Technical Readiness and PowerPoint
I'm out in Seattle all this week for our technical conference (TechReady). We run this event twice a year for the Presales tech guys, the technical account managers, consultants, architects, and people from the services business. We're here to get up to speed technically with what's happening this year, new server product announcements, strategy, competition and the opportunity for the field to meet up with the product teams. There are about 7000 people from the field and about 1000 presenter, lab proctors, product team guys and internal IT folks. There are a hell of a lot of muffins here too!
I've spent the weekend with the IT Evangelists from the worldwide team, Jeff and Michael (who stumped Steve Ballmer with a brilliant question about Daylight Savings in Australia a few minutes ago), and Rick, Rodney and Damir from Canada. It's also a great opportunity to talk about what works well (blogging, and user groups) and what isn't working (programs that haven't been tested with the IT Pro's and, although they may work for the Developer audience, fall really flat for IT Pros). I've got my hands on a Zune (GET ONE!) and am now wondering what to do with my gift of a SPOT watch. Steve had a brilliant idea and has given his watch away to anyone who will come over to Seattle and collect it. I need to think of a challenge that's a little bit different and can be achieved through this blog. What do you think?
I'll be commenting on the new stuff as the week progresses - when I'm not in a session of course!...