User Groups and Community

Ramp Up Has Launched a Windows Mobile and 3 ASP.NET Tracks!

More New UGSS Event Content!

Microsoft to Begin First Technology Preview for Project "Madison"

Microsoft is on track to release the first Technology Preview for Project “Madison” in H2 2009. A select group of customers will deploy a prototype MPP data warehouse on Madison. Download the first Project "Madison" data sheet from here, and view the on demand webinar, "An Early Look at Kilimanjaro and Madison” here.

How are you, your team, and organization Thriving during these times? Find out more!

In tough times, the good will survive, but only the best will Thrive!  Are you thriving?  Visit the Thrive site and learn how to enhance your technical skills, advance your career, and elevate IT as the business leader.  These strategies and skills will not only help you succeed now, but place you in a position to excel during the brighter times ahead. Now is the ideal time to rise to the top.  Seize the moment - find out how YOU can Thrive at the Thrive site!

Find a World Where the Geeks Rule ...

IT Managers - this section is for you...

There is now a new IT Management Community area on TechNet which IT Managers should find really useful. Amongst many other things, you can find: -

• An IT Manager Chat area with Kevin Remde
• An InformationWeek analytics report addressing the Priorities for the next generation of web applications.
• A discussion between Wayne Applehans and Chris Jackson talking about the latest trends impacting IT and the resources and guidance available to help plan and deploy Microsoft technologies.

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Integrate your IT Environment

Join the TechNet Events team for an interop roadshow that will help you integrate your heterogeneous IT environment. This 4 hour FREE event will include sessions on: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Interop with Linux and OS X, Running OSS on Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 and PHP Web Application Infrastructure.     For a more detailed agenda and to register visit www.technetevents.com/interop.  

Project Conference 2009

IT professionals and developers who utilize EPM solutions and Project are invited to attend the Microsoft Project 2009 conference. We've extended our early bird rate to Culminis & INETA  –  register now for just $699. Visit http://www.msprojectconference.com/ and use code CnIPC09mL, limited time offer through June 15th. (You must be a member of a Culminis or INETA user group to use this code)

Register to attend Tech•Ed North America 2009 | May 11-15 | Los Angeles, CA

Our new IT Strategy and Business Alignment track is specially designed to help IT Managers find efficiencies in productivity and cost from Microsoft experts and industry analysts like Art Wittmann, Managing Director of Information Week Analytics. Dive deep into product roadmaps for Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Infrastructure Management and more.  Register by April 12 using the URL below, and save $100 on the full conference fee.

Tech-Ed NA 2009 

NEW! Career Assist Package – up to 90% off the usual price for one Microsoft Official E-Learning Collection, when you register for Second Shot!

NEW!  Career Assist Package - up to 90% off the usual price for one Microsoft Official E-Learning Collection, when you register for Second Shot!

In the real world, you might need more than one chance at certification.  With Second Shot, if you do not pass a Microsoft IT, Developer or Dynamics certification exam on your first try, you can retake the exam for free.  Academic exams are still only $60!  New!  Until June 30^th  2009,  if you register for Second Shot,  you get any Microsoft E-Learning Collection for just US$35 (typically priced up to US$349) - up to 90% off!

There's a limit of one discounted E-Learning Collection per customer, and once you've activated yours, it will only be available for 90 days.

Whether you're looking to start or accelerate your career, become indispensible in your current role, or build your skills to get  into the technical workforce, this is a great way to maximize your certification and training budget.

Sign up for the Second Shot offer today.

You may be an IT Whiz...but Are You Certifiable?!?

Have you ever considered taking a certification exam?  Here's your chance to practice, in a very fun way.  Choose an avatar, select your expertise, and pit yourself against a worldwide community in a quest for Tech IQ supremacy, a top spot on the leaderboard-and ultimate bragging rights!  "Are You Certifiable?!?"  Find out today at:  http://www.areyoucertifiable.com/

Upsize or Migrate to SQL Server Today

SQL Server 2008 has launched the new Migration Solution Center.  This site provides customers with prescriptive guidance and a clear process for executing successful migrations or upsizing your existing databases to SQL Server. 

On this site, the freely downloadable SQL Server Migration Assistants (SSMAs)   reduce the efforts required to move databases from Access, Oracle, and Sybase to SQL Server.  Download these tools now and use them to perform assessments, move data and schema, and automate the process of database migrations to SQL Server.

Check out www.MyRampUp.com - a free online learning program for developers!

Ramp Up (www.MyRampUp.com) has just launched SharePoint for Developers - Part 2I! The easy-to-access content (provided by subject-matter gurus) teaches the important skills in a guided path, making the learning process easier and more efficient.

Are you going to Tech.Ed Los Angeles in May?

Are you going to Tech.Ed Los Angeles in May?

Together with the Microsoft team, Culminis and INETA have been putting in massive amounts of work to make sure that there are useful and exciting things for you to do at the event as user group members. If you are going, there are meetings, parties, competitions, sessions, events and more for you to take part in and to build and renew your user group contents. If you aren't attending, there are still going to be all sorts of ways you can take part in Tech.Ed virtually. Here are just some examples of the things going on this year: -

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather sessions are open discussions on developer and IT topics of mutual interest to Tech·Ed attendees. They give you the opportunity to meet with other attendees with similar interests and challenges and to have useful dialog with them about the issues that really affect you in your daily life. These sessions are managed by your user group organizations and run by third party experts. They aren't PowerPoint or even demo driven; they are intended to encourage everyone there to fully contribute. These 36 sessions are picked from suggestions made by the Tech.Ed attendees and are chosen by the Culminis and INETA team. Last year they received really excellent review scores, so attending some of the Birds of a Feather sessions is likely to be a great use of your time.

Community Lounge

 Culminis and INETA both have booths in the community lounge, and although I can't tell you everything that they are planning (got to keep a few surprises!) here are few examples: -

• Culminis, INETA and Microsoft leadership will be at the booths all the time the community lounge is open. They are VERY keen to meet with you and hear what ideas and comments you have about the user group community. Tell them how they can help you. Tell them how you can help them. Let them know why your user group is so much better than anyone else's.
• There are going to be some great competitions on the Culminis and INETA booths. Come along and you might just win a really cool prize. Or you might just have some fun and look a little silly.
• Many of you completed the user group survey earlier this year. Come to the Culminis and INETA booths and you can find out what we found out. If you didn't complete the survey, it's not too late - you will be able to do so at the booth.
• Of course you may just want to meet with your user group colleagues - what better place to do so than in the community lounge? In case you don't know, you can connect with others at Tech.Ed by visiting "Tech.Ed Connect" at http://techedconnect2009.leveragesoftware.com/. If you are looking for the official representatives staffing the booths or running Birds of a Feather, look for the "User Group Organization representatives" group.
• Want to help out with making user groups a success? There will be a list of volunteer opportunities at the booths that you can help with, but in general no help is refused, so go along to the booths and offer your services - who knows, in a couple of years time you could be in the running to be the next President of INETA or Chairman of Culminis. Or you may be doing my job!

Social Media

We know that in these tough economic times it's not possible for everyone to go to Tech.Ed. So we are going to do what we can to bring Tech.Ed to you. We will be blogging, twittering, posting pictures and videos, basically doing all we can to bring you as much of the flavor of Tech.Ed as we can.  We will let you know where to go for the user group connection next month, but I'm hoping that this will be almost as good as actually being there.  For the overall Tech.Ed event, you can go to:-

http://twitter.com/teched09

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35686357121

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TechEd-North-America/52931888483%23

Community Night

The main social event of Tech.Ed is completely community focused. There will be so much going on during the community party it's hard to know where to start, but:-

• Birds of a Feather sessions are a key part of the Community night.
• There are going to be some great opportunities to interact with the Microsoft evangelists at Tech.Ed. Let's just say there will be some fun games involving them....
• Culminis, INETA, PASS leadership will all be present, so this will be another great opportunity to engage with them.
• You will also get the opportunity to meet noted technical experts such as ... well, I've been sworn to secrecy, but you know them!
• It's not all work though - this will be a major party. Amongst a number of things that will be going on just because they are fun, there will be all too famous Jam sessions.

User Group Meeting

Although we can't announce details yet, we are working with some of the local Los Angeles user groups so that there is a user group meeting close to the center that the Tech.Ed attendees can attend. This will be a great opportunity for people who haven't been part of the user group community to experience a meeting for themselves. If you are going to be at Tech.Ed, please do go along to this meeting and add your support.

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