Summary: The Windows PowerShell 2012 Scripting Games Beginner category winner writes about his experience at Microsoft TechEd in Orlando.
Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. This weekend we will hear the impressions about Microsoft TechEd 2012 North America from the two winners of the 2012 Scripting Games. The winners, as you may recall, won free passes to TechEd 2012. Today we hear from Lido Paglia, the winner in the Beginner category of the 2012 Scripting Games.
Lido Paglia is an IT Pro from the Philadelphia area working in higher education where he serves as a systems engineer supporting Microsoft Exchange Server and SharePoint. The following picture is Mike F. Robbins on the left and Lido on the right. (Mike was the third-place winner of the Beginner category in the 2012 Scripting Games).
Take it away Lido…
My motivation to participate in the 2012 Scripting Games was to see if I really could submit what the judges would consider ”quality" scripts or one-liners that met the requirements. I honestly did not even entertain winning so much as seeing how I performed in each event. So when I found out I was headed to TechEd, I was pleasantly surprised, and I did not quite realize all the additional benefits that were coming my way.
As the countdown to TechEd rolled on during the weeks that followed the Scripting Games, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. This was my first time attending TechEd so I began following the #msTechEd hash tag on Twitter to keep up with the buzz surrounding the conference. I also set my sights on using the schedule builder to pick some sessions to attend. A number of great sessions were on the agenda, especially about Windows PowerShell.
After flying into Orlando, getting registered for the conference, and dropping my bags at the hotel early Sunday evening, it was time to head to The Krewe Meet ‘n Greet party. Shortly after entering the door, I ran into the Scripting Guy and the Scripting Wife. Seconds later, they had me shaking hands with Aleksandar Nikolic, Don Jones, Jason Hofferle, Sean Kearney, and Daniel Cruz to name a few.
The Krewe party was the kick-off to my favorite part of TechEd, which was getting to meet so many great people in and around the Windows PowerShell community. Fellow IT Pros, developers, well-renowned authors, bloggers, community members, and members of the Windows PowerShell product team were all there. These are all people who I was familiar with by way of their books, blogs, or tweets and getting to meet and speak with so many of them really made my trip to TechEd special. Ed Wilson, Rohn Edwards (the winner of the Advanced category for the 2012 Scripting Games), and I even got to have lunch with Jeffrey Snover where we covered topics like “it’s always sunny in Philadelphia” to the number of surprisingly few people working on the Windows PowerShell team.
Meeting such amazing folks was not the only thing going on at TechEd. During the week, I sat in some hands-on labs, and I even got a quick tour of the hardware that hosts some 3700 virtual machines. I attended a number of filled-to-capacity sessions, like Mark Russinovich's Malware Hunting with the SysInternals tools, where Mark demoed remediating Stuxnet and Flame. I even took a free certification exam. All that plus the recorded sessions, which I'm now downloading via a Windows PowerShell script kept me quite busy.
The following photo represents one such meeting with some of the great people at TechEd. Left to right are: Osama Sajid (program manager for Windows Server Manageability), Rohn Edwards, and me.
Speaking of sessions…One of my favorites was Advanced Automation Using Windows PowerShell 3.0 by Hemant Mahawar and Travis Jones. This session provides a sneak peak at the future of IT automation on the Windows platform. Complimentary to that session was a Friday morning post-conference session where Travis and Hemant basically hosted a script club as they walked us through the steps of building and deploying an environment leveraging Workflow in Windows PowerShell 3.0 on our own laptops. What a neat way to wrap up the week.
I cannot talk about TechEd without extending a special thank you to Ed and Teresa. The Scripting Guy and Scripting Wife really made my first time attending TechEd a welcome and unforgettable experience. Hanging out at the Scripting Guys booth was great fun. I am looking forward to participating in next year's Scripting Games (I’ll be stepping up to the Advanced category), and I hope you are too.
~Lido
Lido, great report. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us. It was great to meet you and to have the opportunity to hang out for a few days. I am glad you are aiming to up your game next year as you dive into the Advanced category. I can tell you that the competition is stiff! Everyone, it is best to begin preparation now—it is only 10 months until the Scripting Games 2013.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.
Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy