In the June 22 edition of the TechNet Flash newsletter, I provided a short summary of some of the more bizarre swag given out by Microsoft and its partners at the TechEd conference in Orlando, Florida. Here is a more complete (and more opinionated) list.

The best piece of IT-oriented swag was undoubtedly the "IT Hero" goodie box given out to TechNet subscribers and selected others (allegedly including newsletter subscribers who asked nicely). This box contained the instant classic "No I will not fix your computer" TechEd T-shirt and what might just be the weirdest ever Microsoft collectors’ item: foam figurines labeled “Bill” and “Steve,” holding hands with an “IT Hero.” How cute is that?  This box also contained a stick-on cell phone reception enhancer (I thought those were proven to be useless?), a collection of little Windows icon lapel-buttons, and an IT Hero baseball cap. The black hat I received looked good, but if you got a white one and wore it around the right areas of the show-floor, they were handing out prizes. The box also contained a DVD with a collection of TechNet Briefings (recently renamed "TechNet Events") from Spring and Summer 2005 and a quiz offering a chance to win one of 10 Portable Media Centers.

Other nice trinkets available from the TechNet team at the show included the Bawls caffeinated mints (apt slogan: “Never sleep!”) and Wi-Fi finders with the TechNet logo. If my Wi-Fi finder actually had a usable range anything close to the claims in its instruction booklet it would have been even better! I actually had to be standing in the same room and looking at my wireless access point in order to get this gizmo to light up. Seriously.

By any other measure, the TechEd show was a great success, with record-breaking attendance, a well-organized infrastructure (everyone had an RFID tag -- that's both cool and scary!), and literally thousands of blog pages documenting the events, announcements, and presentations. But events of this size, like any large organization’s IT infrastructure, present significant technical challenges. There were numerous reports of wireless connectivity problems, despite the administrative team’s best efforts to deliver “go anywhere” connectivity to a wireless network supporting more than 9,000 users -- one of the largest single wireless areas ever supported. Now, where’s that Wi-Fi finder?