MMS 2009 : Wrapup
Hopefully by now all of the planes have landed, bags have been unpacked, swag sorted, and brains are beginning to relax. Another MMS comes to a close.
My take – aways:
Venue : Once again, the folks at the Venetian deliver a fine conference venue. I’d quibble with having to walk past the casino to get anywhere, or with the length from my room to breakfast, but really it all is fine, air conditioned, and shorter than the walk in San Diego. The food was fine, and really better than it had any right to be considering how many people they were feeding. Coffee, pop, and snacks were good and promptly delivered when promised.
Expo: MUCH better than last year. Room to breathe! To sit and talk! To wait for your name to be called without feeling like the one more sardine stuffed in a can! While we’re on the subject of the Expo, let’s give out some meaningless awards:
Best Giveaway : Secure Vantage. Did you know they were giving away a pass to next year’s MMS? Second: Intel. An Xbox and an Asus Netbook, at least two days in a row. Yes, Dell gave away an AlienWare laptop, but just one. And did you even know the folks from Vreem were giving away their giant demo flatscreen?
Best SWAG: 1E. Love the mints, love the container when the mints are gone.
Worst SWAG: No award. Because really, did I need another pen? Or Intel Spaceman? Or T-shirt?
Best Booth : Most of the booths were well staffed with experts ready to answer questions and provide info, but after some thought I’ve got to hand this one to Microsoft. Every product that was represented always had an expert on hand, and generally another around somewhere and a project programmer lurking around as well. If perhaps that’s not fair because it is, after all, their event, I’d tie Intel and Citrix for second.
Most Forlorn Booth: No award, because I can’t bring myself to bash them.
Most Intriguing Demo: FreeMYIt. You did see this booth, tucked into the far back corner, yes? Saw the demo? Very cool.
Best Booth Girls: No award. My wife reads this.
Most Memorable Booth: You might not have dug what they were preaching, but how many of us are going to picture a red-headed Elvis and his Acolytes in White the next time we think imaging?
Sessions: All of the sessions I attended were exemplary, as noted in other posts. Even the Instructor Led Labs, where I usually decry the instructor just following the books, were great. Any three of the sessions were worth the price of admission to the event.
I didn’t spend as much time in the Hands-On-Labs as I would have liked, but that’s my fault.
Keynotes: Even the keynotes were just right, although I would like to see more real-world use of the products. We’re always hearing about how Microsoft uses it’s own products, why not take us inside?
I’m not going to discuss the closing party. I was only in the room long enough to make one circuit, nod to a couple of folks, try one little Chinese take-out carton, and that was enough. I hope it went well.
I will say that the party in the Blue Man theater I went to about three hours later was very cool.
Now I’ve got a bit over a week to prepare my “Cool stuff I learned at MMS” presentation. Does anyone else do this for their group?
I’m very interested in what other folks thought, particularly MMS Freshpersons. What did you like?