I’ve just heard that my MVP status has officially been switched from “BizTalk Server” to “Connected Systems Developer”. I’ve been considering the switch for a while, and the kick off at PCD seems to be perfect timing for this. It will allow me to focus more on WCF, WF, and the Oslo and related technologies, whilst still being involved in the BizTalk Server community (BizTalk is the most connected system there is right?). Over the past few months I have been getting more involved with the WCF/WF side of things, and the imminent (I’ve heard its Tuesday sometime) release of the Oslo bits will mean I can focus on the new technologies.
In a way it’s sad to be breaking one of the strong ties I have had to the BizTalk community, but I’m really looking forward to working (playing) with the new technologies, and working with the development community to help to add some context and public information as to using the bits. It will be like back in the day with BizTalk 2004 beta, where there was no real documentation and all the best information was in the blogs.
PDC registration began at 08:00, and it seemed like quite a lot of the Swedish attendees were there on the dot. This year there are over 300 attending from Sweden, the third highest country after the US and Canada, not bad for a nation of 9 million. (Just to settle any confusion, I am actually English, but living in Sweden.) As I’m not in the “pre-con” I thought I’d hang around the lobby and hook up with people know. I bumped into Kevin Smith, Jon Fancey, Jon Flanders and a few others. The bad news is I could not get into lunch without the “pre-con” wrist band, and all the soda fridges were locked.
Later on I had dinner with Kent Brown and Cliff Simpkins, who both work on the CSD team, and chatted about all kinds of Oslo, BizTalk, WCF, WF & Dublin related stuff. It’s going to be a very exciting few days when this information all goes public.
After dinner Kent and I headed for the Palermo party. When we arrived it was fairly chaotic, with a queue to get in, and very busy inside. I met up with Joao Martins and Yossi, and took advantage of the free beer (the free food and free swag had all run out by then). The QuickLearn team arrived later on, and I had some time to chat with John and Rob, and some of John’s ex-students from Norway.
PDC Top Tip #2: All the best parties are word-of-mouth
There’s the Official PDC Party, and the Un-official PDC party, but there is also a host of other parties, dinners, and social events going on all week. If you have the right connections, you probably know the score, but if not it’s always asking people you are chatting with what their plans are for later on, there’s a fairly good chance that you might get word of one of these secret events, and maybe even get an invite.
PDC FAQ 02: Where are you guys from?