Managed World

I noticed a quote from a recent post by Julia Lerman (aka Julie Lerman (right Julie? HA! (I’m just glad I finally know what the whole “Julia” vs “Julie” thing is all about (I can’t tell you how long that was bothering me for (I lost several nights of sleep over it for a matter of fact (not really, but it could have happened)))))). If you’re two lazy to click through to that link I will post the quote here:

“Tech Ed for me is more about catching up with people and meeting new folks”.

After having a chat with Julie on the bus ride back to the hotel today, I realized that I totally agree with her. Where I have gotten the most value out of Tech Ed this year is the social networking aspect. The amount of people that I’ve been able to finally meet or to spend time hanging out with has been great (it’s funny how difficult it is hanging around with someone when you live across country from each other). I think it might just be the sessions that I’ve been going to, but I was hoping to get a lot more details and content from the presentations than just a twenty thousand foot overview. I must say though that I did attend some enlightening sessions (like Don Box’s discussion on “Metadata Soup”). The way Don Box looks at different development paradigms is quite refreshing.

But back to the social networking aspect of Tech Ed. Tonight I was able to spend some good time having a blast with Chris Williams (aka Blogus Maximus (that never gets old for me!!!)) from GeeksWithBlogs. Some of you might be surprised since it seemed like Chris and I exchanged some words over the whole “Signal To Noise” ratio thing. Well, I have to say that Chris is HILARIOUS and I absolutely enjoyed spending time with him (hopefully we’ll get some more time, eh Chris?). I’m proud to call Chris my homie! And while I’m on the matter, I was also able to spend some time chilling out with Jeff Jullian. What a great guy!

And now that I think about it I was able to have a great (albeit short) conversation with both DonXML and SqlDiva. What a hoot! I look forward to seeing more of those two in the future. I also got to spend some time with Chris Goldfarb, Rich Claussen, Cory Isakson, Stuart Celarier, Jason Mauer, etc. The list goes on and on (too many people to mention!!!).

It continues to amaze me the number of connections with people that I make simply because of blogging.