Tech Days or DevTeach - Which Should I Choose?

A colleague of mine was considering attending a conference this fall and, knowing that I'm pretty connected with the community, asked if he should go to TechDays or DevTeach. I thought other people may be wondering the same thing so I decided to put together a comparison chart to assist in making an informed decision.

  Tech Days Canada DevTeach
Web Site http://www.microsoft.com/canada/techdays http://www.devteach.com
Where and When Toronto (Oct 29 and 30)
Montreal (Nov 6 and 7)
Ottawa (Nov 27)
For other locations and dates see the Tech Days site		 Montreal (Dec 1 to 5)
Length One or two days of breakout session depending on location Three days of breakout sessions plus pre and post conference sessions
Sessions Two Day: 40 sessions in five tracks (16 Developer and 24 IT Pro)
One Day: 30 sessions in five tracks (12 Developer and 18 IT Pro)		 136 sessions in eight tracks (119 Developer and 17 IT Pro)
Note: Some of the sessions will be delivered in French
Speakers Microsoft Canada Developer and IT Pro Advisors
Local Community Members

You'll see speakers like those you would see at your local user group or code camp		 Microsoft Redmond Product Team Members
Canadian and International Speakers

You'll see speakers like those you would see at the largest conferences (e.g. TechEd) mixed with speakers from the Canadian Developer/IT Pro community
Cost Two Day Early Bird: $299.99  Two Day Full: $499.99
One Day Early Bird: $129.99  One Day Full: $249.99		 Early Bird: $949.00  Full: $1,249.00
You can get $50.00 off the prices noted above through your local user group or selected Microsoft Partners
Atmosphere Community oriented
Easy access to speakers/community experts		 Community oriented
Easy access to speakers/community experts

So, I guess the choice comes down to what you're looking for. While DevTeach is more expensive, it offers more that three times the number of sessions and covers a much wider range of topics. Both are more than worth the cost to attend - just make sure you check out the session lineups before deciding where to spend your conference dollars to ensure you get the experience you are looking for.

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Published Tuesday, September 30, 2008 9:35 PM by windsor
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Comments

# re: Tech Days or DevTeach - Which Should I Choose?

It was a debate for me as well, since TechDays here in Winnipeg is on Dec 4, which is when DevTeach is going on. I opted to go to TechDays locally and save some money in terms of hotel, flight, and cost of the conference, and plan to attend DevTeach when it is in Vancouver in June. (That is a major advantage to DevTeach - it happens every 6 months so if you cannot make it to one you can 6 months later.)

Thursday, October 02, 2008 12:36 PM by Kelly

# re: Tech Days or DevTeach - Which Should I Choose?

Good points. One thing I should have mentioned in my orginal post is the people attending Tech Days will get a voucher for $100 off DevTeach. So you can register for DevTeach Vancouver for $799 if you use the voucher, use a user group discount code and register by the early bird deadline.

Thursday, October 02, 2008 2:07 PM by windsor

# re: Tech Days or DevTeach - Which Should I Choose?

Rob - I think you missed a couple of points people reading this should keep in mind.

DevTeach is awesome and Microsoft is not only running TechDays, but is a sponsor of DevTeach

We believe Canada can support both conferences and we worked with the DevTeach folks to ensure this.  We think Techdays actually makes DevTeach even better, although I fully agree that some people are forced to make a choice.

If you attend Techdays you get a discount to DevTeach

You get $1000 worth of free software and resources at Techdays.

You make it sound like the speakers at Techdays are in some way inferior to DevTeach ("like your local CodeCamp") which I think is a bit of an overstatement.  The Microsoft and 3rd party folks are equally excellent at both conferences.

Most of all, both conferences have a goal of enriching Canada's Technical Professionals.

Sunday, October 05, 2008 8:41 AM by Mark Relph

# re: Tech Days or DevTeach - Which Should I Choose?

Mark: I have always been very vocal about my appreciation for the support your team has given to DevTeach. I understand that there has been a commitment to continuing the support that allows the Canadian User Group Leader Summit to take place at DevTeach, I think that’s awesome. There’s a lot of value in those meetings and I believe that the developer community across the country is stronger for it.

I agree with you that Canada is large enough and the developer/IT pro community is strong enough to support both TechDays and DevTeach. But, as you said, there are going to be times when people will be faced with a choice. Most people won’t be able to attend TechDays in late October or early November and also attend DevTeach a few weeks later. My blog post was written to help those people make an informed decision.  

Finally, you’re the second person who has indicated that the comment about ‘Code Camps’ was somehow derogatory – it wasn’t intended to be so. The speaker talent at these events is excellent. From a quick search of Code Camp web sites I found that MVPs generally account for 1/4 to 1/2 of the sessions. The last Toronto Code Camp featured 14 MVPs and 2 RDs. I was just trying to indicate that the 3rd party speakers at TechDays will be from the local community. My assumption was that you would select the same type of people who would be involved in user groups and who would participate in events like a Code Camp.

Sunday, October 05, 2008 2:47 PM by windsor