After my walk on Monday, I got cleaned up and headed to the Centre Convencions Internacional (CCIB). Other than registration (which I had already done on Sunday), there were two main events for the day.

First up was the Keynote speech, given by Brad Anderson, General Manager, Management and Services Division. This was held in a separate building from the main conference center. Access to the building was through a tunnel under the courtyard.

Even though I thought I was getting there early, I discovered otherwise. I ended up in the "nosebleed" balcony seats. While I couldn't see much detail on the stage, I did get a great view of the capacity crowd:

Most of the big and flashy announcements had already been made at the PDC last week (Windows Azure, in particular). While that was, of course, mentioned, this speech centered on some of the "nuts and bolts" that are either here now, or coming soon to make life easier on the IT Pro. (Sensible, given the focus of the week...) In particular, there were several demos focusing on the new functionality of Windows Server 2008 R2, and System Center. One that stuck in my mind was migrating a Virtual Machine from one host to another, in real time, with no down-time.

The other big event was the welcome reception, held in the Exhibition hall. Since I was on Ask the Experts duty that evening, I got to go in early to get the lay of the land. The center of the Expo is taken up by a raised platform, which held the community gathering place, partner theater, and the expert stations. Arrayed around this are the partner booths themselves. The reception itself went very smoothly.

I spent the bulk of Tuesday on the SharePoint stand in the Ask the Experts area. It was very calm. I found out why after my shift ended. Everyone was focused like a laser on attending sessions. I was scheduled to attend two, and only made it into one. By the time I got to the other, I was greeted by the infamous "Session Full" sign on the door. I understand this was not an uncommon sight.

I expect the rest of the week to be more of the same, as everyone works to get the most value out of their attendance.