How time flies.... catching up

My how time flies. So much has been going on, and I have been completely remiss in writing about it here. I’ve got some great ideas for some BizTalk postings, I just don’t seem to find time to do them, but this is something I expect to get to in the next couple of months. Really!

So, since I last blogged, the following has happened:

• A consortium of .NET user groups in SoCal worked together to hold a one-day four-track conference in Long Beach on May 7th. My group shared the project plan that we’ve developed for doing our own conferences. The Long Beach event was a huge success.
  
• The San Diego .NET User Group chartered a bus to take San Diegans up to the Long Beach event (our *third* bus charter). It was a blast. We had lots of food, printed TShirts, gave away a couple of annual memberships and a couple of $50 Amazon gift certificates.
  
• The San Diego .NET User Group held its *fourth* day-long conference on May 21. Funny thing is, when the Events Committee got together to review the event, feedback, ratings, etc at our traditional post-mortem, we really had very little that we could have done better at. In addition, our planning and setup for this one was so smooth that some weeks we could have missed out weekly telecoms. We’re getting good at this, and based on the feedback that was the best I’ve seen, our attendees think so too. Next event will be in Oct, and we have a BIG surprise planned.
  
• I did my first MSDN Webcast (http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032273081&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US). What a strange experience. I’ve spoken at countless conferences, spoke with translation, even did a presentation in French once when my assigned translator was less-than-qualified, spoken in front of large and small crowds. However, speaking in front of NO audience was very very odd. There were some snafus, but overall it worked. Next time will be smoother, and I’ll know a bit better what to expect.

I’m writing this on the plane, headed for Orlando and TechEd. I’ll be there in a variety of capacities this year, as a Neudesic person, as a member of the press, as an INETA person, and helping the BizTalk team out at the BPI Cabana area. I’ll be doing a session on Web services and another on BAM. It’s going to be *intense*. If you’re going to TechEd, I hope to see/meet you!