A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals

A few weeks ago Microsoft announced that TechEd US was going to be split from the 1-week format to the two week format that TechEd Barcelona does. The first week (June 3-6) is for developers, the second week (June 10-13) is for IT professionals. This was done based on attendee feedback and I know many popular people in this business love this decision. But frankly, I think it sucks from my point of view. Give me a moment to explain why and keep in mind, this is coming from someone who lives in the SharePoint space.

The complaint was that TechEd was becoming less developer centric and more admin/IW/IT Pro specific. I personally didn't see that the last three years, but again, I'm looking at it from the perspective of a developer who lives in the SharePoint space. I suspect the reason it was split up was so the content could be better targeted. The problem I have with it is that you go to one of these major conferences, as an attendee, to get good exposure across the board. I personally like going to TechEd for a few reasons: (1) I get to network with customers across the board, (2) occasionally I get to sit in on a session of something I know nothing about (this year it was Silverlight, but I also was eager to hear Joel talk about governance... not that I know nothing about it, he's just *the* governance guy for MSFT) and (3) I get to see my friends.

Selfishly now I know I won't see friends like Shane Young, Bob Fox or Todd Klindt at TechEd because you won't find me at the IT pro week... I'll be at the dev week, and they won't be at the dev week I'm sure. But professionally I think it's a bad idea to separate the two because it almost tells devs/admins they don't need to know about the other's world. In some apps this might be true (for instance, I [possibly incorrectly] consider Exchange more in the admin/IT pro camp than I do in the dev camp), but for SharePoint it isn't. Even if you are a dev like me, you need to be aware of some concepts and how they work such as site collections and splitting up content databases or how admins view CAS and such. Admins need to understand how developers utilize CAS and deploy custom code.

It might be great for some folks... but for those of us who work within a specific platform/application, it sort of stinks. I fully acknowledge I'm in the minority here, but I'm curious to hear what other SharePoint professionals think... devs / admins / IT pros / IW's / decision makers / project managers... anyone.

Technorati Tags: teched,sharepoint

posted on Friday, November 30, 2007 10:35 PM

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# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/1/2007 12:05 AM Yvonne Harryman

I fully agree. For most of their applications this may suffice but for SharePoint it doesn’t work. I like to break out the IT professionals that implement SharePoint into the following categories analyst, builders, developers, infrastructure and architects. In the architect role it is important to have experience across the board. If the infrastructure and developers are going to be broken out it will limit those of us in the architect realm from gaining the amount of knowledge that we would get from going to sessions in both confereces.

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/1/2007 12:37 AM AC [MVP MOSS]

Yvonne-
What we need is a SHAREPOINT conference for all. Not SPC2008 because that is IW/admin focused where ODC2008 is dev focused. Let's combo them into an Office Conference... or better yet, just a SharePoint conference!

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/1/2007 3:27 AM Penny Coventry [MVP MOSS]

I agree too. One conference to cover all. A SharePoint only conference is good, but will miss out on sessions from other technologies - SharePoint is not an island but is becoming to many organisations the glue!

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/1/2007 10:16 AM Eric Shupps

You know I'm on your side in this debate. What is particularly vexing to me as an ISV is that I now have to commit money and resources to either track or both. Developers have a great deal of interest in our products but ultimately it's the IT Pros who make the business decisions and sign the checks. It's already expensive enough to exhibit at these shows - two weeks is almost impossible. I hate being forced to choose for no reason.

I'm familiar with the venue problems in Europe that forced the split there but it's not like we can't find a venue big enough for all attendees in the States - Orlando certainly has spare capacity. This has all the earmarks of being a profit play by MS and I resent it (that may not be the case but it sure looks that way).

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/1/2007 11:46 AM Bjørn Furuknap

While I agree that the two roles should not be separate, I have always thought it difficult to follow all the topics I would like whenever two tracks run at the same time. Do I focus on tech-stuff or dev-stuff when I think both are very important? Skipping between sessions has never been considered, I find it rude to leave or enter in the middle of a session.

As Yvonne mentions, several roles require experience from both camps, but rather than preventing your attendance, why not see this as an even better opportunity to focus on a track and get another week at TechEd. I mean, what better excuse can you get for having two full weeks off regular work and just 'play around' with friends and partners while getting the professional updates you need?

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/1/2007 7:50 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Penny-
I totally agree.

Eric-
Thanks for mentioning the vendor side... that's another point I meant to add.

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/2/2007 6:38 PM Mark

Does someone else put on a decent combined conference? Like the SharePoint Connections Conference - put on by Windows IT Pro Magazine. I sent one of our consultants to it two years ago and while it wasn't on par with TechEd for the breadth of content it may suffice for all things SharePoint. Has anyone else had hands on experience with this conference?

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 12/2/2007 6:44 PM AC [MVP MOSS]

Mark-
SP Connections is part of Dev Connections put on by Penton Media (I've been a speaker @ SP Connections the last two years). It is good, but there isn't a lot of content compared to something like TechEd.

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 4/8/2008 5:11 PM Becky Isserman

I don't get to go to Teched, but I can see the problem. I fulfill the role as an administrator, developer, designer, and trainer. Where do I fit in? If I went to one, then I would only get half of what I want out of the conference. Those conferences are thousands of dollars everytime you go based on admission, rental car(if needed), food, and other miscellaneous expenses.
I can also see why they would want to split Teched into two, because most people are either one or the other. This way they can add more content for each without boring the other person to death. Not everyone is going to pay for both I guess, so money would not be a factor.

# re: A dissenting voice: splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals 4/20/2008 7:43 AM karel Van der Haegen

I understand the point of view of both sides. Would it become more interesting if both events were not back to back one week after the other ? If you had e.g. an IT Pro event in April-May and a dev event in October-November or vice versa. With on the one event an emphasis on IT Pro (70% IT Pro, 30% dev) and on the other event an emphasis on dev (70% dev, 30% IT Pro). For some it would make sense to attend both (and it avoids being out of the office for two weeks in a row), for others either of both events would be feasible and Microsoft would have two events spread out over the year for introducing new technology.

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