Apr 2, 2007 | blog
Another great day at the Windows Connections 2007 conference in Orlando, FL, at least for me. Got to a keynote, three interesting sessions and some time with Microsoft, just to chat.
This morning’s keynote was Exchange 2007: Getting to Know You presented by Tony Redmond of HP. Pretty good information, though it was kind of tilted to Exchange geeks (of which I’m not). It did set the stage for a session later in the morning.
Next was the Imaging Windows Vista session presented by Chris Henley of Microsoft. Talking through the progression of Microsoft imaging methods and technologies from MS-DOS 6.22 through Windows Vista (yes they had deployment tools for DOS). Creating and maintaining Windows Vista images will be much easier than it is today with Windows XP. Pretty cool too!
Mid-morning found me in The Unified Communications Technical Vision & Strategy session with Bob Williams of Microsoft. Bob walked us through Microsoft’s vision of what fully unified communications is and will be. I’d seen portions of this roadmap about two weeks ago at a local Microsoft IT Leadership Summit in Minneapolis. Very interesting… it’ll be fun to watch what happens in the telephony market later this year and in 2008. Big changes afoot.
After lunch I had a chance to sit down with some folks and provide some feedback on Office, Exchange, Windows, SharePoint, and Systems Management Server (I’m a big believer in SMS). It was fun, fast paced and lead to interesting discussions that never seemed to get finished in the time we had.
For the last session of the day, I choose What’s New in the 2007 Microsoft Office System? Client Feature Walkthrough hosted by Chris Avis, again of Microsoft. While Chris is a pretty good speaker, his enthusiasm of the product, and the unstructured nature of his presentation did not allow him to get as much info demonstrated in the time we had. He did cover a number of neat features of Outlook, Excel, OneNote, and a few Word features as well. Nifty stuff in Office 2007 for those that have not seen or worked with it yet.
Overall, a good experience; if you want a full list of the sessions available at the spring Connections 2007 conference, look here.
Technorati tags: Windows Connections, WinConnections, Chris Henley, Chris Avis, Bob Williams, Tony Redmond, Unified Communications, Unified Messaging
Apr 1, 2007 | blog
Good session so far! There are more features available in Windows SharePoint Service (WSS) 3.0 than I had realized. Lots of really neat things that you can do that I had previously believed was only available in the Office SharePoint Server 2007.
I had planned on setting up a virtual machine in the near future. This conference session only reinforces that plan. WSS is the basic glue for any real Microsoft based integrated productivity solution. Of course, that assumes that you buy into the entire Microsoft productivity strategy. That means, databases, messaging, office apps, client OS, server OS, backup, portal, web, etc… If one does buy in, it does work, and will impress.
At any rate, I’m looking forward to lunch in 30 minutes. Should be interesting, we’ll be eating at Hemingway’s here at the Hyatt Grand Cypress Resort. Nice place.
Technorati tags: Windows SharePoint Services, WSS 3.0
Mar 30, 2007 | blog
Well, I’ll be at the Connections 2007 conference next week. Hosted by Microsoft, Windows IT Pro magazine and Tech Conferences, Connections is a great networking resource for Windows, Exchange and Office technology professionals.
This particular event is being held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, FL. Should be a good time, as well as a great event. If you were interested in learning more about the conference, it’s three main focused specialities are Windows, Exchange, and Office. There’s also a developer based conference held separately a week earlier.
I’ll be blogging the conference while there, and of course, Twittering about things all week. All Twitters going should give a shout-out for a meetup at the conference one evening.
Technorati tags: Windows Connections, Windows IT Pro
Mar 11, 2007 | blog
I’ll be going to the Windows Connections conference in April, which looks to be an interesting session on Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange 2007. I’m also attending some SharePoint 2007 sessions that are being held pre & post conference.
It’s a 4-5 day conference, mainly for Information Technology professionals focusing on deploying technology within a corporate environment. But even so, it can be a lot of fun – the speakers are some of the best on their topics.
It should be a pretty great time – let me know if you’ll be there!
Link to Windows Connections 2007
Technorati tags: Windows Connections, Exchange Connections, Office Connections, WinConnections
Jun 9, 2006 | blog
Well, I’m trying to decide if I should go to the Windows Connections conference this fall. It’s in Vegas, and I’m not really enamored of the place (of course I’ve never been there yet).
Looks to be a good conference, as the Connections ones usually are, with a number of great speakers (Steve Riley, Mark Minasi, Sue Mosher, Tony Redmond, Paul Robichaux). I’ve always had a great time at previous Connecitons, and the quality of the information, sessions, speakers, content, and location have been excellent.
Its being held at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, so check it out if you are interested.
After lunch I had a chance to sit down with some folks and provide some feedback on Office, Exchange, Windows, SharePoint, and Systems Management Server (I’m a big believer in SMS). It was fun, fast paced and lead to interesting discussions that never seemed to get finished in the time we had.
