention center – about 10 miles away. But here at the last minute we decided to switch to an official Disney Resort – The Polynesian. That means I’ll have to be driving myself to the convention center in the rental car. I have a feeling I might have ended up doing that anyway rather than standing around waiting forever for a bus. The resort looks quite nice in the pictures I’ve seen, and most importantly, its on the monorail. That means it will be a supper easy trip for Pam and the girls to get to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot on those days I’m away learning stuff. And I hope to come back at night at head back to the parks with them. I’ll probably skip the attendee party this year. I think its at Universal Studios. It would be $110 each for Pam and the girls to come along too. They do provide free food and alcohol, but you can buy a lot of chicken strips and beer for $330!

I’ll try to keep up my blog while I’m there (as an aside – I doubt anyone really reads this blog, its just my little journal and I’ll be interested to read my experiences in later years). I think I figured out how to post pictures taken with my cell phone through here via Flickr. Its a crappy cellphone camera, but its better than nothing. And well definitely be taking lots of pictures and videos at the parks. I’ll post my videos once I get back and get them edited.