Hitchhiker's Guide to the Tech-Ed Middle East 2010 (Part 1 of X)

So those of you who follow me on twitter already know the updates that i have been pushing through on the biggest IT event in the Middle East, yes, you guessed it right, I am talking about Microsoft's TechEd Middle East 2010.

I thought i should write a series of posts that would highlight the exciting developments and the build up right up to the event it self, scheduled for 1-3 of March 2010 in Dubai, UAE.

In the first post i am going to highlight the most important aspects of the event i.e. the content and the speakers.

Content:
Sessions at Tech-Ed ME is divied into following tracks:

• Architecture - ARC
• Business Intelligence - BIN
• Cloud Computing and Online Services - CCS
• Database Platform - DAT
• Developer Tools, Languages and Frameworks - DEV (11)
• IT Strategy and Business Alignment - ISB
• Management and Virtualization - MGV
• Windows Mobile - MOB
• Office and SharePoint - OFS
• Security, Identity and Access - SIA
• SOA and Business Processes - SOA
• Windows Server - SVR
• Unified Communications - UNC
• Windows Client - WCL
• Web and User Experience - WEB

This definately is a wide-range of categories, which means that there is something in it for all of us techies out there i.e. from Architecture enthsiast to the Sharepoint Junkie to the Security Geek, to the IT Guy, everyone seems to be covered. More importantly these tracks seem to cover the whole spectrum of IT landscape, and thats exactly how IT companies/Enterprises should look at this event i.e. they should see the value of sending their staff to this event.

I will drill down on some of the interesting tracks(obviously from my perspective) in the follow up posts, but for now, you can stay up-to-date visiting official track listing at Tech-Ed ME site @ http://www.teched.ae/technical-tracks.aspx

Speakers:

• Rafal Lukawiecki: In his role as Strategic Consultant at Project Botticelli Ltd Rafal is responsible for analysing and forecasting trends in the field of Information Technology.
• Aron Skonnard: Aaron Skonnard is a Microsoft MVP and 10-year columnist for MSDN Magazine as well as co-founder of Pluralsight, an industry think-tank focused on instructor-led training for Microsoft developers.
• Joel Oleson: Joel is a senior product manager and SharePoint evangelist at Quest where he is responsible for product direction and strategy. He is well known in the SharePoint community as an enthusiastic trainer, evangelist and architect and he maintains a popular blog.
• Jason Olson: Jason Olson is a Senior Technical Evangelist in the Developer & Platform Evangelism division at Microsoft, currently evangelizing Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.
• Andy Malone: Andy Malone is the CEO of Quality Training Ltd and founder of both the Dive Deeper Technology and Cybercrime Security events. Based in Scotland, Andy is a popular international event speaker and technology evangelist with over 15 years experience.
• John Craddock: John has designed and implemented computing systems ranging from high-speed industrial controllers through to distributed IT systems with a focus on security and high-availability. A key player in many IT projects for industry leaders including Microsoft, the UK Government and multi-nationals that require optimised IT systems.
• Amish Lukka: Amish is a Premier Field Engineer based in the UK. He has extensive experience working with large enterprise customers around the world providing reactive and proactive services. This includes resolving critical issues on Active Directory which on many occasions has included disaster recovery scenarios for large environments.

These are some of the best speakers of our industry, but if you ask me, my favourtie is Rafal. Having attended his key notes on couple of occassions i can guarantee you that you are going to love his insights on technology!

Obviously, this is not an extensive list and i will try to maintain this speaker list as and when new speakers are confirmed. In the meantime you can also check the line up @ http://www.teched.ae/speakers.aspx

Summary:

So far the content + speaker matrix is looking very interesting. If nothing else, i can promise you that this is going to get better from here on. So, look out for more interesting topics and big names in the industry to present them to you. Also, dont forget that Tech-Ed offers hands-on labs, and i am sure all of you geek-heads know that nothing beats the feeling of learning new things in hands-on lab. For more updates keep checking this page http://www.teched.ae/sessions-and-labs.aspx

Follow Tech-Ed ME's official tweets @ http://twitter.com/TechEd_ME