Three of us went along from work; myself,
qidane and our recently recruited graduate.I wasn't sure that
qidane and I would get much out of it, as we've been involved with Visual Studio 2005 for over a year now, but it just goes to show you shouldn't make rash assumptions. Both of us picked up new information about SQL Server - which we haven't been following so closely - and also about Team System. There's only so much you can keep an eye on, and these are huge products.There was a small satisfaction for us in seeing the Insights Learning and Development Ltd. entry on page 41 of the UK Readiness Guide, with a quote from me on how useful the tools are for improving code quality. For such a small piece of content, it's been through several marketing revisions both at our end and Microsoft's (all with mutual approval of course) but it still mostly makes sense!
I wasn't sure whether the giveaways trumpetted as part of the US launch would extend to the UK - quite often they don't - but we each came away with a voucher for free (not for resale) copies of Visual Studio 2005 Professional, SQL Server 2005 Standard and BizTalk Server 2006. I haven't a clue what I'll do with BizTalk - an undoubtedly useful application, but not one I have a need for - but I'm looking forward to the arrival of the others.
