TechEd 2004

I have attended TechEd 2004 last week. It is held at The Palace of Golden Horse Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. It is the largest event in Malaysia which attract 1500 attendees. According to MS, 50% of attendees came from countries outside of Malaysia. It is really a great news! However, I feel dissapointed with this event.

Conference Room
The keynote conference room is resided at left side of the hotel. I got to walk along a long, narrow and swallon corridor. Then turn left, right, up, and ... finally that is. After the kenote session, I proceed to other room for breakout session. My God!! These breakout sessions are held at the other side of building. Again, I got to turned left and right, go up and down ... I think I would get lost if I am alone there . Isn't that a map? Yes, there are. However, it doesn't help (at least for me). It never show whether that is upstair or downstair plan, and even snapshot of "You are here" also not show properly. May be the building is designed as hotel, therefore, if compare with PWTC, PWTC is much more better with wider, better direction and easier for us to go for other room.

Exhibition Hall
One of my favourite place to visit during TechEd is exhibition hall. It is resided beside Lunch Mall, inside a temporary "house" on grass. I opened the door and walked into it. It reminded me the situation of market on sunday. The corridor between exhibitor store, already very narrow, but everybody was still standing there asking about products, playing games and etc. I worked very hard only able to walk "thru" it.

Lunch
The meal still OK. That is nothing special either. Chicken, fish, curry ... 3 meats 1 vegetable. Why doesn't every MS event order other meal???? Don't you feel that every MS event also provide the same food?

Session
TechEd Developer sessions for this year doesn't really impress me. Most of the topics are not new and could be found from Internet. There are just not what I expected. Therefore, I attended most of Architecture track.

Transport
Going to The Palace of Golden Horse is not a problem. I could take LRT and taxi easily. However, going home on day 1 is terrible experience for me. Tell you what, that is no bus station nearby. Cap? Sorry, it is difficult to get any *empty* one. I walked along the road and couln't get any cap. After an hour plus, I finally get one. Thank God! It really tired me.

I tried to call taxi from hotel on day 2, but it cost more. I don't it is worth to. The taxi driver charge me 20% more. Therefore I decided to wait hotel resort bus. The bad thing is, the bus only send us to nearer shopping fair. I still need to walk for 15-20 minutes to nearest KTM station. In other words, it is not any easy way to back home unless you pay more or drive.

I am wondering why MS choise this hotel, which difficult to get public transport. Is MS expecting every delegate got their own car? I think I got to call cap tomorrow, otherwise I got to overnight there.

It is worst MS event I ever attend!