I arrived late because who wants to take a Malton bus on a Saturday to get somewhere at 9:30 in the morning? Right in the middle of the General Manager of Microsoft Learning (Lutz Ziob) talking about all the new initiatives and resources Microsoft was developing for helping people learn Microsoft technologies. Microsoft is putting some $50 billion into various education initiatives. Including those reaching out to high schools and universities. Is there that much of a brain drain out of IT? Perhaps, given the focus they are putting on this.

After that there were all kinds of neat demo services. It was like being back in high school at the school variety show. Road warriors showing off how to send Windows mobile device photos to their mom, code ninjas creating what looked like a really boring game, and Windows Power Shell users showing how to use Power Shell to (again) do things with a Windows mobile device.

It seems really difficult to get geeks (like me) to show off strong emotions at an IT event. Even with bribes like free t-shirts or a copy of Vista Ultimate for the loudest table, people were very quiet. Still, at the end all the goodies were distributed and the road warriors had won for showing how easy it was to blog videos and text using a mix of different computers, mobile devices, and just sheer juggling.

After a fine lunch (Microsoft really does know how to keep geeks happy, free lunch AND Haagen Dazs ice cream bars after), I headed off to watch a talk on Windows Home Server by Steven Leonard. This looks like a very interesting product. You can buy a preconfigured server from Best Buy, or build your own if you (or a friend or relative) is a technical genius. All you need is the software itself and the hardware to run it on. Then you can share files, backup drives (by imaging), and even share over the Internet. You just can't set up Outlook or have more than ten users on one server box.

But the best part about it was that there was a (I am not making this up) children's story book designed to make the wee ones less embarrassed about having a home server around. I'm not sure which children this is aimed at, most kids I know think the more computers around the household, the merrier. But that didn't stop me from elbowing my way through the mad crowd to snatch the last copy.

People are wandering in from the anime convention here while I am writing this constantly. The head security guard doesn't seem happy his people are involved in having to deal with giving them directions. I guess they should have hired some anime-trained guards. Or something.

After playing around with my network settings and getting nowhere (per usual), I got in a bit late for a talk by David Lundquist about how to maximize your revenue potential as an IT professional. Not surprisingly, it involves incorporating as a consultant. This talk by itself was worth the price of admission. The guy obviously knew his stuff and had some great advice and real world examples. We really do undervalue the worth of our brain power as IT pros, don't we? To paraphrase what he said, lawyers expect to get six figure salaries when they graduate. IT grads are stoked to be given a shiny new laptop to use at work.

Then, the end. The big draw to stick around was the prize draw. Otherwise, I would have been straight out the door. A laptop and five Zune players. Did they draw tickets from a hat? Pshaw, friends, this is one of the premier geek gatherings in the Western Hemisphere. They had a random number generator programmed to dispense the winning numbers with but a click of a mouse. An RNG that was off my ticket number by one, the obviously secretly running on Linux application that it must have been to be so malicious.

On the bus back home, an anime contingent at the back. I don't know much about anime, but I have to say after that day I'm not very sad at that fact. They were nice enough, for what seemed like a cult. Of course, you could say the same about the guys and gals who dressed up for the Microsoft demo session. Thank you! I'll be here all week, try the veal.

Anyhow, EnergizeIT is always a fun event for me. Since I am a geek at heart. I hope you enjoyed my brief report of my day there.