Josh Evitt

# RE: Plans for September '05

It's totally up to you of course, but having gone to the last PDC, and having heard reports from others about TechEd, I think I'm personally gonna shoot for TechEd this year over the PDC. Depends on what kind of information you're looking for out of the conference, but the PDC seems to be mostly about the "someday you'll be able to..." whereas TechEd is all about the "you can...". I mean, the stuff they were showing off at the last PDC will barely have been released in final form (let's keep our fingers crossed) by the time the next one rolls around. Just something to keep in mind. PDC is a good time for sure, but the information at TechEd is just more relevant, which appeals to me more. 12/7/2004 11:02 PM | Yex

# RE: Plans for September '05

Yex -- I can understand your frustration. I wasn't at the last PDC, but I'm sure everyone only wanted to talk about VS2005. However, I think the 2005 PDC will be much different, since I believe VS2005 will be released there. I went to four straight Tech*Ed conferences from '96 to '99. In 2000, I went to the PDC on the personal recommendation from Billy Hollis. I was blown away. I vowed never to waste my time or my (employer's) money on another Tech*Ed. Sure, there was a lot of "look at all this cool stuff you can't use today," (after all, this was when .NET was announced) but the PDC had far better technical/practical sessions than the predominately marketing/sales/let-me-step-you-through-the-drag-and-drop-wizard kind of sessions at the Tech*Ed conferences I had been to. As for me, I'm hoping to make it to the 2005 PDC. Woo-hoo!! ;) 12/20/2004 6:07 PM | David Neal

# RE: Plans for September '05

I actually went to this year's Tech-Ed, and it was a very fun show; however, there was still a lot of 'look at what's coming' from Microsoft. In fact, they announced VS Team System at Tech-Ed this year, which *might* be out by this year's PDC. Furthermore, the 'practical' labs focused a LOT on .NET 2.0.

I agree with David on this one...I think this year's PDC is going to be really exciting, as SQL Server 2005 and VS 2005 should be out around the same time. 12/21/2004 2:44 PM | Josh