So for the first time ever I visited a major IT conference, TechED 2006 South East Asia in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia.
I guess the main reason I never went before was the price. The early bird price for TechEd Europe in November 2006 was
about 2200 Euros. I paid 499 Malaysian Ringgits for this one, which is about 110 Euros, yes one hundred ten! I was in Singapore
at the time, so KL wasn't too far away either and I stop over on a nice beach on the way.

To give you an idea, here are the sessions I attended:

• Windows Presentation Foundation: Creating Windows and Web Applications with WPF (Karen Corby)
• SQL Server 2005 Integration Services: Advanced Design, Performance and Scale (Grant Dickinson)
• Windows Powershell (Todd Kepus)
• SQL Querying Tips and Techniques (Richard Campbell)
• Streamlining Your Development Process with Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Lim Boon Tiong)
• The Query Governor - SQL CLR in Action (Richard Campbell)
• Visual C# Tips and Tricks: Productivity Tips for the Visual C# 2005 IDE (Daniel Fernandez)
• Smart ASP.NET Application with SQL Server 2005 Mining Model (Muhammad Choirul Amri)
• Building Smart Client Applications with Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office (Tim Huckaby)
• SQL Security (Don Vilen)
• Designing Very Large Databases (Praveen Srivatsa)
• Connected Systems, Communication, Flow, Rules and Logic (Clemens Vasters, Steve Swartz)
• Connected Systems, The Future of the Microsoft Application Server Platform (Clemens Vasters, Steve Swartz)
• Architecture Decisions: DataSets or Objects? (Norman Sasono)
• Build a Simple Human Workflow Solution (Chris Auld)
• Delving into Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers (Maung Maung Phyo)
• ASP.NET 2.0: Tips and Tricks (Keith Smith)
• Advanced Microsoft Log Parser: Using Log Parser for Intrusion and Forensic Analysis of Your Log Files (Sarbjit Singh Gill)
• Developing Web Services: Tips & Tricks (William Tay)
• Data on WPF (Dondy Bappedyanto)

Interestingly enough I saw sessions in all six tracks, mostly Database and Development, but also the other four: Windows Infrastructure, Messaging and Collaboration, System Management and finally Architecture and Team Development.

Most sessions were level 300 or 400 but I felt most of them were too easy, or I knew to much of the topic already. The session I learnt from most was 'Developing Web Services: Tips & Tricks', I've done my share of web services but learnt that I was doing quite a few things wrong. My best evaluation went to Sir Richard Campbell, no surprise really, as I heard a lot about what a great speaker he is and also listen to him every week on DotNetRocks.

So the content was interesting but nothing really eyes opening. All the .NET Framework 3.0 sessions just scratched the surface. It was great to be there anyway. I met loads of people and had interesting conversations. I was surprised by the number of female attendies, I would say at about 35% of delegates were mostly young woman, I don't think there will be more than 10% in Barcelona.

I also really enjoyed the two parties I went to. The first was for Singapore delegates and then the one for everybody. I had such a hangover the next day that I missed two sessions. Free food and drinks, along with the free lunches that was worth the 110 Euros alone. Here I met loads of interesting people.