TechEd Trip Reports from 2010 Scripting Games Winners, Glenn and Boe
ScriptingGuy1
It seems like only yesterday that we were meeting Glenn Sizemore and Boe Prox at Tech·Ed 2010 North America in New Orleans. What? It was more than six weeks ago? Oh, right. Moving on… We asked Glenn and Boe if they would write brief trip reports about their Tech·Ed experiences. Enjoy! Glenn Sizemore (First Place in 2010 Scripting Games) Tech·Ed North America in New Orleans was simply too much. I’ve attended VMworld several years now, so I thought I knew what was coming, boy was I wrong. I’m a Microsoft Administrator by profession. If Microsoft sells it I know how to Plan, Deploy and Manage it.
It was a rare pleasure to spend a week collaborating with my peers. To have meaningful conversations around not only scripting and PowerShell, but the whole product line. I spent the past week moving from OCS to SCCM to SQL Clustering and everything in-between.
I tried to debrief this morning with my team, and was unable to maintain a coherent thought. I simply learned far to much to be able to condense it down and pick a topic. That was a first for me, and highlighted how much I had learned this past week.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you… The scripting games have always been a fun learning exercise, but to cap off the games with Tech·Ed… I couldn’t think of a more fitting prize for an IT Pro. I will certainly not soon forget this experience, nor the fast friends I made this past week!
Boe Prox (Second Place in 2010 Scripting Games)
Being very fortunate to receive a pass to Tech·Ed 2010 in New Orleans, LA after finishing 2nd in the Microsoft Scripting Games, I was very excited and hopeful for what was to come when I made my way down south. My first day in New Orleans on Sunday consisted of walking to the convention center to pick up my badge and other items that they had for us. Friendly staff made for a pleasant short wait in line to pick up all of my items.
After picking up my items on Sunday, I was ready to go on Monday for the keynote address from Bob Muglia which did not disappoint. Being able to see Office Communications Server 14 in its initial debut was very exciting and to see more of the hotly anticipated Windows 7 phone was nice as well. The biggest portion of the keynote and in my personal opinion was rightfully so, was the focus on cloud computing with Windows and SQL Azure. This was a concept I have a lot about, but have not had the time to fully research and understand. The discussion during the keynote about cloud computing greatly helped me out.
The rest of the day and week through Thursday was a whirlwind of sessions, hands-on-labs, trips to the bookstore and walking around the exhibition hall meeting new people, talking to vendors and discussing ideas or problems with the Microsoft staff on hand. Needless to say, if you had a question about a certain product or was just curious about something, one of the many people there were more than willing to answer your questions and provide the best possible answer to you. I was able to learn more about some of the upcoming software such as Windows Azure, check out the fun over at one of the Microsoft Surface areas where folks were playing games and checking out the features and checking out some of the impressive demos using Microsoft Embedded.
One of the best highlights was getting see and meet some of the people that whose blogs, books or tweets that I’ve read since immersing myself in PowerShell over a year and a half ago. Getting to see and hear people like Don Jones, Allen White and the legendary Jeffrey Snover talk about different aspects of PowerShell and its more advanced capabilities was excellent. Getting to not only listen to but talk to folks such as Jeffery Hicks and ½ of the Scripting Guys, Craig Liebendorfer was great as well. During my time I was also able to meet the winner of the 2010 Scripting Games, Glenn Sizemore and also got an opportunity to speak with June Blender, the Sr Program Writer for PowerShell who gave me the information I needed to build my case to implement remoting for PowerShell where I work.
All in all, it was an amazing time and something that I will not soon forget. I would like to thank Ed and Craig (the Scripting Guys) and the rest of the sponsors who not only sponsored the Scripting Games, but also provided the pass which allowed me to attend this event.
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