Last week, Ritchie and I had a meeting with Gerd De Bruycker on TechEd Europe. During the meeting I remembered my plans to blog about the Speaker Idol initiative at TechEd: Developers, what I haven't done till now.

From time to time we get questions from people that want to present at one of Microsoft events. The expectations of our speakers are very high, since they have to be able to keep the audience's attention for more than one hour and deliver the right message in the same time. People with presentation experience know that it takes a lot of preparation to do a good presentation.

On the other hand, I'm sure that there are more good presenters than we currently know. If you are one of them, you should definitely consider to participate in the Speaker Idol at TechEd: Developers.

Short overview of Speaker Idol (refer to the website for all details and official statements):

• Prerequisite: you should attend TechEd: Developers (7-10 November 2006) in Spain.
• Record a 3 minutes presentation. While filming, focus on the person conducting the presentation. Convert the film to Windows Media Video (WMV) and keep the file under 5 MB.
• Submit your presentation. Don't wait to long to submit, as the organization will only accept the first 40 submissions. (Only one submission per person!) The deadline for submitting is Friday 13 October 2006.
• 12 finalists will be chosen by a jury. The finalists will be informed before the conference starts.
• During the conference, finalists give their presentation again on-site for a live audience. This will be done in 3 waves, where the best 3 finalists will be chosen.
• Final round for best 3 finalists during a break-out session. After this we'll know the winner.
• Winner and 2 runners-up are announced. The winner will get the opportunity to give a presentation on TechEd: Developers in 2007, the two runners-up will get a free entrance ticket for TechEd: Developers in 2007. There are also several other smaller activities planned for the winner and the 2 runners-up.

This is my personal interpretation and definitely a shortened and incomplete version of the rules. But it gives you a good idea of what the contest is. Don't be scared of the numerous rules and regulations on the official website. Just participate...

PS. If you're a Belgian or Luxembourger (or working in Belgium or Luxembourg) and want to participate, don't hesitate to let me know at tom.mertens@microsoft.com. I'd be more than happy to assist you through the process.

PPS. The same Speaker Idol initiative is organized during TechEd: IT Forum. Arlindo Alves also blogged about this.

Tags: Microsoft, Tech Ed, Tech Ed: Developers