TechEd Day 1

So far, so good. With one day through and a second just beginning, TechEd New Zealand is looking to be a great few days.

Highlights thus far:

• Keynote from Lou Carbone on the shift from 'make and sell' to 'sense and respond', experience engineering and being 'clued in'. Lou was not just saying good stuff but saying it well, keeping to audience engaged and laughing. My favourite quote: "Businesses exist to provide value to customers. The reward is profit." The implication being that profit is merely a side effect of accomplishing the actual purpose, the focus should not be on profit but on customer value. I had a great (if brief) conversation with my manager afterwards talking about how we all need to be reminded of that sometimes.
• Grant Paisley on Analysis Services was a very geeky and good fun session from a presenter who knew how to make sure people remember what he says. He had the audience with their hands in the air doing actions for each of his main points... "Attributes (wiggle fingers), attribute relationships (cross fingers), consolidate dimensions (hands together), partitioning (karate chop your neighbour)"
• Darryl Chantry on UX Design served to remind me not only of how passionate I was about user experience while I was at university but also how much knowledge I picked up in the process and take for granted. A lot of the good points Darryl made (e.g. good design is invisible, users want predictability) my colleagues were commenting on as new and exciting while I'd heard them all before... Inspiring session with lots of examples of design the way it should be.
• Women in Technology dinner brought 150 women from all sectors of the technology industry together for some good food and networking. It was a good night, although many of the audience didn't entirely agree with some things that were said (more on this later I'm sure!). Favourite quote was Helen Robinson's (Managing Director Microsoft NZ) comment that "The best teams are made up of the most varied people."

Overall, it's been fun and informative with lots more still to come. The yellow camo pants are actually pretty comfortable and we're certainly hard to miss - come and say hi if you're around.