Even the buses that shuttled attendees to and from their hotels were dressed for Tech-Ed success, such as this one that championed SQL Server 2005.

One of the most popular destinations for attendees at Tech-Ed is the vendor area, where companies compete with each other to lure in IT pros with the best and most creative freebee gear.

The Keynote Hall at Tech-Ed was flush with light show effects and huge screens, which made it easy to see the speaker and his/her slide show at all times, but also gave a surreal, modernist effect. The main event in this room was Steve Ballmer’s presentation on Monday.

Many of the most influential companies in the IT industry were well-represented at Tech-Ed. If you squint hard and look at the lower right-hand corner of this banner you should see a company that you recognize very well.

The Microsoft Across America rig, an RV that is tricked out with some of the latest Microsoft technologies and that has been trucking across the continent this year, has made its home in Orlando for the week. If you didn’t get to Tech-Ed, you might be able to catch this truckster in a community near you.

One of the popular hangouts at Tech-Ed 2005 was the Bean Bag Lounge where attendees could kick back, connect to the wireless network, and enjoy some free refreshments.

One of the always-crowded areas of Tech-Ed 2005 was the Game Zone, which provided a bunch of Xbox consoles for IT pros to play the latest games. There was also a huge theater-sized screen that showed demos of games and allowed a few lucky attendees to try their hand at games in bigger-than-life dimensions.