Not at PDC? Live meetings just for you (and recorded PDC content)

I made my plans for the Microsoft PDC conference (happening right now in Los Angeles) early this summer but late last week, I realized I needed to cancel so that I could work on my book. So with a heavy heart, I cancelled my pass, my airline and my room. Luckily no cash had been involved so it didn't cost me thousands.

For those of us who can't make it to PDC (and aren't writing books so therefore have some free time) there are two great opportunities.

Not at PDC web site
Not at PDC (notatpdc.com) is a community driven website that spontaneously evolved as a result of a twitter conversation a few days ago. Not at PDC is hosting Live Meeting presentations and more.

The effort to organize NotAtPDC all started from several people on Twitter having a few laughs because "everyone" is not at Microsoft PDC (going on 26 Oct 2008 - 30 Oct 2008). As such, a few of us got together and thought it would be a great opportunity to organize a completely virtual conference with information being distributed via mediums such as Twitter, Microsoft SharedView and Microsoft Live Meeting.

There are already a host of Live Meeting presentations (including Chris Love presenting on Entity Framework) which you can see on their schedule.

PDC Sessions on Channel 9
If you want to see the actual PDC content, but without the benefit of a live experience, the sessions are being pushed up to Channel 9 for all to view. Each session should be up within about 24 hours of it's presentation.

It took me a while to figure out how to find the videos so here's a little road map.

On the Microsoft PDC site go to the Sessions page.

Find a session you want to see. And remember, it takes about a day (sometimes more) after the live session for the video to be available.

When you've selected a session, on the bottom of the screen, there's a tabbed form. Go to the Video page of that tab and you'll find a link for WMV-HQ. Click that and the session will begin.