Monday, April 14, 2008
4/14/08
I’ve had to do these posts out of order based on my experiences today, as indicated in my last post. Just goes to show how much of an impact the Dalai Lama has on the extended surroundings. Not that I’m blaming the Lama or his entourage for delays in posting. But I digress.
This morning started with a deep dive session into Essential Business Server. By the time I got to the room (after making a Starbucks run with Jeff Middleton and getting sidetracked by someone asking about SBS, big surprise) there were few seats left, and the headache I woke up with showed no signs of abating. After about 10 minutes, I stepped out of the session, having picked up the product I needed to get from Dana Epp, and headed over to FedEx Kinkos in the convention center to ship it out. That process took much longer than it should have, but I completed the task and then ventured to my next stop – ibuprofin in liquid gel form.
I wandered the streets of Downtown Seattle and finally found the drugstore I had stopped in last year. I grabbed a small bottle of liquid gold, a granola bar, and a Gatorade (the “breakfast” at the EBS session left a little to be desired) and headed back to the hotel. On a whim, I decided to just grab a seat in the lobby rather than heading upstairs, and that’s when the day really started to get interesting.
I hadn’t been in the seat for more than about 3 minutes when someone walked up to me and asked if I was Brian something (I think). After confirming that I was not, in fact, that person, he indicated that he was looking for Brian to record a podcast. It was evident that this person was somehow related to the MVP summit, so I asked what Brians’ competency was. No, I don’t know that many people who do SQL, but I had to try. I asked the gentleman what his speciality was, and that’s when I found out he was an MVP lead. We exchanged “oh, do you know”s for a few minutes, then he reiterated that he needed to find Brian or he would have to vamp on his podcast. I mentioned that I did a weekly internet radio show that we also presented as a podcast, and he asked if I might be willing to fill in as a backup on the podcast. I asked the topic and scope, and found out he’s working on an internal Microsoft podcast and it introduces internal employees to key contacts in the product community. I love talking about community, and I’m always looking for ways to get my name on the positive radar inside Microsoft, so of course I agreed to fill in.
Fifteen minutes later, we finished up and he went off to his next meeting. I stayed in the lobby because it appeared that security was getting ready for another appearance or move from the hotel to his motorocade. I positioned myself in an out of the way area, and decided to try to capture a video as he passed by. Little did I know just how close I’d come to him, as mentioned in my previous post.
I met up with some folks heading over to lunch and the official start of Summit at the convention center. We made it through the keynote as Sean O’Driscoll gave his farewell presentation to the MVP community. Then we broke out into the Open Spaces sessions.
The first session I attended was the SBS Security Best Practice session facilitated by Carlos (way too many initials) de la Rocha from Brazil. The group was about 50/50 SBS MVPs and non-SBS MVPs. Carlos did a great job facilitating the group. Next, I went to Charlie Russell’s session on being a tech writer. Lots of good discussion from that venue as well. For my last session, I opted for the “getting involved with your local Microsoft office” but that ended up being a bust, and I needed to get back to the hotel and deal with a few things before heading to dinner.
The SBS 2008 Unleashed author team met our acquisitions editor, Loretta Yates, for dinner at a nice restaurant in the downtown area. This was the first time any of us had met Loretta, and we all had a good “get to know you” dinner. I had roasted duck that was absolutely delightful, and several others had the rib eye, which looked quite tasty as well.
Then we headed back to the hotel, and that’s when I called it an evening. Tomorrow is the first of the sessions with the product groups, so that should be good time.
Entire contents of this site © 2003-2008 Eriq Oliver Neale/Simultaneous Pancakes Media unless otherwise noted. I hate that I have to point that out...This morning started with a deep dive session into Essential Business Server. By the time I got to the room (after making a Starbucks run with Jeff Middleton and getting sidetracked by someone asking about SBS, big surprise) there were few seats left, and the headache I woke up with showed no signs of abating. After about 10 minutes, I stepped out of the session, having picked up the product I needed to get from Dana Epp, and headed over to FedEx Kinkos in the convention center to ship it out. That process took much longer than it should have, but I completed the task and then ventured to my next stop – ibuprofin in liquid gel form.
I wandered the streets of Downtown Seattle and finally found the drugstore I had stopped in last year. I grabbed a small bottle of liquid gold, a granola bar, and a Gatorade (the “breakfast” at the EBS session left a little to be desired) and headed back to the hotel. On a whim, I decided to just grab a seat in the lobby rather than heading upstairs, and that’s when the day really started to get interesting.
I hadn’t been in the seat for more than about 3 minutes when someone walked up to me and asked if I was Brian something (I think). After confirming that I was not, in fact, that person, he indicated that he was looking for Brian to record a podcast. It was evident that this person was somehow related to the MVP summit, so I asked what Brians’ competency was. No, I don’t know that many people who do SQL, but I had to try. I asked the gentleman what his speciality was, and that’s when I found out he was an MVP lead. We exchanged “oh, do you know”s for a few minutes, then he reiterated that he needed to find Brian or he would have to vamp on his podcast. I mentioned that I did a weekly internet radio show that we also presented as a podcast, and he asked if I might be willing to fill in as a backup on the podcast. I asked the topic and scope, and found out he’s working on an internal Microsoft podcast and it introduces internal employees to key contacts in the product community. I love talking about community, and I’m always looking for ways to get my name on the positive radar inside Microsoft, so of course I agreed to fill in.
Fifteen minutes later, we finished up and he went off to his next meeting. I stayed in the lobby because it appeared that security was getting ready for another appearance or move from the hotel to his motorocade. I positioned myself in an out of the way area, and decided to try to capture a video as he passed by. Little did I know just how close I’d come to him, as mentioned in my previous post.
I met up with some folks heading over to lunch and the official start of Summit at the convention center. We made it through the keynote as Sean O’Driscoll gave his farewell presentation to the MVP community. Then we broke out into the Open Spaces sessions.
The first session I attended was the SBS Security Best Practice session facilitated by Carlos (way too many initials) de la Rocha from Brazil. The group was about 50/50 SBS MVPs and non-SBS MVPs. Carlos did a great job facilitating the group. Next, I went to Charlie Russell’s session on being a tech writer. Lots of good discussion from that venue as well. For my last session, I opted for the “getting involved with your local Microsoft office” but that ended up being a bust, and I needed to get back to the hotel and deal with a few things before heading to dinner.
The SBS 2008 Unleashed author team met our acquisitions editor, Loretta Yates, for dinner at a nice restaurant in the downtown area. This was the first time any of us had met Loretta, and we all had a good “get to know you” dinner. I had roasted duck that was absolutely delightful, and several others had the rib eye, which looked quite tasty as well.
Then we headed back to the hotel, and that’s when I called it an evening. Tomorrow is the first of the sessions with the product groups, so that should be good time.
Labels: Summit2K8
