TPOV

Thinking I was smart, I took the bus to the “Messe Berlin”. My bad. After being on the bus for over half an hour, I had to take into account the possibility that I might have made a small miscalculation. So I hopped off, crossed the road and took the same bus in the opposite directiong. After some sight seeing I though I was at the Messe just in time for the first session of Interact 2009.

I THOUGHT I was just in time. Then the crowd inside the Messe struckt me. Thousands of tech enthousiasts were neetly standing in line at the registration desk. After trying to bypass these lines with the “Interact Invite” excuse, it became clear to me that even I had to stand in line just like the others.

So my first 60 minutes of Tech Ed were all about observing the other Techies. Many were taking pictures of the long lines. (Perculiar how many iPhones I saw radomly popping up out of the crowd to make a picture…)

After being in line at the registration desk, it was standing in line at the swag collection point. (It really was called Swag Collection Point; right below the Swag Happens Here sign.)

So I finally made it into the Messe. I was hoping I could still make it in time for the second session of the day…

I had to ask someone about the Interact location. As it turned out, it was all the way at the other end of the complex. A long, long walk. But I was in time!!!

The day went as expected… The Interac sessions were really nice. Then we ‘had’ to go to the Keynote. And what a Keynote it was.

Never, ever, have a seen a worse Keynote in my 11 (or so) year of Tech Ed history. Shame on you Microsoft!

After the keynote, over 7,200 people decided it was time to take the S-Bahn. Let’s just say that these trains didn’t scale to 7,200 people very well. But at least I didn’t take the touristic tour at the way back to the hotel. (Although I did get off the U-Bahn 1 station early and had to walk a few blocks to the hotel.)

In the hotel, I expected the bag and seperated the fliers, ads and other marketing materials from the real goodies. I ended up with a game gift box, a 16GB memory stick (both of which the compliments go to Interact! Yeah!) and a Windows 7 Ultimate license… Yeah!) Oh yeah, and the bag is, again, pretty nice.

The fact that today it was exactly 20 years since the Berlin wall came down, I had to visit the Brandenburger Tor. I was standing in a crowd and I THINK I have seem some German politician in the flesh… But I can’t be sure really.

Back in the hotel… So I just took a shower (needless/pointless… I was wet to the bone…) and I’m now getting ready for day 2.

Would it bring more rain? Propably… Will I take the bus again? Not sure… Will I go to a TechEd Keynote again? No way…

Tino