Believe it or not, this is the 10th year for The Experts Conference(formerly The Directory Experts Conference). We (as NetPro at the time) hosted the first DEC in Scottsdale, AZ in 2001 with an audience of about 40 or so who all shared a strong interest in Active Directory. Since then, we’ve tweaked and expanded the conference to reflect changes in the technology landscape as well as the fickle whims of our corporate masters (I exaggerate. But not really. :Q) Today we routinely bring 500 or more people together to provide advanced Microsoft technology training and professional networking, for the experts, by the experts.
Starting in 2008, we expanded the technology scope of the conference beyond Microsoft directory and identity technologies, while maintaining the model that has made TEC so successful. We added a conference for Exchange in 2008 (now moderated by David Sengupta), a conference for Sharepoint in 2009 hosted by Joel Oleson, and new for 2011 is the Experts Conference for Virtualization and Cloud, organized by Dmitry Sotnikov. The agendas for all of the conferences look really strong. Just browsing through the current lineup, several sessions jump out as being particular compelling (yes, in the interest of not showing favoritism, I picked one from each conference).
- Business in the Cloud, Identity Strategies and Technologies to Get
Your Business Off the Ground – Brian Puhl
- After the Cloud: The future for Exchange Administrators – Tony
Redmond
- Real World Implementation of Social Media Governance Leveraging
SharePoint – Shaheed Eleazar
- How to Sabotage a Cloud Project – Felix Gaehtgens
There are a ton of other sessions of course, and you can check them all out at http://www.tec2011.com.
Another new item this year is the Powershell Deep Dive that will provide “deep technical and strategic engagement within the PowerShell community.” There should be about a half-dozen PS product group members attending, so you can get some quality face time with the guys who are building the next version of PowerShell. You can see that the size and scope of TEC has really expanded in the ten years we’ve been hosting it, and astoundingly, the same two women who organized the first TEC in 2001 for 40 people are laboring behind the scenes to bring you TEC 2011 for upwards of 700. Christine McDermott and Stella Lowe bring the attention to detail and their unique personal touch to each and every conference to make TEC the one conference you have to go to each year. Organizing a conference like TEC is a giant PITA, particularly when you have to juggle competing priorities, recalcitrant vendors, and technical prima donas that don’t know the different between a deadline and a lifeline. If you do make it to TEC in Las Vegas this year, take the time to give them a hug and say thank you. Bring a nice gift, perhaps some flowers or a bottle of wine (keep the Jack Daniels till the last day of the conference, ok?).
I hope to see you at the Red Rock in Las Vegas!