May 13, 2009
Joanne Lin, one of the folks who rode on the bus tour to Tech-Ed 2009, will be co-presenting a session today in one of the Expo Hall fishbowl theaters.
At 2:45p, Joanne and Jeff Hora will discuss “How To Get Published: What It Takes To Be A Community Author On Microsoft Technologies.” The official session code is COM19–INT. It’s at 2:45p in Blue Theater 2. You can find Blue Theater 2 in MS’ TLC area of the Expo Hall.
So if you’re at Tech-Ed, show up and be rowdy!
|| posted by chris under community, it pro, shoutout || comments (0) ||
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May 13, 2009
Yes, I know I was eerily silent during the bus tour, blog-wise. Funny thing is, despite all the time spent driving, stuff was always happening. We were headed somewhere all the time, unloading or loading swag, setting up the equipment for the AYC game. And connectivity was often hit-or-miss at the stops. It was all I could do just to get my scads of pics loaded to Facebook.
And once we got into the longer driving stretches for the stops between Kansas and L.A., there wasn’t a whole lot of connectivity to be had, period.
In some ways tho, blogging about it post-tour might be the only way for me to really get to the heart of what it was really like.
Things about the bus tour that I’ll always remember, in no particular order…
- Playing Two Truths and A Lie to learn about each other
- Getting my “bus” legs
- Born To Run played live by Springsteen and the E Street Band
- Finding I can still hit correct pitches while singing Sex Pistols/Lenny Kravitz/Jimi Hendrix/Skynyrd/The Cult on Guitar Hero World Tour
- Ryan’s knee being used as more cowbell by Dana, repeatedly
- Having the coolest drivers ever, Mark and J
- Having a 2×4 and fries well-done at In-N-Out, my first time ever eating there
- Desert sunsets and sunrises
- Hanging with Vince in Denver
- 450 people at a stop in Kansas City
- Nearly every question in the live version of Are You Certifiable?
- Santa Fe and Bandalier National Park
- Hanging with Vince again in Vegas
- The amazingly delicious Brazilian steakhouse the final night in Vegas
Most of all tho…it’s the people I’ll remember. All the different folks we met along the way, and seeing old pals who came out to say “Heya,” just because I happened to passing close by. But it wasn’t just those folks.
I’m having serious entourage withdrawal from my fellow busmates. A few of them are still here at Tech-Ed this week, but most of them are already home. And I miss the heck out of them. Which completely blind-sided me, because I never expected that at all. One of us said it felt like we were a little family. Which we kinda were.
And that’s what I’ll always remember, most of all.
|| posted by chris under community, game, more cowbell, nostalgia, shoutout, thumbs up, time, travel || comments (0) ||
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April 30, 2009
OK, so it’s not really the Avengers, but the Career Express team that assembled in Atlanta yesterday to prep for the 11 days of mayhem and awesomeness that kicks off today.
My flight from BHM to ATL today would have been a completely uneventful jacknife of a flight, since the flight path for that route is basically “go up, then go back down,” except that I haven’t gotten much sleep lately. So I did a sleep spaz SIX TIMES in a 30–40 minute flight. Totally embarrassing too, because the girl sitting next to me was from Turkey, and she finally asked me “Are joo alriht?”
Atlanta airport was insanely packed, as usual…global pandemic be damned!
We all converged on the Hampton Inn in Buckhead, then moseyed over to the Tavern at Phipps for dinner together.
Right now, the MS crew consists of…
- Ken
- Dana
- Liberty
- Elese
- Sarah
- Ryan
Rounding out the group are Christopher and me, the two contest winners who elected to take a ride from Day 1. Well, Day 0, really.
Tomorrow we head out very very early AKA 5 a.m. early, to go speak at the United States Army School of Information Technology in Fort Gordon.
Most importantly, we finally get on the bus for the first time. 
|| posted by chris under business, community, it pro, rx, shoutout, travel || comments (3) ||
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April 29, 2009
So, I’ve gotten a ton of nudges from folks about the cross-country Career Express Tour that starts Friday. Most of them have been virtual high-fives, etc. But there have also been some questions about the tour.
The top two questions have been, in order…
- The bus isn’t stopping near me. You hate me, don’t you?
- What’s this “tweet-up” thing that’s happening in Columbus?
To answer the first question…
No, I don’t hate you (probably). I didn’t have anything at all to do with the who, what, where, why or how of the bus tour. I’m just along for the ride. If you wanna blame someone, blame Dana, who did the bulk of the tour planning. But then I’d have to hurt you, because Dana rocks!
To answer the second question…
There are already lots of “official” stops on this tour, with full-blown events planned, which are all documented in a couple of official places like…
TripIt
Facebook
Blogs
The key thing to remember is that this isn’t an episode of Scooby-Doo…it’s a bus tour, with living people aboard. So both the bus and its human cargo will need pits stops to refuel, etc. Which means that we’ll be stopping in even MORE places than what’s on the official schedule. We won’t be there long enough for a full-blown event to happen, but might be able to swing an impromptu meet-up. Like, a bunch of folks meeting us to hang for a little while, pick up some swag, chat about what-have-you, and basically say “Heya” before we hit the road again.
The plan is to use Twitter as the announcement mechanism for these. Which would officially make them “Tweet-ups.”
So even if you’re not on the official sked for a stop, that doesn’t mean we might not show up near you!
If you wanna watch for the Career Express Tour tweet-ups, you can watch for them a bunch of different ways…
Twitter channels (watch for hashtag #tweetup):
Facebook
Blogs (subscribe to the RSS feeds for fastest notification)
Couple of other things to remember…
Since these are impromptu, there won’t be a whole lot of warning before one happens. Couple of hours notice, max. Maybe a little more if we can get in a groove.
And we do have a schedule to keep. So if we’re running late or something, or whatever…we might not be able to hang with our Tweeps this time around.
So keep watching, and here’s hoping we get a chance to Tweet-up with you between May 1 and May 11!
|| posted by chris under community, it pro, shoutout, time, timekiller, travel || comments (0) ||
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April 27, 2009
Or at least, the closest you’ll ever get to one anyway.
This is Marie. As in Marie McFadden. Her nickname has alway been her initials, which spell MOM. But after what I’m about to tell you, Marie will be turning your world upside-down in a way that should make you stand up and cheer. Which means her nickname from now and forevermore will be MOM upside-down, or WOW.
And that’s all because Marie has freaking magical powers.
Don’t believe me? While you were wishing on a star for someone to make your life easier, your business more profitable, and your stress level go down…
Marie and her team of enchanted sprites have been hard at work making that happen for you.
You see, Marie owns the worldwide Partner Managed Support Newsgroups. And when I say owns…I mean OWNS. As in, Marie is The Big Cheese. The Head Honcho. The Funk Hostess With The Mostest. The Shizz.
If it has to do with Partners and Managed Support via Newsgroups, this is her baby. And if you’re a Small Business Specialist, she’s basically giving you the best Christmas present ever…and in April no less!
Small Business Specialists have enjoyed an exclusive managed newsgroup which offers an astounding 4–hour response time for the low low cost of nothing! To this point, the products covered by this 4–hour support were limited to…
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP
- SQL Server Reporting Services
- Exchange Server
- Windows Server
- Windows SBS
- Microsoft Office 2007 system
Well, as amazing as that has already been, Marie and her team have just strapped a rocket booster onto these 4–hour newsgroups, and are about to light the candle.
They are expanding the number of products covered by 4 hour response to over 50! And they aren’t padding this either with stuff like…the Legend of Aranna expansion pack for Dungeon Siege or some other such nonsense. No, we’re talking some SERIOUSLY serious stuff here. Check it out…
- Dynamics: AX, CRM, GP, NAV, RMS, SL
- Internet Technologies: IE, IIS
- Messaging: Exchange Server, Live Communication Server, Exchange Client – OE and Windows Mail
- Mobility: Office Mobile, System Center Mobile Device Manager, Windows Mobile
- Office: Access, Accounting, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Project, Visio, Word, Office for Mac, Office Sharepoint, Setup & General Questions
- Security: Forefront, IAG, ISA, WSUS, SteadyState
- SQL Server and SQL SRS
- System Center: SCE, SCOM, SCCM, SCVMM
- Virtualization: Virtual Earth, Virtual PC, Virtual Server
- Windows Client: XP, Vista, Windows 7 RC Client
- Windows Server: Windows Server, Windows Server 7 RC, SBS, EBS
The sheer number of stuff covered is nothing short of mind-boggling. You can even see that the Release Candidate of both Windows 7 Client AND Server are both covered already. And how much are they going to start charging for this amazing increase in service? A WHOPPING 50% increase over what you’re paying now for it!
That’s right…50% more of nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. It’s all still SCOT-FREE and EXCLUSIVE to Small Business Specialists.
If you can’t immediately see how much ass this kicks…then stop using a computer right now and go sell insurance. This offer should basically make every being in the known universe with a frontal lobe want to become a Small Business Specialist. And once you are, you should go check out these phenomenal newsgroups by going here and actuallly using them:
https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40014662
So when does all this magic happen? Why…right now. As soon as this post goes live at 9am, Pacific time, on this the 27th day of April, in the year of our Lord 2009.
WOW…indeed!
|| posted by chris under business, community, freebie, it pro, more cowbell, mothership, shoutout, thumbs up || comments (3) ||
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