Months of planning have gone into planning of TechEd 2009 worldwide and as of 10:03 PST this evening we launched the first of the TechEd sites; TechEd North America.  The theme of this year’s event is Potential Lives Here and as you will see this tagline will continue to morph to represent the uniqueness of all the individuals that attend TechEd and all that the coolness the event has to offer.  As you may or may not have heard, the North America event has moved back to a one week model giving you access to both developer and infrastructure content across the same week with an extra day (5 days total + 1 day of pre-cons) over what was provided last year.

One of the exciting additions we are making this year is launching a global TechEd content library where all registered attendees will be able to gain access to not just TechEd North America sessions but also, TechEd EMEA and some of the other select TechEd events worldwide that take place throughout the year.  Therefore your ticket to TechEd gets you access to refreshed content from multiple TechEd events at no additional charge.  And for those of you that may not be able to attend in person this year we will be offering an online 1year subscription to access this content as well.

There are some other great offers being provided this year as part of the registration package, some of which we are still pulling together so check out the start of an amazing year of TechEd’s ahead and look for announcements on this blog around content, other offerings and also the launch of an live online TechDay’s free event series – it’s  TechEd Lite! 

Today we had the opportunity to meet with BillG to review the keynote content and demos for the developer event.   Months of planning go into the keynote however it seems to all come together in the very last minute which is both exciting and scary at the same time. Of course a lot can change up until the last minute, and in fact I've been back stage for a few keynotes in which the slide designer is actually making changes to the PowerPoint deck while the executive is actually onstage presenting.....our communication managers and slide designers have nerves of steal to do what they do!

The developer keynote with BillG will have four core segments centered around Application Development Today and Tomorrow with some very cool demos, but of course that is a given with BillG onstage!  I won't disclose specifics and spoil the experience but guarantee that it will be one of our best TechEd keynotes to-date.

Oh, and one of of the changes that was made today is that we'll be taking live Q&A with Bill onstage so for those of you that have submitted your questions (which there are some great ones that came in) hold on to them and step up to the mic.

On April 28th I indicated that if you were registered for the TechEd Developers conference you could have the chance to ask BillG a question in the keynote via pre-recorded video.  Well now you can by going to http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2008/developer/default.mspx 

This year we've seen more demand for the pre conference seminars then ever before so I wanted to share with you the top 5 for each event.  Check out the TechEd Website for a the complete line-up.

By popular request......here it is.  I have to say though that it looks much better in person, the picture does not do it justice. 

Over the past 8 months (really since the end of last year's TechEd) SR Marketing Manager Zaakera Stratman on my team has been busy talking with customers at TechEd Australia, EMEA, New Zealand, North America and South Africa about what they want from their online TechEd experience.  Soon we will see the culmination of nearly a year's worth of planning and work leading up to the launch of TechEd Online which will replace Virtual TechEd and will for the first time provide an online entry portal for all TechEd events worldwide.

The site will retain many of the same features that were so successful in Virtual TechEd including one-on-one tech-talk interviews, blogs, virtual labs and content from all of the events worldwide. Zaakera and her team will literally be touring the world to meet with and record candid conversations and engage with industry experts speaking throughout the TechEd events around the world. 

What I'm most excited about however is the eventual launch of a session content library that will be part of TechEd Online and will be accessible to registered TechEd attendees giving you access to all content regardless of the event you attend.  And if you are not registered for an event you will have the option of just purchasing a single session for viewing or downloading.

So check back in the next couple of weeks as www.microsoft.com/teched soon becomes TechEd Online!

As you may know it was during the week of TechEd 2007 that BillG announced his eventual full time transition to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008.  We are ecstatic to have Bill join us for the first ever TechEd Developer North America and kick-off the event before his transition.  It's really a unique experience to see Bill return to his roots as a developer.

One of the things he really enjoys doing at events is engaging with the audience and so we've asked him (and he's agreed time permitting:-))  to take questions from attendees.  Unfortunately I have to make sure we keep within  the time allotted for the keynote so the plan is that we will open up a submission tool before the event for registered attendees to send us proposed questions for BillG and the executive team to answer onstage via recorded video.

So if you are not already registered for TechEd Developers, get registered and if you are registered look out in  the next couple of weeks for a link for submitting a question about the future of application development on the home page of the web  site.

We've been working hard to optimize this year's session schedule and it has now been released online for TechEd North America at www.microsoft.com/teched via the Session Catalog pages.  If you are registered for the event I encourage you to start planning your time onsite by using the Schedule Builder available via the links below.  On these pages you can select you the sessions you want to attend and add them to your own personal outlook calendar and of course sync them to your Windows Mobile Device which I find is the best way to avoid having to carry around all of the conference materials.

TechEd Developers: https://www.msteched.com/dev/Default.aspx

TechEd IT Professionals: https://www.msteched.com/itpro/Default.aspx

Of course the biggest complaint we get at TehcEd is that there are too many sessions to chose from which is especially true this year with a 50% increase in the number of sessions and labs across both events.  Regardless of what event you attend you will receive the DVD for both events with all recorded breakout sessions.

Let's be honest, when you add up your time out of the office, airfare, hotel nights and the cost of registration, it can get expensive.  So here is your chance to at least have your registration comp'd.   Attend one of the U.S. Heroes Happen Here launch events (Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008) happening in a city near you (U.S. only) and you could win one of several free registration passes to TechEd.

Today we launched the TechEd U.S. registration web site with a blog posting from Steve Guggenheimer "Guggs", General Manager of Microsoft's Application Platform and Developer Marketing.  Steve announced the theme of this year's event (Be a part of the experience) as well as the return of Bill Gates and Bob Muglia as the keynote speakers.  It was two years ago during the week of TechEd Boston that Bill announced his departure from Microsoft scheduled in 2008 (picture to the right was from that press announcement with Steve Ballmer), and ironically he will be returning to Keynote TechEd as one of his last speaking engagements while at Microsoft exactly two years later.

At the end of February we will be launching a more robust and "cooler" web site showcasing SilverLight and most importantly the line up of more than 1,600 sessions and labs at this year's event.  It's going to be a great year and I'm ecstatic to see the event take shape.  More TechEd websites will be coming online over the course of the following months along with the debut of TechEd Online, the global portal to TechEd worldwide.  

More to come!

After months of soliciting customer and partner feedback, it was announced today that TechEd U.S. will be expanded into TechEd Developers and TechEd IT Professionals in June of 2008.  This year's event will again take place in sunny Orlando, FL.  

In December of this year I posed the question on my blog whether we should split the event.  The most common (and valid) concern expressed was the impact to customers who wear both an IT Pro and Developer hat within their organization and thus want access to both Developer and IT Professional sessions. Based on this feedback and the learnings from TechEd Europe, we will have dedicated tracks of sessions at both events that provide content that from the other event.

TechEd Developers will include an infrastructure track for Developers that will cover Windows Server, System Center,  Windows Vista, Office System, PerformancePoint Server, SharePoint Services, Office Communications Server, Exchange Server, and more.   For TechEd IT Professionals we will have a track that features the latest in the developer technologies, languages, practices, and platforms.  Attendees from both events will get the complete set of DVD's with all of the TechEd content at no additional cost.

The split event model will enable us to provide even more targeted content while also providing the breadth of technologies and experts that is expected at TechEd. In addition we also have the opportunity to host more community related activities over the weekend between the events that I hope will also bridge the Developer and IT Professional communities.  We certainly have our work cut out for us this year and I'm looking forward to taking TechEd to the next level for our loyal attendees.....after all it's their event and we are here to deliver.

TechEd Orlando has come and gone however this is just the start as TechEd continues to build momentum worldwide. What exactly am I talking about?

Virtual TechEd - On a weekly basis there is new content being posted in the form of interviews conducted in the "fish bowl" in Orlando and upcoming 1:1 talks with experts participating in the TechEd events worldwide. The technical insights, learning's and insights will only continue to expand!

Best of TechEd Webcasts and Hands on Labs - As we speak, our Virtual Lab team is busy converting the top 20 hands on labs from TechEd so that you to take them in a fully hosted virtual environment via the TechEd Virtual Lab Series.  You simply open a browser and run the lab from a remote server without having to install the actual software. You will also see the top sessions from TechEd going live as part of the Best of TechEd Webcast Series.

TechEd Worldwide - The momentum continues to build as TechEd traverses the world from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, China, Spain and Brazil.  The events run through November of this year and will provide you the chance to get the latest training on Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008.

TechEd Bloggers - Get the latest on what your fellow IT Pros and Developers are saying.

The only thing more challenging than choosing which session and lab or lab to attend is how to find their location once you are onsite.    Searching for sessions and their physical location just got a lot easier thanks to a mobile application called Signpost 2007 developed by students at the Graz University of Technology.  The application of course was built on the Windows Mobile platform using Augmented Reality (AR) technology.  Signpost 2007 debuted at the Microsoft Embedded and Developer Conference in May and is being rolled out at TechEd in Orlando.  Watch the video of Signpost 2007 in action.

So what exactly does Signpost 2007 do? Attendees will be able to download the application onto their mobile phone from CommNet at www.msteched.com/signpost starting on June 4.   Once the application has been downloaded you will be able to search for sessions and pinpoint on the conference map their location.  Now this is where the power of the Augmented Reality technology comes in; once you select the session simply turn on the camera, point your mobile device to one of the dozens of markers throughout the building and instantly the application identifies your location on the map and provides you with the best route to get to your selected session.   

So don't forget to bring your Windows Mobile-powered device to TechEd and if you do you can always purchase one onsite from the Mobile Planet store.  Below is a list of the devices that this application runs on:

• Tornado Noble
  also known as: i-mate SP5, O2 XDA IQ, O2 XDA Orion, Vodafone VDA II, Vodafone v1240, Qtek 8310, Dopod 577W
• Palm Treo 700W
• MotorolaQ
• HTC Excalibur
  also known as: Orange SPV E600, T-Mobile MDA Mail, T-Mobile Dash, Dopod C720W, O2 XDA Cosmo, HTC S620
• HTC Wizard
  T-Mobile MDA Vario, T-Mobile MDA US, Dopod 838, Vodafone VPA Compact II, Cingular 8125, Cingular 8100, O2 XDA mini PRO, O2 XDA mini S, Qtek 9100, Orange SPV M3000, I-Mate K-JAM
• HTC Startrek
  also known as: Orange SPV F600, Cingular 3125, Qtek 8500, I-Mate Smartflip, Dopod 710 / StrTrk S300
• HTC Artemis
  also known as: Orange M650, O2 XDA Orbit, Dopod P800W, T-Mobile MDA Compact III, HTC P3300HTC Vox
  also known as: HTC S710, Orange SPV E650

Even though the first attendee won't walk in the door for another 7 days, the Microsoft product teams have been spending weeks building labs which are now going through TechEd's lab test week in Orlando.  No other event at Microsoft goes through the extensive lab testing process that we do for TechEd.  At the end of the day it's all worth it when you consider that during the week of TechEd there will be over 15,000 individual lab launches and over three terabytes of data that attendees will be able to access.  

By nature Hands-on Labs are probably the most complex programs at TechEd (other then the onsite network infrastructure that is built out in just a few days to support 13,000 users) due to the breadth of technologies, number of individual lab content creators and multitude of different hardware requirements.   Throw in the fact that many of the labs showcase products that are still in beta and you have yourself the ultimate IT challenge in deploying hundreds of exercises.

So what exactly happens at this stage?   A select group of Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) from around the world have flown in over the holiday weekend to go through each individual lab from start to finish.  During this process they spend up to two hours on each lab to ensure there are no bugs, the lab manual is complete and to make sure that each lab runs correctly on Virtual Server 2005 R2 which is the environment used to host the majority of the labs.   Thankfully the most common bugs are simple errors found in the lab manuals that will be corrected before the first attendee gets their hands on it. 

Once the MCT's finish the test phase, the labs are consolidated into multiple virtual server images that are rolled out to the 800 client machines that will be setup on the show floor starting next week.   What takes some organizations months to do, these highly trained MCTs do in a matter of days.  And all the while there are another 1,500 machines being deployed for CommNet, presentation rooms and multiple offices throughout the conference center while a separate crew of specialists deploy the onsite network infrastructure.

So if you take a Hands-on Lab or Instructor-led Lab at TechEd you can thank the more then 100 MCT's that work so hard to deploy and support these labs this year at TechEd 2007.

 For those of you who have attended TechEd Europe you most likely have attended a session  by one of our leading industry speakers, Rafal Lukawiecki out of Great Britain.  In fact he has for the past three years he was the #1 speaker at our sister event in Europe!    Check out Sam Gazitt's (Developer Tools and Technologies Track Owner) blog below regarding the topics he'll be covering in Orlando.  His sessions fill up fast so plan to show up a bit early to learn from the best.

Link to Planning TechEd: It's fun being me : A Special Treat for You!

If you haven't checked out the TechEd Session Catalog lately you'll want to do so.  As of today there are 763 different Breakout Sessions, Interactive Theater Sessions and Hands-on Labs available. In a few days we will begin releasing the Instructor-led Labs and the featured Lunch Sessions which will put us close to 1,000 sessions and labs. 

On Thursday we will publish the session dates/times followed by the Schedule Builder that will launch soon after that enabling all registered attendees to build personalized onsite schedules. 

We received over 800 responses to the Content Preference Survey which we used to schedule sessions (and if you took the survey you were entered to win 1 of 5 cash cards worth $500)Last Thursday the Track Owners and I spent a good 4hrs finalizing the schedule and today we are putting the final touches on it now so that we can release it to you on Thursday.  Keep in mind that there may be a few additional sessions announced later on that are not being exposed yet due to pending product announcements.

So what were the top 10 Breakout Sessions according to you?

1) SVR208: Active Directory Domain Services in Microsoft Windows Server Codename "Longhorn"     Uday Hedge  [144 votes]

2) SVR223: "The Network is Slow": Identifying the Cause of Slow Network Communications
Laura Chappell  [129 votes]

3) CLI331: A Hands-on Look at Group Policy Management
Jason Leznek, Mark Williams  [112 votes]

4) SEC416: Microsoft Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" and Microsoft Windows Vista Kernel Changes    Mark Russinovich  [109 votes]

5) DEV231: A Lap around Microsoft Visual Studio Codename "Orcas"
Jay Schmelzer  [105 votes]

6) CLI408: Deep Dive into Microsoft Windows Vista Group Policy Changes and Troubleshooting
Jeremy Moskowitz  [102 votes]

7) SEC310: Why I Can Hack Your Network in a Day!
Marcus Murray  [98 votes]

8) SVR300: How Microsoft Windows Server Codename "Longhorn" Impacts IT Infrastructure
Corey Hynes   [98 votes]

9) CLI311: Building the Perfect Master Image: A Universal Image Strategy
Johan Arwidmark  [96 votes]

10) CLI313: Microsoft BitLocker in the Enterprise: BitLocker Tools to Make Your Life Easier
Byron Hynes   [91 votes]

There has been a lot of speculation and it is now official.   Rob "The Party Guy" announced today on the TechEd core team blog that the attendee party will be at the theme park.  I have to say that I'm very excited becuase this theme park has actually  won several awards, if you haven't been you're in for a treat and if you have been, well you imagine it with free food and bars throughout and 13,000 of your closest friends.

See you at the Dueling Dragons!

Visit www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007 and select Community | Tech·Ed Community to propose a topic.  You must already be planning to attend TechEd in order to lead the session.

Inspired by the MVP Summit Countdown Gadget and the MEDC Countdown Gadget, Frank La Vigne created a TechEd countdown gadget you can download here.