As announced earlier, I’m in Berlin for Tech∙Ed Europe 2009. This week I’ll keep you posted on the things we’re up to this week.

I told my boss we would just be attending boring sessions, participating in long and unstructured discussions and eat the standard conferencing food, that surprisingly, always tastes like chicken. But if this years Tech∙Ed bears any resemblance with last years Tech∙Ed in Barcelona, we’ll be in for a good time, outside of the official knowledge gathering process. Enjoy!

Travelling

Today was a day filled with travel. Together with Marien de Gelder I’ve spent five hours in the train between Utrecht and Berlin Hbf. Not really a punishment, but getting up at 7 am on a Sunday morning isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. I must admit though: eating a chicken breast salad and enjoying a beer with it at 248 km/hour is a weird experience and one I (as a bit of a speed freak) am looking forward to at the end of the week.

From Berlin Hbf we went straight to the Berlin Messe using the S-Bahn. This only took us 20 minutes, which gave us hope for the rest of the week, as we decided to rely on Berlins Public Transportation Infrastructure. At the Messegelände (gotta brush up on my German) we registered, picked up our first pieces of SWAG (including Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit) and shake hands with the all too familiar in-crowd.

We also attended The Tech∙Ed 101 session. This session is all about the ins and outs of Tech∙Ed. It was really helpful for Marien, since he is a Tech∙Ed first timer. I enjoyed myself, since my good friends Tony and Daniel delivered the session. Afterwards we hooked up. Since I have no need for Windows 7, I gave Daniel my copy. He used it to help out one lucky sound guy.

Hotel

We’re staying at the Inter∙Continental Hotel at the Budapester Straße, right around the corner at Microsoft GMBH. From S-Bahn station Zoologischer Garten this hotel is only a ten minute walk… at least when you’re walking in the right direction.

GPS to the rescue!