Just got back from the PDC05. This was a wonderful experience. It was total geekdom immersion. Almost like going to Disney for the first time. I was afraid to miss something. Of course, with all of the sessions, there was not possible way to see and do everything. There was a lot of walking as well.
Never got to the hands on labs, but most of the HOL docs and code are downloadable, and I am working through a few of those. Never got to the Birds of a Feather sessions either, although I really wanted to. There were just other things to do in the evenings besides BOF.
My biggest piece of feedback, which I did on their survey, was that there were too many sessions I wanted to go see, and not enough slots. I think they should add a day or two, and repeat some sessions.
Right now, my staff that couldn't go to the PDC05 are trying to go to the local global launch event. Based on the current agenda, it looks like a mini-PDC. You can sign up
here for the Detroit session.
I have been playing with the bits from the PDC. Unfortunately, alot of the bits aren't yet compatible with the VS2005 PDC Release Candidate zero build. So after spending all day upgrading to RC0, I had to downgrade again to play with WWF and Atlas (more on those topics later.)
Big thanks to Drew for showing me the ropes of conferences, and introducing me to so many people. This was my first major conference, and I don't think I will ever pass another one up again.
-bhp