Australia gets a peek at Windows Vista during Microsoft Tech.Ed 2005 Tech.Ed kicks off today, so too does the press coverage . This from Computerworld Australia gets a peek at Windows Vista during Microsoft Tech.Ed 2005 30/08/2005 10:14:43 Gold Coast, Australia – 30 August 2005 – Microsoft’s annual technical education conference, Tech.Ed 2005, kicks off tonight at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, with over 2000 software developers and IT professionals registered to attend. Today is Student Day at Tech.Ed and over 400 students from Queensland and national universities will get a head start on their IT careers, by attending conference sessions about upcoming technologies and finding out about job opportunities with Microsoft and some of its partners. Microsoft will welcome delegates tonight with an Xbox® powered opening party. Amongst the entertainment on offer, ten lucky attendees will have the chance to take on Dean Loaney, Australia’s Halo® 2 game champion. The conference kicks off tomorrow morning with keynote speaker Iain MacDonald, Microsoft Corp. Windows Server Director, an Australian who started his Microsoft career in the company’s Australian subsidiary 13 years ago. Mr Macdonald will provide a preview of Windows® Vista™, Microsoft’s next generation Windows operating system, and what it means for developers and IT professionals. Other highlight speakers include:  Prashant Sridharan, Group Product Manager for the upcoming Visual Studio® Team System software development lifecycle tools;  Brian Keller, Microsoft Corp. Product Manager, Development Tools for Gaming presenting a special session about developing add-ons to Half-Life® 2 from Valve Software;  Ari Bixhorn, Product Manager for Microsoft’s next-generation web services technology codenamed ‘Indigo’; and  Popular security duo Steve Riley and Jesper Johansson. The intensive three days of learning, networking and practical experience runs until Friday 2 September. This year, for the first time, Microsoft will offer attendees the opportunity to sit for an exam and walk away from the event with a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) industry certification. “Tech.Ed is the single most valuable education experience of the year for IT professionals and software developers,” said Ben English, “We’re thrilled to see so many people taking advantage of the great content we have pulled together this year – it’s going to be big.” The content for this year’s event was developed in consultation with Microsoft’s broader technical community via several well-known Microsoft bloggers, including Charles Sterling ( https://blogs.msdn.com/charles\_sterling/ ), Michael Kleef ( https://blogs.technet.com/mkleef/ ) and Frank Arrigo ( https://blogs.msdn.com/frankarr/ ). On top of over 150 technical sessions, Tech.Ed 2005 will also offer a comprehensive range of hands-on labs for self-paced learning and two-day ‘deep dive’ technology workshops that provide hands-on experience and instruction from top consultants and trainers. As well as providing training on Microsoft’s current generation of software, delegates will also have the opportunity to get up to speed on Microsoft’s next generation software in the lead up to the launch of Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005. The major sponsors of the event are HP, Intel, Quest Software, AMD, EMC (Australia and New Zealand) and INS (Pacific RIM), Net IQ, Compuware Asia-Pacific, Micro Focus and SourceCode Technology (K2 Workflow). The Australian Computer Society is jointly sponsoring the Thursday night Tech.Ed closing party at Warner Bros. Movie World. For more information, please visit: https://www.microsoft.com/australia/teched Technorati Tag : TechEdAU2005 TechEdAU [ Currently Playing : Untitled [*] - Reel Big Fish - Why Do They Rock So Hard (11:27) ] Comments Anonymous August 30, 2005 I’m sitting in a place called the TechNet Lounge, following the morning’s keynote at Tech.Ed. My… Anonymous August 30, 2005 I’m sitting in a place called the TechNet Lounge, following the morning’s keynote at Tech.Ed. My mate… Additional resources Last updated on 2005-08-30