The Hot Dog That Got Away and Why You Should Register for TechDays 2010 Now

The Hot Dog That Got Away

Back in September, while we were setting up for TechDays Toronto 2009 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, John Bristowe and I noticed two of these machines:

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, and no, it’s not Photoshoppery – it’s an actual hot dog vending machine. Better still, it doesn’t make just one kind of hot dog, but as you can see in the close-up below, it makes three different kinds!

“Duuuude,” said John, “we have got to try this,” and I agreed. We’re programmers, and as such, we cannot resist junk food from a vending machine, especially junk food we’d never expect to come from a vending machine.

However, being the responsible conference track leads that we were, we had to take care of the business of running TechDays first. So we decided to try a hot dog from the machine later in the day, once things were running smoothly and when could take a break. Our plan was to record a video of us ordering and eating the vending machine hot dogs, post it online, achieve Justin Bieber levels of fame, get movie deals and become rich beyond our wildest dreams.

As you have probably guessed, that never happened. We returned later in the day, with thoughts of vending machine hot dogs in our heads, only to discover that in the interim, the machines had been taken away. We missed out because we’d waited too long.

The TechDays Early Bird Rate: $349.99

Unlike those vending machine hot dogs, TechDays is good for you. You could sum up Techdays in a number of ways, including this:

Taking place this fall in eight cities across Canada (in chronological order: Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary), TechDays 2010 is Microsoft Canada’s big cross-country conference for developers and IT pros who want to learn how to get the most out of Microsoft tools and technologies. It’s also an opportunity to get to network with your tech community peers and get to know us as well.

TechDays is a two-day conference featuring six tracks comprising over 50 sessions based on those from the very big (and very expensive) TechEd North America conference. At its regular price, it’s a pretty good deal. At the early bird price of $349.99 – about half off the regular price – it’s a great deal.

Like those vending machine hot dogs, the TechDays early bird rate is available for a limited time. You can register at the early bird price for any TechDays city’s conference up until six weeks before that conference. After that, you’ll have to pay full price. (For example, TechDays Vancouver takes place on September 14th and 15th, which means the early bird price will not be available after the end of July.)

Don’t wait too long and miss out on the early bird rate! Register for TechDays today!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.