EnergizeIT happened on Saturday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I had a great time keynoting with Mark. It was the first time that I had to present to over 1,500 people. It happens that I decided to get nervous at the wrong time, which was part way through the presentation, I realized “I’m standing here with my boss’ boss, and I’m going to make a BSOD joke and a Mac joke”. Fortunately, Mark is super cool, however the Mac joke wasn’t funny and didn’t go over particularly well with the Microsoft crowd 
This was the first time I’ve felt like I was at a world-class IT conference in Toronto (in a while). Microsoft Canada really put together a fantastic opportunity for developers (and IT Professionals, IT Managers, and Students) in Canada. The conference was of similar production value as Mix07 and ETech. The content at EnergizeIT was very different than both of these conferences. And I think this is the biggest challenge.
For me it was very interesting to read reviews that are exactly the opposite of my thoughts. It was fantastic have high profile speakers in the Microsoft world. However, I must admit, I was bored during his presentation.
“Then there was Andre Mintz’s energetic and enthusiastic presentation on Microsoft’s commitment to trust worthy computing. This may have been the highlight of the day for me, as Microsoft takes a lot of heat in the media and the public relative to security. Having a high profile figure from Redmond speak on the topic was an awesome experience.” – Will Craddock
The challenge of appealing to a diverse group at a single day conference is difficult. To have content, applications and solutions for designers, developers, IT professionals, IT managers and students. This covers the gamut of people working with technology. Integration of design and technology professionals is a challenge.
There were a number of designer sessions presented by Paul and Qixing that covered Expression and Silverlight. The design and user experience track is new for Microsoft Canada. EnergizeIT was also competing with The Overlap which was happening on the same day. But I’m wondering if the conversation that designers want to have requires a different conference like Designertopia.
Thanks everyone for making my first couple of weeks fantastic.
Popularity: 1% [?]
