On The Eve Of Techdays 2008
Techdays is here! The team (as I type this post) is hard at work back in Toronto preparing the final details for the kickoff event. We really are trying to raise the bar on the kinds of events and programs we bring to Canada’s Technical Professionals and we hope that the first ever Techdays will help make our vision come to life.
For those of you attending the event, you may be wondering why Techdays Toronto and PDC seem to conflict. I will be making a video appearance at Techdays and will speak to this point, but I also wanted to discuss it here.
Both events are amazing and offer great things for developers (and other IT professionals as well). The events have very different focus areas, however.
TechDays is about you. Your skills, your career, your networking, your learning and the technology you have available to you today. We won’t be spending a lot of time on the PDC announcements at PDC quite on purpose. Techdays is a new kind of event experience for us in Canada (and we are trying to bring some of the best elements of events like TechEd and PDC)
PDC is about the future of the Microsoft platform. This is a worldwide event, focused on the future of the Microsoft platform. It is very developer focused and involves a lot of content that is pre-beta. This year we have seen announcements around Windows 7, Silverlight 2, WPF, Windows Azure and Office 14.
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TechDays |
PDC |
| Build your skills on the technology you have or technology shipping today. | Learn about the future of the Microsoft Platform. All forward looking. |
| Focus on deeper technical readiness on today’s technology – helping you do more with what you have. Sessions on the “new” but shipping products (like Silverlight). Some discussions of the roundmap going forward. | Focus on an early look at what is coming combined with sessions on today’s technology. |
| A chance to network with your peers | A chance to network with your peers. |
| Great Speakers | Great Speakers |
| Lots of recorded content | Lots of recorded content |
| $250 or $130 | $2500+ |
| Across Canada | Only In L.A. |
| All about Canada | About Everyone |
(Note: there is also MIX09 in Vegas in March – focused completely on the Web)
So how do we leverage both events? We have a team at PDC that is gathering the best information from the show and we will be setting up ways to get it to you over the next few months. We have a few cool ideas to ensure Canada is at the front of innovation on these new technologies. Additionally, much of the content is recorded at www.microsoftpdc.com
Likewise, we are recording a lot of TechDays content for use in the future as well.
So – enjoy Techdays – use the time to build your skills and know that we will be bringing you the best of PDC in the very near future!
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