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 Issue 8
Angie’s done it at last, as she leaves the C++ Mafia behind and jets off
to the Côte d’Azur for the Tech-Ed 98 developers conference.
Monday
It’s still difficult to believe, but I’m actually on a plane heading for Nice
airport and a week at Tech-Ed 98. This time it just had to be my turn, and I stopped at
nothing to make sure I got the trip. My chief rival was Carl, who hit low by telling Mike
that the sessions cover mainly server-side issues, where I have little expertise. However
I walloped back even lower by replying that a mainly client-side agenda hadn’t
stopped Carl (who wouldn’t know a client if he fell over it) from swanning off to San
Diego last autumn, and that furthermore I needed some server-side training after his and
Denny’s disgraceful failure to provide me with any on the Customer Auto Scheduling
project. That clinched it, and here I am. C’est magnifique!
Tuesday
At one end of Nice is the characterful Old Town, and at the other the featureless Airport
area. No prizes for guessing which end my hotel’s at, but at least there’s a
shuttle bus to the conference centre, which is just as well as Mike says he won’t pay
for taxi fares. Determined to be a conscientious delegate, I attend the opening speech by
Bob Muglia, a Microsoft Serious Big Cheese. He makes a joke (I think) about DNS meaning
Digital Nervous System, then two men from Microsoft’s Europe, Middle East and Africa
“region” tell us there are 5,000 delegates here, plus a 100-PC cyber café, the
World Cup on a giant screen and a helluva party on Thursday night. For a girl from the
East Anglian region on her first European business trip it’s quite overwhelming, but
I’m up for it, and head keenly off for an ‘Introduction to Programming with
Collaboration Data Objects’.
Wednesday
So many sessions and so little time! I do MTS and SQL Server 7.0 before lunch, distributed
applications straight after, then BackOffice Server (a special request from Kevin) before
finishing up with IE 5.0. In the IE session I sit next to a Frenchman called Edouard who
seems to find my copious note-taking funny (“ziss is your first Tech-Ed,
n’est-ce pas?”) and tells me to ‘chill out’. To my shame I’m
taken in by his unshaven Gallic charm, and find myself discussing ASPs with him over a
truly disgusting cup of cyber café coffee. We’re onto Design-Time Controls when the
bunch of mad telecom developers I met on the plane arrive shouting: “It’s VI!
It’s VI!”, a reference to the initials of Visual InterDev being the name of
everyone’s favourite UNIX editor. We all end up in a seafront bar and share a taxi
back. This is fantastic!
Thursday
Getting the hang of things now, I use the gap between Multi-Tier Web Applications and
Visual InterDev 6.0 to pop out and buy the très chic top I saw for 200 francs in the Old
Town last night. Then I fill up on server-side technology with a combined IIS/MTS/MSMQ
session, before awarding myself a timeout to go back and change for the big party.
It’s incredible, a seething marquee-full of people, food and drink serenaded by a
band that includes Bob Geldof (really!) and the drummer from Queen. Edouard appears,
demands a dance and is starting to get non-technical when I’m rescued by three
designers from an all-female Web house in Florence. The party ends at 11, and we go to a
club called Subway. I get back at 1 am, remember we’re an hour ahead and catch Pete
at home before he turns in. It’s the perfect end to a perfect day.
Friday
There’s a distinctly subdued atmosphere this morning, partly because of last
night’s party, but mainly, I think, because a really great thing is about to end.
Professional to the last, I manage Enterprise Solutions with Visual Studio and Maximising
ASP Performance, before exchanging email addresses with a comically apologetic Edouard and
joining the mad telecommers on the shuttle to the airport. Talk about an eye-opener -
it’s been simply unbelievable, by far the best thing I’ve ever done while
getting paid. I’ve learnt masses too, and have the copious notes to prove it - unlike
Carl and Denny, who always come back conspicuously empty-handed. That’s a point
I’ll be making at every opportunity, because now that I’ve tasted the conference
lifestyle, I’ve no intention of giving it up. Vive la France, Vive le Tech-Ed and
Vive Angie the International Delegate!
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Issue 8 - Contents
< Previous Angie -- Next
Angie >
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Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Issue 5
Issue 6
Issue 7
Issue 8
Issue 9
Issue 10
Issue 11
Issue 12
Issue 13
Issue 14
Issue 15
Issue 16
Issue 17
Issue 18
Issue 19
Issue 20
Issue 21
Issue 22
Issue 23
Issue 24
Issue 25
Issue 26
Issue 27
Issue 28
Issue 29
Issue 30
Issue 31
Issue 32
Issue 33
Issue 34
Issue 35
Issue 36
Issue 37
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