What was TechDays going to be?  A cross-country technology conference that didn’t cost thousands of dollars.  A conference that came to the developers, and didn’t require travel and hotel accommodations.  Anyway, I was freaking excited!  I was able to send a bunch of guys from our team at Anvil Digital, and it didn’t cost that much at all!  Better yet, they got a box of Techie Crunch!

What was in Techie Crunch you ask!?  Well, the ingredients included:

• 6 Month Full TechNET Plus Subscription
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional
• Microsoft Expression Web 2
• TechEd 2008 DVD Set
• $100 Discount Coupon for Dev/SQL Teach
• Virtualization Kit
• Black TechDays Toque

What were attendees saying about TechDays 2008?  Pretty much everyone I talked to or heard talking at the coffee or food stands were amazed at how well the conference was put together.  Sessions were awesome, logistics were awesome, speakers rocked the house, and the simple fact that you could network with people that were working on similar problems and projects you might be working on, was wicked.

I’d like to thank Microsoft for giving me the chance to speak at TechDays 2008 (Deep Dive into ASP.net AJAX Extensions),  and more importantly I’d like to thank Microsoft for coming to Winnipeg.  It’s a known fact that Winnipeg has been passed on a couple times in the past for the big tours.  I think Winnipeg stepped up and showed up to the event in huge numbers for Winnipeg!  Also, since the buzz was so great, I would expect even more if Microsoft comes back next year!

Conferences like TechDays are a fantastic idea!  It really shows that Microsoft is committed to developer community, and making us successful!  A special thank you to John Bristowe for making TechDays awesome from the developer side of things!  TechDays 2008 was a highlight for me this year, as well as many of the guys that came out to TechDays 2008 from our company.  It’s one of those events that makes you proud to be a software developer!

Pictures courtesy of Barnaby Jeans

The Microsoft TechDays 2008 site has launched a few days early!  Make sure you head over and start building your agenda! If you look through the site you will notice complete details are now available on all the sessions for all the cities.  They even break down the learning kit you will receive as part of the TechDays event!  What’s in the TechDays 2008 learning kit?

Microsoft TechDays Learning Kit

All attendees will receive a Learning Kit valued at over $1,000, including:

• A 6 month subscription to TechNet Plus
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio 2008 Professional – Full Version
• Microsoft^® Expression Web 2 – Full Version
• TechEd 2008 DVD Set
• 30% off Certification voucher – applicable to all Microsoft Certification Exams
• Microsoft^® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite – Evaluation Software
• Microsoft^® Expression Studio 2 – Evaluation Software
• Office Communications Server 2007 – Evaluation Software
• A $100 Discount Coupon for DevTeach/SQL Teach Training

Buy Tickets Today and Save

If you have already convinced your boss to sponsor you for the event, you can actually buy your tickets before October 15th and save a fair amount of cash!

The software giant will finally pull the covers off the new web site on Monday morning, unveiling all the tracks, some of the speakers, and opening the floodgates to event registration.  The site is expected to receive substantial traffic since space is limited in most of the major cities.  Microsoft Canada has remained fairly tight lipped when it comes to the details of the event, only posting costs and some general track information.

Registration will be available to the general public at www.techdays.ca and provide you with everything you need to plan the event.

There are a number of ways you can stay connected with “TechDays” fever over the next several months as the tour takes place.

Get Social for TechDays

Stay connected to TechDays on  by following TechDays_CA or adding the has tag #TechDays_CA

 
Become a fan of Microsoft TechDays on facebook

 
Post and checkout images on flickr by searching TechDays_CA