Lazycoder

Microsoft Tech Ed and PDC not worth the time or money

Brendan Tompkins : Is Microsoft TechEd 2005 Too Expensive?

Don’t forget, that doesn’t include the hotel room, flight, and bail money the morning of the 10th.

There’s no way I’m going to a TechEd or PDC unless someone else is footing the bill. You just don’t get enough out of either one to justify all the cost. Think about all that crap they hyped at the last PDC, think about how much of that stuff was blogged an written about after it was over. What do you really miss by not going to a PDC? You get to be “first”. BFD. Does it really matter if you get to be first? You get to see a technology that will have changed a thousand times before it is released.

The developer community needs to realize that these shows, beyond being reunion events for friends, are just a big PR venue for Microsoft. Notice how the people at blogs.msdn.com will hype Tech Ed and PDC but you hardly hear a word about non-MS sponsored events, like VS Live, over there. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think it’s disingenuous.