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From June 7th until June 10th, Microsoft employees, developers, and IT professionals from around the world will descend on New Orleans for the software giants conference: Microsoft TechEd North American 2010.  In a nutshell, the conference is tailored toward technology minded individuals, small businesses, and large organizations that want to immerse themselves in IT learning opportunities and collaborate with Microsoft innovators.

This is done in the form of everything from technical workshops, to hands-on labs, and smaller breakout sessions.  From Monday through Thursday, conference goers can partake in workshops that are centered around different types of Microsoft products, services, or technologies.  Workshops are even broken down by expertise level of general attendees, immediate, or experts.  Some of the products/technologies that will be exhibited range from Bing Maps, to Windows Azure, to Windows 7 Visualization.  Sheri' Mora, Marketing Manager at Coe & Company, LLC tells us "I’m excited about meeting and mixing with techies from around the world and hearing what’s on their radar, what’s working for them in their markets, and seeing some genius ‘oh-my-dang-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that’ ways to get our message out."

Network World has even reported that Microsoft TechEd will shed some light on the companies plans behind cloud computing with Windows Azure getting some added attention.  Hasan Alkhatib, Azure senior architect dropped a golden nugget stating that Microsoft has been working on new security structures for the cloud, multi-tenant environments, and private cloud based software.

What You Can Expect From The Conference

To breakup everything into manageable chucks, the TechEd planning crew sectioned off the conference into the following areas:

• Keynote From Microsoft Executives: Kicking off TechEd will be the keynote speaker Bob Muglia, President of Server & Tools Business at Microsoft.  Bob and other executives plan to share the company's vision for the future of IT and give some insight as to how Microsoft plans to help with soon to be released products.
• Breakout & Foundational Sessions: Breakout sessions will be 75 minute long presentations given by some of the best and brightest at Microsoft, while foundational sessions take place right after the keynote presentation. These sessions are supposed to bridge the general keynote topics and in-depth breakout sessions.
• Interactive Sessions: The interactive sessions can range from a chalk-talk style chat, to a "code camp", or a Q&A with the speaker.
• Hands-On Labs: These labs let you play with Microsoft products at your own pace, showing off new technologies beneficial to an organization.
• Technical Learning Center:  The TLC lets you see product demos, talk with industry experts, and really connect with the people that actually build and work on Microsoft products to get a better understanding of how the services work.
• Partner Expo: A slew of Microsoft partners waiting to show you products, solutions, and services.
• Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions: These sessions are discussion style talks on technology-based topics select and moderated by you and your peers.
• TechEd Online: Couldn't get to see everything at TechEd?  TechEd Online will serve as an online community platform where visitors can listen to TechEd sessions, keynotes, and videos interviews from Microsoft experts.

Not Going?  It's Ok...We Got You Covered

You're either going to TechEd or not going to TechEd but even if you can't attend, that's okay.  The real fun kicks off after the workshops with a bunch of parties and events happening around the city (yes, even nerds like to geek out with their beaks out):

Sunday - June 6th, 2010
1st Annual Krewe Meet N Greet
Starting Time: 9PM
635 Bourbon
New Orleans, LA
Details/RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=114773108534872

Tuesday - June 8th, 2010
Get Your Funk On: Shake What Your CIO Gave You
Starting Time: 8PM
828 South Peters St. (Republic)
New Orleans, LA
Details/RSVP: http://www.doubletake.com/english/landing/Pages/TechEd-2010.aspx

Tuesday - June 8th, 2010
AvePoint Mixer
Starting Time: 6:30PM
Maison Dupuy Hotel
1001 Toulouse St
New Orleans, LA
Details/RSVP: http://www.avepoint.com/red-party

Wednesday - June 9th, 2010
Starting Time: 5PM
Greater New Orleans SharePoint User Group Kickoff Meetup
520 Capdeville Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
Details: http://gnospugkickoff.eventbrite.com/

Wednesday - June 9th, 2010
Starting Time: 9PM
Mix & Mingle with Quest Experts TechEd 2010 Tweetup
441 Bourbon St Bourbon Street Blues Co.
New Orleans, LA
Details/RSVP: http://questtweetup.eventbrite.com/

We'll be updating this page as we get more info on TechEd parties & events.

How You Can Connect

You can connect with TechEd participants through LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter:

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1864032&trk=anet_ug_hm
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/teched
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TechEd_NA / Hashtag: #teched

We hope all our visitors coming down for the TechEd enjoy our city, learn new things, and most of all have a good time!