TechEd Keynote

Published Sat, Aug 7 2004 0:52 | GregLow

On Thursday afternoon we were given the demo materials for the keynote with Eric Rudder. Terry Clancy and I tried to sort them out a bit and practiced delivering them during the afternoon.

After the dinner for the Dedicated Developers (MSDN Connections) with Eric Rudder at Woodstock, we went back for the first rehearsal while everyone else went on to the TechEd party.

It was certainly interesting to see Eric the businessman rather than Eric at the party. I liked seeing the no-nonsense style. Although he seemed ok with our demo (moreso than one other), we knew he wasn't wrapped in it and Terry and I decided to change it. We decided to align it with the 3 main messages he'd be delivering before passing across to us.

We spent the late hours scouring for materials to use and then spent the whole morning preparing and practicing the delivery. At the 1pm rehearsal, Eric seemed very pleased with the changes.

I then spent a bit of time at the MVP stand and before I knew it, it was “keynote time”. We started setting up around 3:45 and were pretty much ready by 4pm. I really need to mention how professional the support crew that staged the event were. They did a great job. Even though I'd been to lots of keynotes, etc. before, I had no idea how much was involved in the production you get to see from the audience.

It's hard to describe how a stressful day and a half of preparation suddenly becomes a 7 minute presentation. I certainly had some butterflies before getting on stage but once there, I felt ok and I think it flowed pretty well.

After we were done, we got to sit on a lounge chair and watch the rest of the keynote. The pressure release was significant. When Eric came backstage, he said he was “more than happy” with what we'd done. That made the work worthwhile.

Thanks to Chuck for the opportunity to be involved. Thanks to the MVPs out there supporting us in the audience.

Getting to present a demo at a keynote with a Microsoft Senior Vice-President was certainly a highlight of TechEd for me. It'll certainly be hard to top for next year :-)