December, 2006

As I catch up on stuff over the holidays, I wanted to post a podcast with Eli Robillard , a Microsoft MVP in SharePoint and leader of the Toronto SharePoint User Group (TSPUG). In our conversation, Eli answers the age old question of "Why start a user group?" and talks about his experiences getting TSPUG off the ground and vibrant. He also shares his view of what works and what may work as you embark...

William Heurdier (Montreal, Quebec) Before the Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office System, and Exchange Server 2007 Launch got under way, I had a chance to talk to William Heurdier of AlphaMosaik in Montreal. AlphaMosaik boldly implemented Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 on their production intranet and internet sites while the product was still at the Beta 2 stage. I thought it would be...

Colin Harford (Edmonton, Alberta, IT Pro) Advice for calling tech support Colin Harford recently wrote a post on a positive support experience he had. Unfortunatley he also had a bad one and I asked him to share the story along with some advice on dealing with support. Here is what he had to say. -------------------------------------------------- Previously, I wrote an article on my dealings...

Being a Microsoft employee means eating our own dogfood. No not Kibbles 'n Bits, but using all our latest technologies, long before they RTM. A lot of people as what it is like working in such an enviroment and as a geek, I love it. I love working with the latest OS and software, even if it doesn't have all the features or functionality yet, and even when it doesn't work as expected. One resource...

Mitch Tulloch (Winnipeg, Manitoba - IT Author) Windows Vista Before I joined Microsoft, Mitch Tulloch was instrumental in helping me get more involved in writing and more importantly, getting paid to do it! Mitch has written 14 books, and countless articles for various technical publishers but his biggest challenge to date would have to be the Windows Vista Resource Kit for Microsoft Press ....

The launch tour is on a holiday break after successful events in Vancouver and Victoria last week. We had good turnout at the Vancouver event and the highlight of the day was the President of VANTUG, Graham Jones, up on stage during the keynote talking about the importance of the community. Coming from a user group background I couldn't agree more with what he said, the community (that is YOU) is important...

As we deliver the Business Value Launch content to IT Pro's across Canada one slide that we show at the end of each session contains a list of links for more information. Typically we have a post tour thank you page with all these resources but due to the holiday break, this page won't be available until mid-January when the tour wraps up. I've seen a lot of attendees furiously scribbling down URLs...

The Business Value Launch event was held in Calgary and we had some fun, so much so that a little power outage didn't stop us from doing our thing! With all the hardware we have up on stage, I am surprised that the venues don't have to fire up the emergency generators to keep up with our demands! Rick wrote a great post with a list of all the hardware we are using on this tour and a photo. You have...

5 sessions later - Barnaby and I on stage for the second time in two years, we delivered the content - Ottawa seemed to be pleased and we had a lot of fun.We're going to be going through the feedback and evaluation forms as well as comparing notes after talking with a number of you in the Community zone and partner fair area in the post event gathering. How did we do? What session or demo did...

Main room loading up just after the keynote and Barnaby and I are 2 minutes before showtime. I heard after taking my first break - 1200 individuals showed up - more than expected. I would have to say it was the largest crowd I've seen in Ottawa. Lots of new faces and people who had not been involved in previous TechNet events prior to the launch event. Video: Launch 2007 - Ottawa - We're Ready!...

So the same path I took the evening before for setup, I took with all the people in the process of registration. This was taken AFTER I had my coffee and was prepared to actually shoot something with the camera. All this stuff happened after I had already setup the workstations for the event and we're "free to roam" and talk with individuals and socialize with IT Pros in the Ottawa event. You...

Ugh... When you travel - it is easier to get out of a hotel bed and off the the venue nice and early then it is to do it when you are in your home city. It was really hard getting out of my nice warm bed to get here in time to setup my systems for the rest of the day... All systems go... all hardware is a-ok and I am ready to do my part for the Launch activities for Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange...

In each city we stop at for the 2007 Business Value Launch, we decided to take some time and acknowledge and thank the local IT communities we work with throughout the year. Instead of a traditional UserGroup presentation that is the norm - we decided to hold a special social networking event where each UserGroup lead was able to nominate a certain number of individuals to attend. The suggestion was...

In a continuing trend spreading across this nation, IT Pros are getting ready, ready for a new day! Don't worry it is not contaigous, it is just the IT Pro Advisors taking the Business Value Launch tour across Canada. Last week I was in Winnipeg and I am happy to say, Winnipeg is now ready. The turnout was fantastic, in fact we had over 100 more people show up than expected. Considering the fact...

After checking in at the office and meeting with various people, it was time to pack up and head down to the actual venue for the launch event here in Ottawa. It's the Ottawa Congress Centre. I decided to take some video of what the venue looks like the day before as it is being setup by a whole army of individuals. I was due on site for 2:45 for a setup and trial of the hardware to ensure...

I thought it would be interesting to share the technology that goes on behind the scenes as well as the schedule that we keep while on the road for this large Launch event. This morning I laid out all the gear, checked all the cables and verified I wasn't missing anything in order to get ready for the Setup and Dry-Run taking place later this afternoon. Here is a smattering of devices and things...

Man - what a week! Light on the blog posting material? Where have we been? In case you were sleeping under a ROCK someplace, Microsoft Canada is currently full swing in our Business Value launch for Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Vista and Exchange 2007. Let me recap some chronology for ya... Rodney and Damir kicked it off in Edmonton on November 27th - Rod documented the opening post here ... I drove...

So today is launch day in Toronto where we kick off the cross Canada tour as we release Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office System and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. There has been a lot of prep that has gone into this event and with a successful event in Edmonton on November 23rd we are ready to make you ready. The last tour I went on I posted a picture of the gear we hauled around for the Core...

If the answer is no go download the RTM version , check out the TechNet Script Center PowerShell page, grab the PowerShell Documentation Pack and start writing those scripts. If you are using PowerShell you should send me an email with some samples and I might have something special for you :) I recently did a podcast with Bruce Payette from the PowerShell team (he is Canadia too) and he explained...

Brent Barske (Winnipeg, Manitoba - IT Pro) Windows Vista I am originally from Winnipeg and a friend of mine, Brent Barske, was heavily involved in the Vista beta program. I asked Brent to write about his experience as a beta tester, he submitted 34 unique bugs, and this is what he had to say! ------------------------------------------------------- I've been a beta tester with Microsoft...