Mark Mydland is the Principal Group Manager of the Visual Studio Team System Test Edition team (that means that all program managers, developers, and testers on VSTS Test in Redmond report up to him).  He is touring through Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee for a short time in November.  Mark will be visiting companies during the day and speaking at user groups in the evenings.  The user group talks are open to the public - this is a fabulous opportunity to speak directly with someone who created Visual Studio (and in fact runs the entire Test Edition team). 

At the user groups, Mark will be delivering a technical talk on the new features coming in VSTS 2010, codenamed "Rosario".  This talk encompasses “some architect stuff, some dev stuff, some cool research stuff for concurrency and for bounds checking, 3-tier execution and data recording (aka Tivo for debugging).”  I purposely planned this tour to take place after PDC so Mark can discuss any new announcements made there. 

Want a preview of VSTS 2010?  Mark is doing a number of user group talks that are open to the public.  And did I mention that there will be free dinner and giveaways?  Please stop by:

Grand Rapids, MI - Tues 11/11 at 6pm
Watermark Country Club, 5500 Cascade Rd, Grand Rapids, MI 49548

Ann Arbor, MI - Wed 11/12 at 6pm
SRT Solutions, 206 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Cleveland, OH - Thurs 11/13 at 6:30pm
Sogeti office, Beacon Place Office Building, 6055 Rockside Woods Blvd, Independence, OH 44131

Columbus, OH - Fri 11/14 at 6pm
Microsoft "Polaris Parkway" office, 8800 Lyra Dr, Columbus, OH 43240

Cincinnati, OH - Mon 11/17 at 6pm
MAX Training, 4900 Parkway Dr, Suite 160, Mason, OH 45040-8429

Louisville, KY - Tues 11/18 at 6:30pm
Muhammad Ali Center, One Muhammad Ali Plaza, 144 N. Sixth Street, Louisville, KY 40202

Nashville, TN - Wed 11/19 at 6pm
Microsoft Nashville office, MPR room, 2555 Meridian Blvd, Suite 300, Franklin, TN 37067

Memphis, TN - Thurs 11/20 at 6pm
New Horizons, 4775 American Way, Memphis, TN 38118

Knoxville, TN - Fri 11/21 at 6pm
Edfinancial Training Center, 120 North Seven Oaks Dr., Knoxville, TN 37922

Hope to see you there!