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TechEd vs. Windays
As I said in my previous post, I’ll try to compare Teched with Windays in several categories. I participated in both conferences and I’ll try to be objective.
About conferences:
Teched for developers was held in Barcelona, and next year it’s moving to Berlin. It is biggest Microsoft’s conference in Europe (around 5000 delegates), primary focused on programming and tools for developers.
Windays is biggest Microsoft’s conference in Croatia (around 2000 delegates), which is every year held in Opatija. It’s business and technology conference (both programming and system administration).
Venue:
Teched: CCIB center in Barcelona. Huge convection center in Barcelona, perfect for huge conferences like TechEd. Big advantage of TechEd is that everything happens in one building.
Windays: Few conference halls in different hotels. Delegates sometimes have to walk 10-15 minutes from one to another.
Winner: Teched
Organization:
Teched: Lots of event supporters are hired to support every aspect of this conference. If you need something, there is always somebody to help you. For example, there are three guys sitting there for helping you with possible wireless problems.
Windays: There is support, but not as many as at Teched.
Winner: Teched
Lectures:
Teched: Lectures are primarly focused on developing, and are held by top IT speakers. For me, little minus is the fact they last for 1h15min, which is I think little bit to long.
Windays: Lectures are also held by great speakers, but not all of them have huge experience in giving lecures.
Winner: Teched
Food:
TechEd: Delegates get only lunch, and on 3 of 5 days they got lunch boxes with sandwiches. On those 2 days with catering, food was nothing special and there was not much choice. There are always few places where delegates can take some snacks, coffe, tea, juice…
Windays: There are lunch and dinner organized, full catering with huge choice of great food.
Winner: Windays
Fun zone:
Teched: For relaying between lectures, there is fun zone organized in the exhibition area with lots of XBOX-es. Problem is that all games are on Spanish, and it is very difficult to even start a game. Also, chairs are not very confortable.
Windays: There is also fun zone organized, with 3-4 XBOX consoles but there are also pool and table soccer tables. There are huge bags where players can really relax and enjoy playing games.
Winner: Windays
Party:
Teched: There is no official evening parties. You can get beer from 19-21h at exhibition area, but that’s it.
Windays: Every night there is organized free party or concert for delegates with free drinks.
Winner: Windays
Price:
Teched: €2245 + 16% VAT (normal price)
Windays: approx. €700 + 22% VAT (normal price)
Winner: Windays
Ask the expert & exhibition hall:
TechEd: Every expert has it’s own “station” with 2 computers and dashboard. There are many events in exhibition hall, prize games, special lectures…
Windays: Experts have their room, with no computer. Also, there are some events in exhibition hall, but not as many as on TechEd.
Winner: Teched
Free bag:
TechEd: This year, delegates got bag for laptops, with pen, some promotional materials, pencil-box and plastic bottle for drinks.
Windays: This year, delegates got bag filled up with many stuff, promotional materials, great gadgets like bluetooth earphones…
Winner: Windays
Conclusion:
Actually, I won’t give and conclusion. I think I gave real description of what I saw on both conferences and I won’t decide which conference is better. It’s up to you, dear visitor 
. What do you think? Post it in comments.
Resources:
Second report from TechEd
First report from TechEd
By Ilija Brajkovic | November 17, 2008
Tags: event, teched, windays
Category: events | Comments
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