Microsoft Ignite 2017

My preparation for Ignite 2017 started way earlier than for most of the attendees. I put together a talk about Azure Functions to be delivered at Meetup Madness that happened in the same premises of the Ignite but the day before. That would be my biggest talk so far, mostly regarding preparation. The delivery went well. I was a bit nervous at first, but not more than usual.

Once the talk was out of the way, I could just sit and relax for the rest of the conference, until I find out that I had 6 interviews lined up to do. That was almost enough for me to freak out since I've never interviewed anyone before. But I didn't freak out, instead, I embraced it. Started calling all my interviewees to get an overview of what they wanted to talk about so I didn't screw up too badly in front of the cameras.

I got to say that was probably the highlight for me. It was great to be amongst so many smart people and talking about stuff they were so passionate about.

My Impressions

• The venue (Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre) was amazing, just 500 meters from the beach, not that we had much time to check it out.
• The organization was great, people were always prompt to help with a smile on the face. Also saw them many times checking for credentials whenever someone wasn't wearing them.
• I'm very happy with the backpack, pretty slim, great looking and it fits everything I need in it.
• Coffee, coffee, coffee. I probably had more coffee this week than I had in a month. The coffee was good, not great, but I'm not a coffee snob.
• The catering was pretty good. Although I didn't have much time to enjoy that.
• I had loads of fun in the After Dark Party, but I did see a lot of people complaining how much better the previous years were. It was a great idea to have arcade machines, but the selection wasn't great. Loved playing laser tagging and sumo suit fighting.
• I didn't like the prizes! I didn't win anything.

Interviews

Here are the interviews I did while at Microsoft Ignite 2017. It was my first time doing it, so I'd appreciate any feedback.

**HoloLens development for today’s developers with [Lars Klint](https://twitter.com/larsklint)** **The importance of identity with [Mark Rhodes](https://twitter.com/mrhodes)** **An introduction to Azure Functions with [Paul Batum](https://twitter.com/paulbatum)** **Azure Functions – Run your code in the cloud for Office365 with [John Liu](https://twitter.com/johnnliu)** **An introduction to ARM with [Aaron Saikovski](https://twitter.com/RuskyDuck72)**

Thanks

Huge thanks to SSW for letting us be at the event and to SSW TV for the enormous effort of getting 25 interviews produced, edited and published in 3 days (Check the full playlist).