TechEd 2004 Open Day

Ok. Here I am at TechEd 2004 in Canberra, and I am not quite sure if this is what I expected. OK.

Correction. I know that this is not what I expected. The whole thing looks organised in a disorganised way. Let us just ignore infrastructure problems like car parks at the moment.

Open Day

For us poor people attending as part of the Open Day things could be a bit better. The thing seems like an afterthought, and one that has not been totally thought out.

So, rather than give us a real ID with the kneck lanyard, they have stuck a clip onto the back, But this obstructs any swiping machines, unless it has been installed properly. Of course it will not have. One of the vendors gave me some double sided tape to fix things.

Also for us poor people who often have never been to an event like this before, there is no orientation. Here is your badge. That is that. No paper telling what is on where. Nothing. That is for the people who have paid their money – not for us who may pay in future years.

Then came an attempt by the secuirty guard to throw me out. He tried to tell me that my ID issued by the vendors was not good enough. It took a microsofty to fix that.

Like a dope I forgot to check the itinery of things online. It is online if you know where to look – mostly. Mostly.

Powerless

OK. There are tables and hairs everywhere, and wireless. But there are no power points. Correction. there is one, in a corner of the foyer – but given the rent-a-cops I would not be quite sure about that one.

Wireless

Wireless is good, but slow at times. I have not been prepared to try sending mail. Will have a look at that in a minute. I wonder if it works. Still waiting for an email I sent to myself to arrive. If it does there are issues. If it does not there are issues too.

Overall

All in all. Good in Theory. Could be better.