| 12th, 13th and 14th was an exciting time for all of us @ Tech.Ed Sri Lanka 2005. All of us were very thrilled due to the unexpected turnover of participants. Count goes above 700 I guess. about 500 delegates for the main sessions, 100 government officials, 200 students. I'm sure all the delegates have gathered a great amount of knowledge of Microsoft tools and technologies.
Personally it was a great experience for me. Merill and my self represented the .NET User Group in the auspicious oil lamp lighting at the opening ceremony. At the end of the second day when the Q&A session came Mr. Sriyan invited Merill, Manoj and me on to the stage .. I was shocked  . 'Me' among all those world class speakers. Well ... I'm that big yet. I'm still trying to get there  .
As a whole, except for few minor glitches I think the event better than expected.
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Event opened with the National Anthem and Lighting the auspicious oil lamp. The welcome speech which was given by Mr. Sriyan the Country Manager Microsoft Sri Lanka. Then there was a cool colorful amazing drum show + light show. After that Keynote speeches were delivered by Mr. Saw Ken Wye Microsoft President for South East Asia, Prof. Samaranayake and Mr. Manju Hathotuwa CEO of ICT Agency.
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During the first day there was a small delay in the schedule. Also there was a small disturbance due to the 'Tech.Ed Pack' was not given at the registration. But as a whole things were ok. Feedback we got @ the MVP and .NET pavilion was great. I'm sure Windows Vista session by Ramnish Singh was a highlight in the day. Not only because it was a great presentation but also because of the 'feedback' we got @ the MVP stall.
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Second day was a day that everything happened on time. Our MVP lead Lilian Quek came from Singapore. At end of the sessions there was a general Q&A session and also an due to the high demand there was an extra Windows Vista session. In the evening MVPs had a meeting with Vinod Kumar about improving the User Group with the support from INETA. Got some great advice and tips from him. Then the Entertainment night began. Latino Dancers was the highlight and some folks even forgot to close their mouths  when the dancing items were on stage. And there were a heap of giveaways from Microsoft on a draw. Also there were two giveaways from the silver sponsor ZILLIONe. Later I herd that the party went till 11.30 PM, some of us missed the last part of the party due to we had to participate in setting up the labs for the next day. And few volunteers from the User Group helped in this. |
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| Third day was the Hands-on lab sessions and also the student day. There were about 200 students. Feedback received from them were really great. |
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| Gaming Room filled with a whole range of both Microsoft Xbox and Microsoft PC Games was a place where a big attraction was during the whole event. Guys who missed it ... have you had that feeling of playing a game on a big screen in a dark room? Well you have missed it. |