Microsoft’s Tech Ed 2006 gets underway this Sunday, June 11,

2006, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) in Boston, MA. I’ll

be among the thousands of IT professionals, vendors, and media personnel

attending the conference. With the recent public release betas for Office 2007,

Windows Vista, and Windows Longhorn Server, I’m expecting this year’s Ted Ed to

be a particularly informative event.

As I attend the keynote, briefing sessions, labs, and roam

the exhibit hall, I’ll be filing daily blog reports, photo galleries, and

possibly a few podcasts, on my experiences, observations, and any breaking

technology news. If you there are particular technologies, events or vendors

you would like me to write about, please make a request via my blog. 

Here’s a brief rundown on my conference schedule so far: 

Sunday

  • Travel to Boston and check in to the Omni Parker House

    hotel—I assume this is where all press are staying as it was the only hotel

    option available when I registered

  • Check in at Tech Ed registration at the BCEC
  • Attend the press reception at 5:30
  • Attend the keynote at 7:00 – Join Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Chief

    Technology Officer, Bob Muglia, MS Senior VP, Server & Tools Business, and

    Chris Capossela, Corporate VP, IW PMG, will be sharing their vision for IT.

I don’t really understand the logic behind a Sunday keynote.

I assume Microsoft wanted to give attendees more time to attend the

presentations, labs, briefings, and exhibit hall, but a 2-hour keynote after

traveling all day is not something I look forward to. It also seems strange

that Microsoft won’t have a major release announcement to make during the show.

Having already released the public betas for Office 2007, Windows Vista and

Windows Longhorn Server at WinHec in May. Perhaps Ozzie still has a surprise up

his sleeve. I can only wait and see.

Monday

  • OFC201 – The 2007 Microsoft Office System: Clients –
    Overview and What’s New

I’ve been working with the Office 2007 Beta 2 for about two

weeks and it shows a lot of promise, but I want to hear Microsoft explain why

organizations and consumers should switch. As it stands now, I don’t think

there is a compelling reason to deploy Office 2007 immediately after release.

The changes to the GUI and new XML document format are significant changes that

IT departments will have to prepare for.

  • CLI304 – Deploying Windows Vista: Everything You Need in One
    Hour

 Windows Vista is substantial shift from previous Windows

versions and deployment will be a significant undertaking for IT departments.

This sessions promises to tell me everything I need to know about Vista

deployment in 1 hour—we’ll see.

Tuesday

  • MGTTLC01 – Overview of Systems Management Server (version 4)

Having used SMS to monitor and manage a large IT network, I
know it’s power and am very interested in seeing what version 4 will offer.

  • OFC311 – Introducing New Tools for Migrating to the 2007
    Microsoft Office System: Document Analysis and Migration

Office 2007 will support existing Office documents, but the

new XML file structure offers several advantages to the current format–smaller

file size, easy of corruption recovery, better integration with external

sources. As organizations deploy Office 2007 these will need to consider

document migration and compatibility.

Wednesday

  • SVR219 – Ten Reasons to Prepare for Windows Server Code
    Named “Longhorn”

With Windows Server Longhorn in public beta, is now the time
to prepare? We’ll have to wait and see.

  • SEC406 – Is That Application Really Safe?

Are your third party, or even internal, applications safe?

During this presentation, Jesper Johansson, who I’ve interviewed for

TechRepublic, shares some red flags that IT organizations should look out for

when testing application security.

  • CLI314 – Image Engineering: Creating Your Perfect Windows
    Vista Desktop

I know very IT shops that don’t image their machines. But, building

an efficient, reliable image can be a challenge. I’m interested to know if

Windows Vista will simplify or complicate the process.

Along with the sessions mentioned here, I’ll also be roaming

the exhibit hall, meeting with vendors, publishers, industry experts, speakers,

and attending IT pros. Again, if you have a particular technology, vendor, or

topic you would like to see me cover, please post a comment to this blog. I can’t

promise that I can meet everyone’s request but I will try. And if you’re

attending Tech Ed 2006, don’t hesitate to look me up. I’d love to hear the

experiences and impressions of TechRepublic members.

See you at Tech Ed 2006!