Groktalk at TechEd 2005

TechEd 2005 starts today and continues through Friday. I've often wondered if these technical conferences are worth the $3k you'll spend to attend them. So has Sahil Malik. And Mike Gunderloy:

Sahil Malik joins those of us who think Tech Ed is not worth spending the money. Like computer books and software resellers, I think technical conferences are ultimately going to be simply killed by the Internet. They just don't make economic sense any longer.

Ominous, but I tend to agree. However, I think most people who go to these conferences aren't doing so on their own dime-- and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. So maybe it's irrelevant.

Scott Hanselman explains why Groktalks are the counter-programming of TechEd for the skeptics in attendance:

The deal is this: We've all sat through some pretty lousy technical sessions at conferences. For the most part, sessions at TechEd are filled with good information, but every once in a while you sit through 75 minutes in order to "grok" something that could have been explained in 10 minutes.

We thought it'd be interesting if we put together three days of presentations that were only 10 minutes long! Just the facts, just the technology, in a short format. We'll see presentations from folks you may have seen speak before like Scott Stanfield, Carl Franklin, Billy Hollis, myself, Juval Lowy, as well as a few from out of town, or the other side of that world that you may not have have had the opportunity to see.

If you think 10 minutes isn't enough time for a Microsoft Regional Director to cover a technical topic, you clearly haven't met our CEO, Scott Stanfield, who moonlights as the RD for Silicon Valley. I'm pretty sure all the other RDs have similar technical chops and will not disappoint. If you're attending TechEd and have 10 minutes to spare, be sure to check out the Groktalk website for the location and schedule. Sessions start on Tuesday, June 7th at 11am and continue through Thursday.

Posted by Jeff Atwood    View blog reactions