My spouse is well-trained. Every time I attend an MSDN Event, the first thing she asks is if they handed out a free t-shirt. I had to tell her that there were no shirts this time. She was disappointed. She was again bummed when I told her the Microsoft pen was black ink. She is a blue ink fiend, and a connoisseur of pens. She got excited, though, that I had picked up two of the Microsoft notepads. She loves to use them for shopping lists. Naturally, she is tough to please.
Today, Russ Fustino gave presentations on Web Services Unleashed, Universal Data Access with SQL Server 2005, and Publishing Applications Using ClickOnce. It was all great stuff. He handed out the MSDN Events Resource DVD, with lots of goodies, and a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. Of course, his presentos were stolen from TechEd and the end of presentation drawing could only muster three items rather than the 9-10 given away at previous events. The crowd was grumbling. Naturally, developers are tough to please.
If you have never attended an MSDN Event, they are free and highly recommended. Those at the end of the Microsoft fiscal year seem to be a little thinner on the free stuff. Of course, that is balanced by the fact that 200+ showed up, which is several times more than showed for the first event I saw a couple of years ago. Maybe the tchochke money went to the bigger theater and the extra popcorn and soda.