Microsoft Canada Tech Days ‘08

That’s right friends! Coming to a city near you* this October to December, its the Microsoft Tech Days 08! And the reigning members of Microsoft’s in-house wrestling team, The Nation of Domination**, are EXPECTING you to come out and LEARN, INTERACT, GET FREE STUFF, and LEARN EVEN MORE! Don’t be caught in the cross hairs of Sasha “The Rock” Krsmanovic’s eyebrow raise, ‘cause you know the MVP Elbow is just around the corner!

Ok, so seriously though…Microsoft is going to be coming through Canada between October and December bringing Microsoft Tech Days ‘08. Previously, Microsoft held an event called Energize IT in Toronto every year. But instead of doing that this time around, they decided to take it on the road! So how does this differ from regular Microsoft events that we’ve all seen in the past?

1. All Thriller, No Filler

This is *NOT* a marketing tour! It’s a one to two day conference (depending on your city) that focusses on learning and using Microsoft technologies. Think of it as a Microsoft focussed code camp of sorts. Below is a sample of what you can expect schedule wise:

2. It’s For Everyone

Ok, so there have been Microsoft events that included both IT Pro and Developer groups, but I wanted to point out that this is indeed a dual-competency event. There are sessions and tracks for both IT Pros and Developers.

3. It’s NOT FREE

Say what? Oh, you heard me the first time! This is *NOT* a free event. Keep in mind what I said earlier though: this is *NOT* a marketing event either! This is intended to give you opportunities to learn and experience Microsoft technologies, not just hear marketing talk and see “I didn’t write a single line of code”*** demos.

Ok so here are the details on this puppy:

Dates

Toronto: Oct 29th and 30th
Montreal: Nov 6th and 7th
Vancouver: Jan 21st and 22nd
Calgary Dec 10th and 11th
Ottawa: Nov 27th
Winnipeg: Dec 4th
Halifax: Dec 17th

Note that some cities have two day events, while others have one day events.

Cost

2 Day Conference:
Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver
Early Bird Price: $ 249.99 (By Oct 15th)
Regular Price: $ 499.99 (After Oct 15th)

1 Day Conference:
Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa
Early Bird Price: $ 124.99 (By Oct 15th)
Regular Price: $ 249.99 (After Oct 15th)

Space is limited to: 5,000 IT Pros. & Developers

Benefits

I can tell you about all the benefits of networking with your peers, having great deep-dive sessions on various technologies, and having the speakers be available in between sessions. But you really want to know what the swag kit looks like, don’t you? All right…

6-month TechNet Plus Subscription
Visual Studio 2008 Professional – Full Package Product
Expression Web – Full Package Product
Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite – Evaluation Software
Expression Studio – Evaluation Software
Virtualization Resource Kit
30% off certification voucher – Applicable to All MS Certification Exams
TechEd 2008 DVD Set
$100 Discount Coupon for DevTeach/SQLTeach

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH how the cost of attending this is infinitely recouped by getting the TechEd 2008 DVD Set! I attended TechEd and let me tell you…CRAZY amount of content and information on those DVD’s. You normally would have to attend Tech Ed to get that, so that’s worth the price of admission right there.

Also, that might account for why there’s a limit of 5000 people who can register.

Where Do I Sign Up?!

So you’ve decided that you want to check this out, get more info to convince your boss, or you’re just really scared that John Bristowe and Jean-Luc David are going to lay the smackdown on you. Here’s where you can register and get more info:

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/msdn/techdays/default.aspx

Keep in mind that right now there’s nothing there but the schedule. That’s because this is *just* off the presses and public knowledge as of today, but check back on that site often and I’ll also put a blog post up when registration is open.

Hope to see you out!

D

*A city near you unless you’re Regina or Saskatoon…sorry guys!

**Nation of Domination was a stable in the WWF (now WWE) and featured The Rock before he was…well, The Rock.

***Shout out to Johnny Bristowe!

• Share This Post:
• 
• 
• 
•   Short Url: http://wblo.gs/WXK