I have attended quite a variety of sessions while out here.  There are several session types:

Lecture Sessions - These are the typical sessions  you would expect where there is a speaker on a podium presenting powerpoint slides and demos before a large audience

Interactive Sessions – These sessions are a little more informal and typically have a smaller audience.  The speaker has some presentation material ready but no specific plan or guide.  This is more of a Q&A style

Hands On Labs – These are self-paced man on computer style where you pick from a menu of labs to go through and using the lab manual and virtual machines, you go through them for some practical hands on training.  There are proctors to assist if needed.

Birds of a Feather Sessions – These sessions are typically round table in format where people with like interests talk together.  There may be demos involved and/or slides but this is often discussion style.

From what I have seen, the Interactive Sessions are relatively VERY popular.  Typically all seats are full and there are people on the edges.  Of the lecture sessions that I attended, the mainstream product line (ie. Windows Server 2008 R2) were the most popular followed by the Hyper-V, virtualization, and SQL topics.

On Monday, I attended the following sessions:

Certification 101 – interactive

Share the Pain: Techniques for Managing Drivers with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 – interactive

Windows Server 2008 R2: A Technical Overview – lecture

Deploying Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Part 1: Site Deployment – lecture

Inside Active Directory Integration in Large/Complex Environments – lecture

Why Virtualization and Data Protection Manager are Better Together – interactive

Windows Server 2008 R2: Hyper-V – lecture

Catch the Wave: Accelerate Planning and Deployment for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V with Solution Accelerators – lecture

Application Virtualization with Microsoft System Center – lecture

Security Management and Protection: What’s in the Microsoft Forefront Client Security Version 2 – lecture

Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Strategy and Product Offerings – lecture

How to Build an Efficient Application Infrastructure through Virtualization – lecture

Considerations and Strategies for Deploying Virtual Clusters – lecture

Overview of Remote Desktop Services (Previously Known as Terminal Services) – lecture

 

On Tuesday, I attended the following sessions:

Technical Introduction to Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 with SP1 – lecture

Interoperability Connectors for Microsoft System Center – lecture

Protecting Applications with Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 with SP1 – lecture

Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center: Practical Orchestration and IT Process Automation Recipes – lecture

Windows Server 2008 R2: Work Anywhere Infrastructure – lecture

What’s New in Server Core for Windows Server 2008 R2 – lecture

All You Need to Know about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Failover Clusters – lecture

What’s New in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager SP1 and R2 – lecture

Determine Candidates for Hyper-V Server Virtualization and Windows Server 2008 with Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit – lecture

Windows Server 2008 R2: Q&A – interactive

Server Management Improvements in Windows Server 2008 R2 – lecture

Monitoring Applications on UNIX and Linux with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 – lecture

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack: Microsoft Enterprise Desktop – interactive

Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008: Real World Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices – lecture

 

OK, that was a list.  For the rest of the week, I will attend less sessions on any given day relatively speaking.  Points of interest:

• Attendees really don’t like if the title does not reflect the content…  An example here was on Monday, the Inside Active Directory Integration in Large/Complex Environments session was about this topic, but with System Center Operations Manager 2007.  I talked with many of the attendees who got up and left and they said they were under the impression that this would be a pure AD administration session.
• The fringe sessions like Monitoring Applications on UNIX and Linux with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 have really low attendance.
• The planning sessions are very popular these include:
• Catch the Wave: Accelerate Planning and Deployment for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V with Solution Accelerators
• Determine Candidates for Hyper-V Server Virtualization and Windows Server 2008 with Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit

More to come as the conference unfolds!

Read the complete post at http://owsug.ca/blogs/brad/archive/2009/05/13/TechED-Sessions-Day-1-and-2.aspx