It’s no secret to anyone who’s attended any form of conference or professional gathering that only about 30% of the value ever comes from the official agenda. It’s the hallway conversations, the shaking of hands, the sharing of meals that produces the real value at these things. Tech.Ed 2008 (Microsoft’s annual parner love-in) this year was definitely no exception. I was lucky enough to find time to get down for the SMB focussed pre-day, not the whole thing, but to be honest, I think that was where the value really was for me. Official presentations were mainly driven by the impending release of SBS 2008 and the new Essential Business Server (EBS) products, and to be fair, there was some really good stuff in there. Even better though was being able to put some faces to names, and really get some proper dialog going with some very sharp individuals. I’d like to think that I’ve got some solid ideas, and no shortage of inspiration from the trip. Now I just need to find time to make some use of them all!