Recession Tech (Ed)

I've gotten lazy about blogging in the last few weeks, and it suddenly occurred to me yesterday that duh, this week probably merits some comment. I'm spending the week at Tech Ed 09, Microsoft’s main conference for IT professionals.

Attendance is understandably down; there are supposedly 6,000 attendees – about half of a good year’s population. The Los Angeles Convention Center is big, and though there are a lot of people here it definitely doesn’t feel as packed as in the past.

For the first time at a conference I'm wearing three different hats. Usually nowadays I’m at a conference because I’m presenting, and this week is no exception. I’m doing a session on volume activation. (It’s not my main area of expertise, but I had to do it for Intel, it’s confusing at first look, and people really need to know about it.) For the first time, I’m working with a Microsoft product team, Technical Audience Group Marketing (TAGM), to assist them in meeting with and talking to IT pros and IT managers in sessions and roundtables. Finally,  I’m also acting as an attendee and trying to get in as many System Center and virtualization sessions as my other duties allow. So it's a busy week!

I also always try to take time to reconnect with my professional colleagues and friends - Gil, MarkM, MarkR, Rhonda, Brian, Ulf, Laura, Karen, Jeff, Sheila, Kim, Kevin - that's I'm lucky enough to know and new friends that I make while here. Probably the biggest, but least appreciated benefit of speaking at conferences is that you can develop a network of really interesting, world-class people you'd never meet otherwise. I'm a person that's perfectly content working without the minute-to-minute in person people interaction that happens in an office; I've been working from home full time for the last nine years. My circle of colleagues doesn't necessarily communicate a lot with each other in between functions. After all, they're similar personality types as I am: kinda schizophrenic because they do long periods of working by yourself, interspersed with bursts of very public presenting to hundreds of people and visiting with your friends. But we do have a great time when we get together!

Technorati Tags: Tech Ed,Microsoft

Speaking At TechEd 2008

It's been a very busy week here down in Orlando at TechEd 2008 IT Pro, Microsoft's conference for IT professionals.

I gave one session on the new, deeply-disliked Volume Licensing methodology everyone has to use to deploy volume versions of Vista and Windows 2008. Despite the dryness of the material, the DISLIKE of the material, and the lateness of the hour (5 PM), the session was well received! 223 people (about an 85% full room) with an overall rating of 7.75 of a possible 9. (The top rated sessions are getting 8.4's and 8.5's.) From the comments, demos would have pulled it higher...but there's just about nothing to see in volume licensing. I'll have to work on that.

I spent much of the rest of the time running around doing odds and ends and occasionally hitting sessions in between. A few interesting (to me, anyway) anecdotes:

• Picked up lunch for Mark Minasi as the poor guy had been blowing and going all day; he had no time at all between his sessions. By the time I'd hiked out to his breakout room, the session - a roundtable on security with him, Mark Russinovich, Steve Riley, and a couple of other folks - was so full it was locked out. (They're the conference stars and get very high ratings on their talks.) So, I sat outside, did some work, until the session was nearly over. When it finished, Minasi bolted out for his next session before I could give it to him. Before I could chase him down, I said hi to Russinovich, and HE ate it!
• On MarkR's advice, I found and introduced myself to Michael Leworthy, the Windows Server Infrastructure session chair, to express my interest at speaking at IT Forum (Tech Ed in Europe), and it was a productive discussion. Who knows, maybe I'll make it over there...
• Got a Vista question answered. (The only way to turn hibernation back on after you've deleted the hibernation file is to run powercfg /hibernate on - works like a charm)
• Helped connect some people together, always a feel-good kind of activity
• Got to hang out with my friend Guido Grillenmeier a little bit, always looked forward to as he's based in Frankfurt.
• And of course, got to spend time with my MVP buddies Gil, Joe, Brian, Laura, and catch up with my Intel friends Derek, Alix, and Roy. Gee, this makes me sound like more of a social butterfly than I really am! You see, 95% of my time is spent working out of a home office where my audience is usually just two dogs :).
• Received a cache of uber-schwag for MVPs only, told by secret MVP word-of-mouth-net. I knew there was a reason I was an MVP!

Tonight is the conference party at Universal Studios; Microsoft rents out a large chunk of the place, and there's food, drinks, and beer & wine right out on the sidewalks (at least there was the last time I was at one of these shindigs). Plus the magazine is throwing something too. Decisions, decisions...

Technorati Tags: TechEd 2008,volume licensing,VA 2.0

Jeremy's Karaoke at the EMP

Last night for the MVP party, Microsoft rented out the entire Experience Music Project in downtown Seattle. Part of the EMP's mission is to involve people in the music, and to that end they have a karaoke stage with a real (and solid) backup band, not just some machine. A procession of would-be rock stars tried their 4 minutes of fame (at least among other MVPs). Most were really horrible, but my friend Jeremy was an exception. i was warned by someone that he was actually quite good, so I scrambled over to the stage in time and shot this video:

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,MVP Summit,EMP,Experience Music Project,Karaoke,Jeremy Moskowitz

MVP Summit 2008

I and many of my fellow MVPs are up in Seattle this week for the 2008 MVP summit. It's split between the Washington State Convention Center Center, and the Microsoft campus. This year most of our time has been spent on campus with the various product groups, Directory Services in our case.

It's been a good week so far, though a new cold knocked me down hard for the first few days. I literally snuck out to my car in the parking structure and took a short nap to get me through the day! (And no, I hadn't had a drop to drink the night before.) Nothing like feeling bad to make you appreciate feeling good.

This morning's session is on the design planning for the AD implementation of PowerShell. AD missed the boat on PowerShell for the release of Windows 2008, to the chagrin of AD administrators around the world. The good news is that Dushyant Gill is running through their ideas before the MVPs now and getting great feedback...and they're apparently early enough in the design cycle to incorporate a lot of our feedback into their design. So some of the flexibility of the final AD PowerShell implementation will be as a result of MVPs like Joe, Dean, and Joe Kaplan.

My friend Nick Whittome called me last night to tell me he just passed both the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Knowing Nick and how much he likes his drink (and the fact he said he'd had a few), I was initially skeptical, but it turns out they were both in town for (a different!) conference. I was disappointed that NIck hadn't charged up and done the old "arm's length photo" op, like he'd done with Steve Ballmer.

Technorati Tags: MVP,MVP Summit,Powershell,AD,Nick Whittome

MVP Again!

Happy New Years to me! Every New Years Day for the last four years I've received a message from Microsoft that says

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way of saying thank you for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. Your extraordinary efforts in Windows Server System - Directory Services technical communities during the past year are greatly appreciated.

A very nice way to start the year. Well, I got that message again this morning, so it marks five years of my involvement in the MVP community. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but as time has passed by I've become very grateful for the interaction with Microsoft, the community of very sharp fellow MVPs, and the professional exposure it's given me.

Thanks, Microsoft!

Technorati Tags: MVP,Most Valuable Professional,Microsoft,Windows Server,Directory Services