I know, it’s been many many months since I blogged.  I wish I could say it was because I was really busy, still getting settled in Seattle, or because I was working on lots of cool stuff I can’t talk about yet.  While those are all true (*wink*), the real reason is that I just got a bit lazy with the blogging.  Anyway, whirlwind update: I’ve been working on the ASP.Net team full-time for 8 months now, and I’m working on some cool stuff that I’ll be able to talk more about soon.

In the mean time, I can talk about the fact that I’m down in New Orleans right now, working as Staff for the ASP.Net booth at TechEd North America!  I’m going to try to blog a bit about the conference, starting with my first three days.

I left on Saturday, two days before the conference actually started (hence “Day –1”).  After my wonderful girlfriend woke up early to drive me to SeaTac airport at 5am for my 7am flight, I was on my way to New Orleans via Houston.  The landing in New Orleans was definitely the roughest landing I’ve ever been in (second roughest: major cross-winds in a Dash-8 on final approach into Ottawa airport).  Upon walking off the plane, I felt like I had just walked into a vat of pea soup.  Having never really travelled to this part of the continent before, I was unfamiliar with the intense humidly (though I had been well warned).

After a short taxi ride, I reached my hotel, The Hotel New Orleans, conveniently located right next to the Convention Center (thus limiting my time in the un-air-conditioned air).  It’s a nice hotel, with a cool inner atrium design:

After checking-in, I wandered over to Canal St. and the outskirts of the French Quarter

I made my way back to my hotel and decided to eat in the hotel restaurant.  I had been given a list of a few things to try while I was here, one of which was Catfish, so I decided to give it a go.  After eating that and washing it down with a glass of Sweet Tea (which is a very descriptive name, and a very tasty drink) I basically just crashed early.

The next day, Sunday, was also pretty relaxed. After a long sleep-in, I wandered over to the Convention Center to register

My only commitment was the staff orientation at 3pm, where we got to check out our booth, located in the Technical Learning Center, which is basically where all the Microsoft teams set up booths. 

Past TechEd attendees may remember that in previous events, this was a separate section from the Partner Expo (where all the third-party vendors set up).  In 2010, the TLC and the Partner Expo are all in one big Exhibition Hall.  After sizing up our booth and meeting the team, I wandered to a nearby restaurant for a Shrimp Po’boy and Hush Puppies (yet more things on my list of foods to try).  I also wandered along the New Orleans Riverwalk and snapped a few pics of the Mississippi (which almost form a panorama!)

Then, I crashed again, this time setting an alarm so I could be up in plenty of time for my duties the next day.

Next up: Day 1 – The first actual day of the conference!