After two weeks of struggle, fun, pain, joy, and excitement TechEd is over once more. Not quite, as Bangalore and Tokio still have to start, but at least for me the season is over.
I did not know that it was *that* stressing until I came home from Munich on thursday, went to bed and slept virtually until Friday afternoon. I should have been suspicious when I found for the last two weeks that I started to relish sleeping in trains and planes. However, here are my pennies about the last two weeks:
Nearly ten years ago was the last time I was in San Diego. Back then, right behind the Convention center it looked like a big hole in the ground because there was a large construction site. Now everything has turned into a nice scene of hotels, right next to the gaslamp quarter, where we had the pleasure to watch and take part of San Diegos interesting night live (No more details on that!)
The conference for me started with the big bang of releasing VMC, the Virtual Machine Container. As I'm a Java guy, I was really keen on how customers reacted on that. As expected, there still is a large part which is not in Java at all and therefore has no understanding on how revolutionary this is. My first impression this was considered as a sensation came from a colleague: Lorra Moyer nearly jumped on me shaking me up by shouting "Why didn't you tell me before! This is HUGE!" (OK, maybe my memory goes a little too far).
The next surprise catched me when I went to the jam session the same night in the SDN clubhouse. Suddenly I was surrounded by a crowd that i hadn't really expected. The large clubhouse that actually could hold a capacity of 1067 people had to be closed because of congestion. After the ceremony of distinction for SDN contributors Jeff Word even asked SAP employees to leave the room in advantage of customers.
Completely unexpected I noticed during the ceremony that congestion included SAP employees and more and more got the impression that it wasn't a joke when several colleagues told me I would get called to the stage by board member Shai Agassi. I also was taken by surprise when I suddenly got a package in my hands that held a 20GB hard disked MP3 (actually MP4) video player with screen in it! Man, I was so embarrased for two reasons: First, just a couple of hours ago I talked with colleagues about the prizes they'd give out for contributions, and I only remembered gift coupons of a 20$ value. Second, I did not believe SAP employees would be honored. And Third, I was one of the guys who discussed the ways of rewarding SDN contribution with Mark Finnern a lot and exactly recommended this. Taking a benefit from this was never the intention (I swear!) OK, now I have to think how to use this for the better of SDN. Some ideas already came up!
My sessions went quite well the following days. So I started back to Europe in a good mood - unfortunately struck by a cancellation hit of United Airways, that brought my a two day trip through the US, which I had admired if planned, to bind it with some sightseeing. But airports and hotel rooms are not quite the kind of sites you are watching for in general.
That meant after one day at home, next stop Munich. Again, the jam session was a huge success. Only few old europeans were a little bit alienated by the "american style" of the show. Hm, they'd like it a little bit boring, or so?
Folks, I've got to go to the party my wife is giving for my return home, maybe I'll find more time next week for more details.
