TechEd 09 Ask the Experts

I have been at TechEd Berlin last week and when I wasn’t speaking I spent most of the time in the Learning Centre (TLC) or ask the experts. I must confess I felt a bit of a non-expert this year for two reasons;

  • I have been spending time getting up to speed on the new Windows releases
  • There were some real experts on the stand..

In the snap below we have Bob Beachemin from SQL Skills, Gopal Ashok and Torsten Grabs from the SQL product team in Redmond. Gopal is mr Replication and HA, while Torsten is mr StreamInsight. 

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Joanne is also from Redmond while Roger is from Microsoft in Switzerland. On other days we had Omri Bahat (DBEngine), Michael Rys (XML and Spatial) and Donald Farmer (BI and specifically PowerPivot).

AJF 17/11/2009  I forgot to mention the other product superstar on the stand, Chris Baldwin who is Reporting Services.

So going to TechEd isn’t just about going to sessions it’s an opportunity to share experiences with the guys who develop the product as well as having time to do a few labs..

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However it’s a tough world out there and so getting your manager to agree to letting you go was hard (however 7,300 managed it this year), so the next best thing if you’re interested in SQL Server is SQL Bits this Thursday – Saturday.

Donald farmer is presenting at this event on the Friday, and in addition there will be a whole crop of MVP’s there and actually these guys have more influence with the product team than I do.

The Saturday community day is free, while the Friday is a paid for event focusing on SQL Server 2008 and R2. Either of these would be my top tip if you need to be looking for your next career move, as the contacts you meet like the MVP’s are often aware of vacancies through the projects they are engaged on.

So I’ll hopefully see you in Cardiff!  

Technorati Tags: TechEd Europe 2009,SQLBits,SQL Server 2008