Tech Ed 2010 and the Australian Partner Conference and Holidays
Tech Ed 2010 and the Australian Partner Conference and Holidays
I am finally getting a chance to sit down and relax for a few moments. I have just had one of my longest stints away on conference and holidays in a long time. It started with the Microsoft Partner Conference, followed by Tech Ed and then a camping holiday on the Murray…
The Partner Conference was hosted at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre in Broadbeach. The week started with a Keynote that i actually got a lot out of. With a strong view on winning in compete scenarios the message was clear. More Seats! Microsoft has a very strong commitment to winning more seats over competitors such as Google, Notes etc.
They have raised the bar with $9.5 billion (US Dollars) in research for this year. Yep that’s right that is and will continue to be the largest research budget…. The head researcher Phillip Faucett was out to tell us about the latest technological trends and the shift being seen in technology and the way we interact with it. Demo’s on new concepts that allow the user to interact with their pc using hand gestures alone. The new Microsoft Surface that doesn’t require touch, you simply use your hands above the unit to gesture what you want to happen.
Anyway back to the business benefit. There were many session I attended that need a mention here;
- How to get 5 times the sales with no additional sales people
- The new partner network
- Smart Hiring
- Selling Exchange 2010
- The Corporate Accounts Team
While they are only a few session I attended, the most part of the conference was all about networking. Networking with partners that are similar to our business, and partners who we would be able to win joint business with. A lot of new connections were made and I have already started to have meetings with potential business partners.
Selling the Microsoft stack was another clear message. The Microsoft Stack… now there is an understatement. Microsoft has some 112 products that fall under the stack. Everything from the desktop and office platform to hosted SQL and cloud based computing.
That was the first week down and then Tech Ed started. The first two days were a deep dive into the Exchange 2010 platform. I must say that it was a rather disappointing two days, death by PowerPoint followed by labs that did not work. The presenter did his best to keep the class engaged but nothing seemed to go well. I managed to get the High Availability lab to work; I created a DAG across three Exchange servers and failed three databases between them. It actually worked!
After the first couple of deep dive days Tech Ed was official open. The first few sessions I attended were around Windows 7 desktop deployment and the new 2008 R2 server platform. Now Released!
I met a few of our customers there and got to know them a lot better as well as uncover some new opportunities 
.
The week was filled with very informative sessions with some key new product updates and features;
- Data Protection Manager
- Windows 7
- Office 2010
- 2008 R2
- Exchange 2010
- Branch Cache
- Direct Access
- Bit Locker to Go
- Hyper-V R2
- Forefront TMG
Overall the two weeks were exhausting but well worth while…
So after two solid weeks of learning, networking and entertaining customers I needed a break… off to Burham! I got back on the Friday and left early Saturday for a 4 day camping trip. Packed the new Black Wolf Turbo 300 tent and the camping gear and we headed off.
From one extreme to another, going from all the latest software and technologies to sitting in my chair with a rod in one hand and beer in the other. I caught my first Murray Cod, coming in at around 35cm… Nothing to write home about but it was still my first. Not a lot of technology around in Burham although I did have surprisingly great Next G coverage (Go Telstra!).
The nights were cold and our air mattress had a hole in it. But it was still great!
Then it was back to work for a few days to see that week out and now I am sitting in the Emirates lounge about to board a plane to New Zealand for a few days to re-configure a network.
