April 9, 2014
HomeMicrosoftTechEd 2014 Countdown Show Ep. 15: The One About Day One

TechEd 2014 Countdown Show Ep. 15: The One About Day One

By  Microsoft, TechEd, Technology  0 Comments April 9, 2014

In this week’s episode, Rick Claus (@RicksterCDN) and Joey Snow (@JoeySnow) talk about the first day of the conference, specifically the keynote and the Foundational Sessions.

When you go to the keynote, there will be people there in red shirts (cue the Star Trek jokes) to direct you to your seat in the room. My understanding from the site visit in December is that the keynote space is smaller than we’ve seen in the past, so it’s going to be important for people to follow the direction of the red shirts so that everybody can get in, get a seat, and get the show started as quickly as possible. The keynote usually starts late and runs long, so we don’t need more delays due to seating issues.

After the keynote, we’re all going to head out, all fired up by Brad Anderson to go out and pack our brains full of knowledge. After a short break, there will be six sessions that are a bit different from the rest of the breakouts during the week. They are the Foundational Sessions, and you may remember them from last year. Each of the Foundational Sessions go into more detail about the topics and demos in the keynote, providing additional context for your other sessions. The Foundational Sessions this year are:

  • FDN01 Accelerating Application Performance and Gaining Insights with the Microsoft Data Platform (Data Platform and Business Intelligence)
  • FDN02 Enabling Enterprise Mobility with Windows Intune, Microsoft Azure, and Windows Server (People-centric IT)
  • FDN03 Enabling Enterprise Mobility with Windows and Microsoft Office 365 (Windows, Phone and Devices)
  • FDN04 Modern Application Lifecycle Management (Developer Platform and Tools)
  • FDN05 The Microsoft Application Platform for Developers: Create Applications That Span Devices and Services (Developer Platform and Tools Track)
  • FDN06 Transform the Datacenter: Making the Promise of Connected Clouds a Reality (Datacenter and Infrastructure Management)

I’m planning to attend FDN06 because I’m an infrastructure guy at heart, plus Jeffrey Snover and Jeff Woolsey are two of the presenters. I’ll point out for the devs in the audience that Scott Hanselman will be the presenter for FDN05, so I expect that’s going to be a great session.

During the December TechEd Roundtable, the discussion revealed that people weren’t clear on why people should attend the Foundational Sessions. People knew about them, and had a general idea of the purpose, but most people didn’t attend any. Expect a greater emphasis this year on these sessions (and this episode of the Countdown Show is the first example of that) to help direct people to these sessions. They’re an important bridge between the keynote and the general sessions, so definitely make plans to attend.

Rick and Joey dip into the TechEd forums for their weekly look at what’s being discussed. This week, they answer a question about the differences between the Hands On Labs and the Instructor Led Labs, and how they show up on your schedule.

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You can always find The TechEd Countdown Show over at Channel 9, but why not just watch it here? Enjoy!

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