Overall Value of Time Spent and Benefits Derived:

As a super quick executive summary (I will provide longer descriptions of the events that I attended) it was a very beneficial, productive day, and I'm very happy to have gone. The information was top notch and well presented, and (as Mark Relph mentioned in the comments) there was the benefit of the free copy of SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition (you also get VS2005 Standard Edition, but most devs already have a development-legal copy of a better version of that via MSDN. The SQL Server can actually be used in production, or so I am led to believe). I'm writing this as someone who has been using Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 in various incarnations for quite a long time - I've actually given corporate presentations on the benefits that SQL Server 2005 brings to the table. Nonetheless, I still found the session very valuable.

As always, they gave out pens and notepads. Why are the branded pens they give out at these sorts of events always the cheapest, worst pens that money can buy (or maybe that you don't even need money to buy)? I realize that the obvious answer is "because they're cheaper", but I really think that's the wrong place to save money. When I'm sitting there looking at your branding on a pen, and it's tearing through paper with its rusted, cubical, ultra-cheap nib, it rubs off poorly on your brand: I'm correlating something cheap and shoddy with your brand. Pony up for some nice gel pens or something.

All of these pictures were shot on a little P&S Sony DSC-P150, and to avoid being a jerk they were all shot with the flash disabled. It's remarkable that most of them turned out as well as they did (I've gotten good at being remarkably still when taking the shot). I didn't want to be a pretend-journo with the digital SLR, though the ISO 1600 and much brighter lens would have been very beneficial in this environment.

It is amazing how long it takes to drive anywhere in Toronto. Given that the Launch Tour here in town was hosted beside the airport, driving was the only real option (versus being at the TO convention center, which would have been a much more convenient GO commuter train ride). I left at 7:30 in the morning, and still didn't get there until 9:15am. Thankfully getting through registration and into the keynote was a breeze, and I really didn't miss anything.

Getting the day started. Yes, this car is a mess. It's a 225,000km commuter car that has served me well.


Since I'd never been to the congress center. I accidentally printed the maps on 8 1/2 x 11 glossy photo paper, but the quality of the printout was superb.


The Microsoft Canada mothership, visible en route


Parked in Section 10


Registration (or rather scanning of online pre-registrations). Here you receive a little nametag necklace, in which you place your printed registration.


Keynote


Keynote. 7 screens, all about 9'x7'. Remarkably they all are bright and clear. While there are empty seats evident, this was due to the very large number of late arrivals - the place was packed to the brim at the halfway point.


Keynote. While Biztalk appeared in many of the slides, at all of the presentations I went to it was largely MIA - barely mentioned. That makes sense given that it doesn't actually come out until next year, so I wonder why it was included with the branding of this event: Did they originally think they could pull it off and release it now when they originally planned this?


HMV is using it. Why aren't you? BTW: Have you heard about HMVs online music store?


Trusted Business Platform


Intel vs AMD (a 32-way Intel box is used to demonstrate the high-end, and a 4-way AMD Opteron is used to show the immense power available even on a "low-end" box, in this case servicing 18,000 simultaneous SAP users)


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