Why attend Tech.Ed?

I'm considering going to Tech.Ed on the Gold Coast (Australia). I was very jealous at many of the teched US SQL Server speakers & presentations.

What well-known SQL personalities will be there (even speculation will do) ?

How similar are TechEd's from country to country? is it a 'word-wide roadshow' with the same people presenting in different countries or is it mostly local Microsofties & MVP's that present?

UPDATE: Good to see that now teched presentations are online and free to download! Lots of awesome content on here: http://www.msteched.com/

If you focus on SQL Server work, consider going to the Professional Association for SQL Server Summit instead. It's 100% SQL, all the time.

Here's a few articles about it from my blog when I went last year:

• PASS Summit Monday Recap
• PASS Summit Tuesday Recap
• PASS Summit Wednesday Keynote
• PASS Summit Wednesday Recap
• PASS Summit Thursday Keynote
• PASS Summit Thursday Recap
• Justifying the PASS Summit Costs

There's a ton of great presenters like Paul Randal, Kimberly Tripp, Kevin Kline, and, uh, hopefully me.

TechEd's pretty good - Quest sends people there too - but SQL Server stuff is a small minority percentage of what goes on.

Who do you want to meet? Events are not about the presentations. You can find most info pretty soon afterward on the web anyway. Events are about networking.

If you have a goal that involves meeting people likely to frequent Tech.Ed and interacting with them, then by all means go there.

Have a plan before you hop on the plane of how you will reach that networking goal and execute it, or before you know it you will be sitting aimlessly through presentations.