I had the great fortune to attend TechEd in Texas last week and was able to witness about two dozen sessions over the course of 5 days (including the all-day preconference session). What a great event! There was so much information and obvious effort and expertise that went into these presentations, but even with a full week dedicated to the content, there was much, MUCH more available than I was able to attend. I kept a Wishlist of sessions that I wanted so I could watch them later, so when I was asked about my experience there, I had this ridiculous list to share. I've highlighted the sessions that I particularly recommend watching, and the rest are essentially notes to myself to watch later.
You can see all 441 sessions from TechEd 2014 on the Channel 9 website. As an Enterprise Security MVP, the one session that really sticks out in my mind is DCIM-B213 on Pass-the-Hash where they did a really great demonstration on just how easy it is to steal credentials and obtain privileged access in an organization. Another great one is Don Jones' session DCIM-B417 which gives a good sense on where PowerShell is going to take ITPros with Desired State Configuration.
Foundational Sessions
FDN02 Enabling Enterprise Mobility with Windows Intune, Microsoft Azure, and Windows Server
Speaker(s): Adam Hall, Andrew Conway, Demi Albuz, Jason Leznek
FDN06 Transform the Datacenter: Making the Promise of Connected Clouds a Reality
Speaker(s): Brian Hillger, Elden Christensen, Jeff Woolsey, Jeffrey Snover, Matt McSpirit
Datacenter and Infrastructure Management
DCIM-B210 How to Develop a Successful Hybrid Cloud Strategy
Speaker(s): Eduardo Kassner
DCIM-B211 Service Provider Datacenter Architecture
Speaker(s): Philip Moss
DCIM-B212 The Enterprise: Be Your Own Cloud Provider
Speaker(s): Philip Moss
DCIM-B213 TWC: Pass-the-Hash and Credential Theft Mitigation Architectures
Speaker(s): Mark Simos, Nicholas DiCola
DCIM-B219 Secure Design and Best Practices for Your Private Cloud
Speaker(s): Patrick Lang, Sam Chandrashekar
DCIM-B221 Microsoft Azure Security and Compliance Overview
Speaker(s): Lori Woehler
DCIM-B224 ITIL Crash Course for IT Pros: Building to Operate
Speaker(s): Nathan Lasnoski
DCIM-B304 Using Windows Azure Pack to Bring the Cloud On-Premises
Speaker(s): Stefan Schackow
DCIM-B306 Public Cloud Security: Surviving in a Hostile Multi-Tenant Environment
Speaker(s): Mark Russinovich
DCIM-B308 Advanced Lessons Learned from Implementing Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Service Manager
Speaker(s): Anders Asp
DCIM-B309 Bare Metal OS Deployment in Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager: This Is How It Is Done!
Speaker(s): Mikael Nystrom
DCIM-B310 The StorSimple Approach to Solving Issues Related to Growing Data Trends
Speaker(s): Marc Farley
DCIM-B311 Delivering Exceptional IOPS/$ with Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Tobias Klima, Vishal Shah
DCIM-B315 Cloud Optimized Networking in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Bob Combs, Ravi Rao
DCIM-B317 Lessons Learned: Designing and Deploying the Windows Azure Pack in the Real-World
Speaker(s): Marc van Eijk
DCIM-B321 Windows Azure Pack: Automation Essentials for Tenant Provisioning
Speaker(s): Charles Joy
DCIM-B322 Implementing Enterprise-Scale Disaster Recovery with Hyper-V Recovery Manager, Network Virtualization, and Microsoft System Center 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Manoj Jain, Vishal Mehrotra
DCIM-B325 The Real-World Guide to Upgrading Your IT Skills AND Your Infrastructure, Part 1
Speaker(s): Joey Snow, Rick Claus
DCIM-B326 The Real-World Guide to Upgrading Your IT Skills AND Your Infrastructure, Part 2
Speaker(s): Joey Snow, Rick Claus
DCIM-B327 Cluster-in-a-Box Using Windows Server 2012 R2: Solutions and Applications
Speaker(s): John Loveall
DCIM-B330 Best Practices for Integrating On-Premises Datacenters with Microsoft Azure IaaS
Speaker(s): Rand Morimoto
DCIM-B332 Bringing ITSM Capabilities from Microsoft System Center Service Manager to Windows Azure Pack
Speaker(s): Anders Ravnholt, Patrik Sundqvist
DCIM-B334 In-Depth Introduction to Service Management Automation
Speaker(s): Neil Peterson
DCIM-B337 File Server Networking for a Private Cloud Storage Infrastructure in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Jose Barreto
DCIM-B338 Software-Defined Storage Solutions: Storage Management Plane Functionality in Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft System Center 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Hector Linares
DCIM-B345 Networking Solutions in Action: How Customers Implement Software-Defined Networking Using Windows Server 2012 R2 and Microsoft System Center 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Prabu Rambadran
DCIM-B312 Notes from the Field: Windows Azure Pack IaaS and PaaS
Speaker(s): Anders Bengtsson, Pete Zerger
DCIM-B318 Windows PowerShell Unplugged with Jeffrey Snover
Speaker(s): Don Jones, Jeffrey Snover
DCIM-B333 Distributed File System Replication (DFSR) Scalability Enhancements in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Ned Pyle
DCIM-B335 Microsoft Storage Solutions in Production Environments
Speaker(s): Corey Hynes, Prabu Rambadran
DCIM-B337 File Server Networking for a Private Cloud Storage Infrastructure in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Jose Barreto
DCIM-B346 Best Practices for Deploying Tiered Storage Spaces in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Alex Hsieh, Bryan Matthew
DCIM-B352 Designing Network Infrastructures for Hybrid Cloud
Speaker(s): Joe Davies
DCIM-B354 Failover Clustering: What's New in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Elden Christensen, John Marlin
DCIM-B357 StorSimple: Enabling Microsoft Azure Cloud Storage for Enterprise Workloads
Speaker(s): Jai Desai , Meghan Liese
DCIM-B359 TWC: Pass-the-Hash: How Attackers Spread and How to Stop Them
Speaker(s): Mark Russinovich, Nathan Ide
DCIM-B362 JitJea: A Windows PowerShell Toolkit to Secure a Post-Snowden World
Speaker(s): Jeffrey Snover
DCIM-B367 It's the End of the World As You Know It... Windows Server 2003 End of Life: Infrastructure Migration
Speaker(s): Pierre Roman
DCIM-B368 TWC: Malware Hunting with Mark Russinovich and the Sysinternals Tools
Speaker(s): Mark Russinovich
DCIM-B372 TWC: How You Can Hack-Proof Your Clients and Servers in a Day
Speaker(s): Hasain Alshakarti, Marcus Murray
DCIM-B374 TWC: Fighting Evil with Good
Speaker(s): Ivan Macalintal
DCIM-B375 Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator: Runbook Design 101
Speaker(s): Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen
DCIM-B378 Converged Networking for Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V
Speaker(s): Don Stanwyck, Taylor Brown
DCIM-B382 Cloud Identity and Access Management: Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium
Speaker(s): Nasos Kladakis
DCIM-B388 Extending Your Premises to Microsoft Azure with Virtual Networks and ExpressRoute
Speaker(s): Ganesh Srinivasan, Jai Desai, Jon Ormond, Ross Ortega, Yu-Shun Wang
DCIM-B395 Building a Web-Scale Private Cloud (without Losing Your Cool)
Speaker(s): Steven Poitras
DCIM-B397 Maximizing Storage Efficiency with Dell and Microsoft Storage Spaces
Speaker(s): Senthil Baladhandayutham, Syama Poluri
DCIM-B411 Datacenter Integration Using Service Management Automation in Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator
Speaker(s): Chris Sanders, Joe Levy
DCIM-B412 Effortless Migration from VMware to Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V
Speaker(s): Maarten Goet, Marc van Eijk
DCIM-B416 Microsoft System Center 2012 R2: Continual Availability in the Datacenter
Speaker(s): Annur Sumar, Symon Perriman
DCIM-B417 A Practical Overview of Desired State Configuration
Speaker(s): Don Jones
DCIM-B423 ExpressRoute: Connecting Private and Public Clouds through WAN Providers
Speaker(s): Ganesh Srinivasan, Venkat Gattamneni
People-Centric IT
PCIT-B212 Design Considerations for BYOD
Speaker(s): Tom Shinder, Yuri Diogenes
PCIT-B213 Access Control in BYOD and Directory Integration in a Hybrid Identity Infrastructure
Speaker(s): Gayana Bagdasaryan
PCIT-B214 Using Dynamic Access Control and Rights Management for Information Protection
Speaker(s): Nir Ben Zvi, Stan Symms
PCIT-B310 Empowering Your Users and Protecting Your Corporate Data
Speaker(s): Gordon McKenna, Martyn Coupland
PCIT-B313 Hybrid Identity: Extending Active Directory to the Cloud
Speaker(s): Adam Hall
PCIT-B314 Understanding Microsoft's BYOD Strategy and an Introduction to New Capabilities in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Adam Hall
PCIT-B316 View into the Next On-Premises RMS
Speaker(s): Enrique Saggese
PCIT-B318 Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Overview Session
Speaker(s): Demi Albuz, Thomas Willingham
PCIT-B319 TWC: Social Engineering: Manipulations, Targeted Attacks, and IT Security
Speaker(s): Erdal Ozkaya, Milad Aslaner
PCIT-B321 Deploying the New RMS for Cloud-Friendly and Cloud-Reluctant Customers
Speaker(s): Enrique Saggese
PCIT-B324 How to Rapidly Design and Deploy an Active Directory Federation Services Farm: The Do's and the Don'ts
Speaker(s): John Craddock
PCIT-B326 Providing SaaS Single Sign-on with Microsoft Azure Active Directory
Speaker(s): Mark Wahl
PCIT-B327 Introducing Web Application Proxy in Windows Server 2012 R2: Enable Work from Anywhere
Speaker(s): Shai Kariv
PCIT-B328 Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager vNext Overview
Speaker(s): Adam Hall, Mark Wahl
PCIT-B330 Active Directory + BYOD = Peace of Mind
Speaker(s): Mahesh Unnikrishnan
PCIT-B334 Multi-Factor Authentication Deep Dive: Securing Access On-Premises and in the Cloud
Speaker(s): Nasos Kladakis, Shawn Bishop
PCIT-B335 Windows Server Work Folders: A Deep Dive into the New Windows Server Data Sync Solution
Speaker(s): Fabian Uhse, Gene Chellis
PCIT-B337 Advanced VDI Optimization
Speaker(s): Jeff Stokes (PFE)
PCIT-B338 Deploying Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Roles in Microsoft Azure and Private Cloud
Speaker(s): Clark Nicholson, Senthil Baladhandayutham
PCIT-B341 Upgrading Active Directory the Safe Way: Using Virtualization Technologies
Speaker(s): Mike Resseler, Sander Berkouwer
PCIT-B342 Azure RemoteApp Deep Dive (previously named RemoteApp for Mobility and BYOD)
Speaker(s): Demi Albuz, Samim Erdogan, Thomas Willingham
PCIT-B343 From the Fire Hose Series: An Insider's Guide to Desktop Virtualization
Speaker(s): Bernhard Tritsch, Ruben Spruijt
PCIT-B411 Troubleshooting Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) and the Web Application Proxy
Speaker(s): John Craddock
Windows, Phone and Devices
WIN-B311 Raising the Security Bar with Windows 8.1
Speaker(s): Chris Hallum
WIN-B314 Building a Bulletproof Windows BitLocker
Speaker(s): Sami Laiho
WIN-B318 Deploying Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) 2.5
Speaker(s): Briton Zurcher, Jerry Nixon, Lance Crandall
WIN-B328 Group Policy: Notes from the Field - Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting
Speaker(s): Jeremy Moskowitz
WIN-B350 Windows 8 Security Internals
Speaker(s): Chris Jackson
WIN-B354 Case of the Unexplained: Troubleshooting with Mark Russinovich
Speaker(s): Mark Russinovich
WIN-B359 2014 Edition: How Many Coffees Can You Drink While Your PC Starts?
Speaker(s): Matthew Reynolds
Office Servers and Services
OFC-B222 Introduction to Microsoft Office 365 Identity Management
Speaker(s): Paul Andrew
OFC-B336 Get Up and Running Fast with Microsoft OneDrive for Business: Planning Guidance and Best Practices
Speaker(s): Todd Klindt
OFC-B317 Microsoft Office 365 Directory Synchronization and Federation Options
Speaker(s): Aanchal Saxena, Paul Andrew, Ross Adams
Hands-On Labs
DCIM-IL200 Build Your Storage Infrastructure with Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Prabu Rambadran
DCIM-IL201 Implementing Desired State Configuration in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Hemant Mahawar, Kenneth Hansen
DCIM-IL300 Configuring Networking with Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager
Speaker(s): Matt McSpirit
DCIM-IL304 Introducing Windows Azure Pack
Speaker(s): Michael Leworthy
DCIM-IL305 Managing Your Storage with Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager
Speaker(s): Prabu Rambadran
DCIM-IL308 Windows Server 2012 R2: Introduction to Failover Clustering with Hyper-V
Speaker(s): Symon Perriman
PCIT-IL301 Migrating Active Directory to Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Adam Hall
PCIT-IL302 Enabling Hybrid Information Protection with Microsoft Azure Rights Management Services (RMS) and the RMS Connector
Speaker(s): Enrique Saggese
PCIT-IL303 Troubleshooting Active Directory Replication Errors
Speaker(s): Justin Turner
PCIT-IL304 Implementing a Basic PKI in Windows Server 2012 R2
Speaker(s): Adam Hall, Kyle Rosenthal
WIN-IL200 Creating a Windows 8.1 Reference Image
Speaker(s): Alexey Semibratov, Ben Hunter
WIN-IL202 Manage Networking Services in Windows Server 2012 R2 Using IPAM
Speaker(s): Mahesh Narayanan, Yagmur Sahin
WIN-IL301 Resolving Windows Performance Issues without Opening a Support Case
Speaker(s): Joao Botto, Yasin Sögütlü
If I could offer advice to any would-be attendee of a future TechEd Conference, it would be to attend more labs. I've found that the registration for the labs fills up very quickly, but there is a pretty low turn out for most labs, so stand-by attendance has a high probability of getting in. Don't get me wrong, the sessions are great, and being able to do in-person QnA with the presenters is a rare opportunity, but the instructor labs are not something you can really replicate. You can watch a recorded session, and the labs and textbook guides are supposed to be available later, but you can't beat the immediate and in-depth assistance available at the labs in the moment like you can when on the conference floor.
N'joy!