Rob Farley

Rob Rob Farley has been consulting in IT since completing a Computer Science degree with first class honours in 1997. Before moving to Adelaide, he worked in consultancies in Melbourne and London. He runs the development department in one of Australia's leading IT firms, as well as doing database application consultancy and training. He heads up the Adelaide SQL Server User Group, and holds several Microsoft certifications.

Rob has been involved with Microsoft technologies for most of his career, but has also done significant work with Oracle and Unix systems. His preferred database is SQL Server and his preferred language is C#. Recently he has been involved with Microsoft Learning in the US, creating and reviewing new content for the next generation of Microsoft exams.

Over the years, Rob's clients have included BP Oil, OneLink Transit, Accenture, Avanade, Australian Electorial Commission, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Royal Borough of Kingston, Help The Aged, Unisys, Department of Treasury and Finance (Vic), National Mutual, the Bible Society and others.

Did you mean to come here? My blog is now at http://msmvps.com/blogs/robfarley



05 September 2005

The value of TechEd

I really enjoyed TechEd. I met a bunch of people, I caught up with people I don't get to see very often, I became MCSD.Net, and I learned some stuff too!

I went to TechEd 99 in Brisbane - felt like I left there knowing a lot more about lots of technical stuff. This time, I went wondering what I would learn, because these days I go to user groups more, read articles a lot more, and test beta software more. So looking at the agenda, I wondered what I would learn. I was pleased to find that I did come away having learned stuff - I'll be downloading all the slides soon. But the real value will come out of the conversations I had. The time spent with Phil and Lorraine, Alastair, Nick and Meg, with Greg, Geoff, Michael, Mick and Cam, Wayne, David, Chuck, David, Andrew, David, Frank, Dave, Steve, Peter, Milton, Brendan, Alan, Julian, Cheryl, John, Athena, and the other people I haven't listed here - lots of them. All with different perspectives on the world of course, and all of whom I could learn something from and hopefully teach something to. I probably told most of them the same jokes - and they probably all smiled politely. But hopefully I'll get them on my Msgr lists, catch up with them online now and then, and keep swapping knowledge, ideas, and passion. I'm definitely better off this year. Last time I left knowing more information. This time I left knowing more people.

Posted by Rob Farley at 2:37 pm