Communicado

Tech Ed 2011 – Behind the Scenes

TheGasManNZ — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:22:12 GMT

As the exec owner of Tech Ed for Microsoft New Zealand I receive a lot of questions about the logistics of putting on an event of this size. Attracting 2000 attendees, Tech Ed is the largest professional conference held in New Zealand and we’ve been running it since 1996 – so we’ve learned a thing or two about how to make it work.

The Tech Ed proposition is pretty simple, comprehensive technical education on Microsoft technologies for developers & IT professionals that want to get ahead and stay ahead, delivered by experts in their field. That doesn’t change – but we’re constantly looking for ways to improve the attendee experience, and this year is no different. We’ve made some major investments to address the number one concern we receive feedback on: lack of space around the venue. We’ve redesigned what used to be the marketplace, now the hub. With more space for people to move, sit, eat and connect with others. It also provides more opportunity for our sponsors to shine.

Anyone who holds a large public event knows that people vote with their feet. If they have a great experience they tell others and come back – if they don’t…well, you don’t have a viable event.

So we want to provide the best experience for our customers and at the same time put on an event that has longevity. Like any business losing money long term isn’t an option so we aim to break even while running a world-class training event right here in NZ. Sometimes we manage to break even and sometimes we don’t – an event of this scale has significant costs. Consider venue, food, refreshments, staffing, audio/visual, security, speaker costs, entertainment, internet, recording…the list is a very long one indeed.

We raised prices by a small amount in 2009, before that prices had been static for five years – I think that’s pretty good value given the increasing complexity of the event, and demands of the audience - consider how expectations of wireless networking availability have changed over that period! Since 2008 we’ve also run Tech Ed Online where we publish a huge variety of content online in near real time, all absolutely free. We understand this is not the same as being there but hope it helps.

New Zealand is really punching above its weight in the worldwide Tech Ed stakes – consider there is one event for all of North America, all of Europe, China, Russia, Middle East, Africa, Australia…and New Zealand. Notice the odd man out? Whether you attend in Africa, the US or New Zealand the event should be of a similar standard and I’m proud that we can deliver this in New Zealand year on year, helping foster a smart, connected and competitive ICT industry.

Happy learning!

Wanted – 1 x Developer Evangelist

TheGasManNZ — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:02:01 GMT

Microsoft NZ is hiring – I’m looking for an outstanding person to join the Developer and Platform team as a developer evangelist!

The Developer Evangelist position is a technical role with the mission of reaching and engaging with the broad community of developers and driving technical awareness and excitement around developer tools and platform technologies. The specific areas this role will cover are:

Developer Audience: through events, programmes, presentations, depth engagement, social media, blogs etc.
Partners: Independent Software Vendors (ISV’s – managed and unmanaged), Incubators, Start-ups
Technologies: Windows Azure, Windows Client, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, .NET

The evangelist role is a very broad one – from in-depth technology prowess through to running programmes it will challenge you every day.

The ideal candidate will be experienced, technically respected, an inspiring presenter, strong on cloud, connected and networked, a relationship builder, social media savvy…and really, really passionate about all things developer and Microsoft. Simple!

If this is you then apply here.

Microsoft NZ is Hiring – Developer Tools Product Manager

TheGasManNZ — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 03:43:13 GMT

The Developer Tools Product Marketing Manager is focused on building the success of Microsoft’s developer tools solutions in the New Zealand market. The developer community is the lifeblood of Microsoft’s business and the Developer Tools PM plays a pivotal role in ensuring our continued momentum in this space. Developer tools such as Visual Studio 2010, Team Foundation Server and Expression coupled with innovation such as Windows Azure are changing the way developers build applications for PC, mobile and browser – Microsoft NZ is looking for an innovative and inventive product manager to drive the NZ developer tools business to new heights!

You'll have a solid marketing background, with specific emphasis on:

End to end product management
Strategic planning and product knowledge
Campaign management from inception to completion
Budget/ROI responsibility
Monitoring, reporting, forecasting and analysis
Knowledge of marketing to a developer/technical/CxO audience
Understanding this audience and the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) process

If this sounds like you then apply here by 8th April 2011.

IE9 RC Launched Today

TheGasManNZ — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:33:59 GMT

In case you hadn’t heard – the Internet Explorer 9 release candidate was launched today. It’s fast, it’s clean, it’s secure – give it a whirl…

Visual Studio ALM Conference

TheGasManNZ — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:01:46 GMT

Calling all Microsoft Developers and those involved in Application Development!

The inaugural New Zealand Visual Studio ALM Conference, sponsored by Microsoft NZ, is kicking off in Wellington on the 6th & 7th April 2011.

If you are part of a development team working with Visual Studio and are looking to enhance the way you build software then this conference focused on Visual Studio 2010 and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is a not-to-be-missed event.

The event features:

· International Keynote speakers

· 2 days of technical content

· 2 tracks covering ALM and Visual Studio

· Post conference workshops

· Exhibitors & Giveaways

Who should attend?

The conference is designed for anyone involved in software development projects including Project Managers, Business Analysts, Architects, Designers, Developers, Testers, Support and Operations staff.

More information and registration

The conference is priced at NZ$395, with a $100 Early Bird discount available for bookings before 1^st March.

Check out the conference website www.nzalm.co.nz for more information including details of speakers and sessions confirmed to date.

Tech.Ed 2010 is done - but wait there’s more…

TheGasManNZ — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 06:56:57 GMT

Tech.Ed Online is here!

Tech.Ed Online is the best way to catch up on all the latest Microsoft technology updates and training information from Tech.Ed NZ and around the world. With more than 170 sessions available on-demand or for download from Tech.Ed NZ, along with more than 250 sessions from around the world, Tech.Ed Online is the most up-to-date source for all things Microsoft. In addition to watching the sessions and accessing the PowerPoint presentations, you can share and discuss technical content and ideas with your peers in New Zealand and around the world.

http://www.microsoft.com/nz/techedonline

PDC10 in Redmond

TheGasManNZ — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:32:09 GMT

In case you missed the announcement at the Microsoft WW Partner Conference last week – the MS Professional Developers Conference (PDC) will be held this year in Redmond on October 28-29. This is the first time the event has been hosted at the mother ship, providing access to the place as well as the people. This will be a different event than previous years given the change from the usual Los Angeles location.

I’ve had the very good fortune to attend two PDC’s and for a developer at heart, it’s probably the best event I’ve experienced. So If you’re a hardcore developer, architect or technology leader find out more at http://microsoftpdc.com

2010 NZ Internet Industry Awards

TheGasManNZ — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 03:47:38 GMT

I’m involved as a judge for the New Zealand Internet Industry Awards. The objective of these Awards is to showcase the transformational impact of the Internet on the community either in its application through businesses or community organisations.

The Awards which were begun by the Liz Dengate Thrush Foundation – a registered charity, are in their second year and I would invite you to consider purchasing a table and supporting them. Not only is this a positive initiative but it is a great networking event!

Tickets are now available for the 2010 Internet Industry Awards Grand Banquet on the 28th July.

Hosted by the Hon Steven Joyce this year's Awards are being held at the Banquet Hall, Parliament.

To book your tickets visit www.internetindustryawards.co.nz or ring
Catherine Gardiner on 027 489 9768, Margie Sharpe on 021 767 530 or
Hayley Edgell on 027 245 6936.

New Zealand Places Third at Microsoft Imagine Cup

TheGasManNZ — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:54:55 GMT

We’re all extremely proud here at Microsoft New Zealand today – Team OneBeep from the University of Auckland took out 3rd place at the worldwide finals in Poland for the Imagine Cup, the first time a kiwi team has progressed beyond the initial rounds.

I’ve had the great pleasure to watch the guys present their solution a few times and I think there are three reasons they have been successful:

They have a great, innovative solution*
They present the idea in an interesting and engaging manner
They make an emotional connection with the audience

Pretty much the must-haves for any successful entrepreneur to generate interest and investment in their ideas.

Well done to the team, their mentors and supports – and all the teams who participated this year in the New Zealand Imagine Cup. If you or someone you know is interested in being part of the 2011 Microsoft Imagine Cup I hope you’ll register here and take part in the world’s biggest and best software competition.

*The Solution

Focusing on the One Laptop Per Child programme and its 1.4 million deployed laptops, Team One Beep came up with an inexpensive and robust method to solve the problem of sending educational content to these laptops, which are sent out to impoverished schools and communities in areas of the world where there are no phone lines, let alone internet services.

The solution involves using Team OneBeep's software to package a file of educational data as audio to be sent via radio waves. This can be received on any cheap AM/FM radio and is then passed on to the laptops. The file is then converted back to its original form ready to be viewed by the children and teachers.

Tech Ed New Zealand 2010 – Call for Content

TheGasManNZ — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:24:32 GMT

So we’re officially off and running for 2010 with some great interest shown in the first week of sales. If you have a great talk and you’d like the opportunity to present this year go to Mike Zeff’s blog for all the details on how to submit.

Good Luck!

Visual Studio/Windows Azure NZ Launch – Register Now

TheGasManNZ — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:53:11 GMT

We’re proud to announce a combined Visual Studio 2010 and Windows Azure launch for New Zealand. It will be a half day event covering the very latest thinking in software development and cloud computing.

We have some top notch international speakers lined up on both topics so avoid disappointment and book your place early (and it’s free!).

Full details at: http://www.microsoft.com/nz/events/azure

MIX10 Starts Soon

TheGasManNZ — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:40:02 GMT

MIX is the big Microsoft web/UX conference. There’s a pile of exciting announcements coming this year so don’t miss out. We have a sizable kiwi contingent in Las Vegas – and not just hitting the poker tables – but if you’re back in NZ wanting to be in on the action you can of course follow the conference online:

Watch LIVE from MIX10
Follow the news fromMIX10 online on Monday, March 15 and Tuesday, March 16 at 9 AM PDT with keynote sessions first. Once the keynotes end just keep watching as Channel 9 Live will begin streaming automatically until 5:30 PM, with interviews with Scott Guthrie, Joe Belfiore, Bill Buxton, Dean Hachamovich, Charlie Kindel, Albert Shum, Doug Purdy, Erik Meijer and many more. Follow or send questions to @ch9live on Twitter . You can view the full schedule here.

Session Recordings available online
The MIX10 breakout sessions will be recorded and available online within 24 hours of the session. http://live.visitmix.com.

You Could Win a Trip to PDC in LA

TheGasManNZ — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:36:09 GMT

Here in the Developer & Platform group at Microsoft NZ we’re constantly looking for ways to help and connect with New Zealand technical audiences. One of the best ways is to get out there and meet people which we do through our regular UNPLUGGED sessions around the country – but sometimes we need to go broader.

To find out what you as a developer, want from us we’re kicking off a brief and informal survey. And the incentive? “Swimming pools, movie stars…”* - you could be going to LA to attend PDC.

It’s a few easy questions about you, your job and your tech preferences, really simple. So why not complete the survey and enter the competition?

* Caution - reference might be lost on younger viewers

Spark Your Ideas Into Life!

TheGasManNZ — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:54:16 GMT

Spark your ideas into life! Turn your dreams into reality with the best software from Microsoft.

To help accelerate New Zealand web and software start-up companies, we’re giving them a great deal on software from Microsoft. Its part of our vision of providing the next generation with the best platform and software we can. To help make new business ideas become reality. There are three programmes designed to do so.

DreamSpark supports breakthrough learning for students. DreamSpark is designed to help tertiary students create the next tech breakthrough, or launch their career with professional level developer and designer tools for free from Microsoft.

BizSpark is all about giving software start-ups a rev-up. If you’re developing software BizSpark will help you take it to the next level. Get tools to build, test and run your applications from Microsoft to use for three years and pay just US$100 at the end.

WebsiteSpark offers tools to develop and design website projects and businesses. Through WebsiteSpark you can also receive Windows Web Server and SQL Server Web Edition from Microsoft. You can use all the software for three years and pay just US$100 at the end.

Find out more and apply at www.microsoft.co.nz/spark today.

Watch an Alicia Keys Concert Live – with Silverlight

TheGasManNZ — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:26:00 GMT

Alicia Keys fans will be able to watch a unique concert this Thursday being broadcast live from the Apollo in New York. Thanks to Microsoft Silverlight, fans will be able to control the action by switching between one of five camera angles.

The event is not geo-blocked and should be accessible anywhere in the world.

An MSDN blog posting, which includes a promo video is located here: http://blogs.msdn.com/david_sayed/archive/2010/01/06/alicia-keys-live-this-thursday-powered-by-microsoft-silverlight.aspx

It happens On Thursday at 6pm Pacific Time so by my reckoning that’s 3pm Friday Jan 8th in New Zealand!

The Microsoft Cloud Story – in One Slide

TheGasManNZ — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:16:48 GMT

One part of my team’s mission is to evangelise our Software + Services (S+S) strategy and our cloud offerings, with an emphasis on Windows Azure. As part of this I get to present many sessions that seek to explain our cloud strategy, It would be fair to say some of our customers and partners don’t have a full understanding of S+S so I’ve been trying to bring some simplicity and clarity to the conversation.

As part of this I’ve developed a one slide explanation of S+S and the Microsoft cloud offerings. Here’s the gist of it:

The Microsoft strategy is Software + Services, that is a combination of installed software plus cloud based services gives customers the most choice – run software where it makes most sense: on-premise, hosted and in the cloud.

1. Customers can run Microsoft products on premise, in their own server rooms, data centre’s, hosted by partners - on many devices: phone, PC, Server.

2. Customers can consume Microsoft productivity server products as services through a subscription model – it’s called Microsoft Online Services (or you may hear it referred to as Business Productivity Online Services or BPOS).

3. Customers can deploy their custom apps to the Windows Azure Platform and once again pay on a consumption basis only. No license, just a subscription.

Here’s how I illustrate it:

Simple eh? I’ll follow up with some posts on some of the underlying details and business justification but for now feel free to share and use in your thinking around the cloud.

Try Windows Azure – and win an MSDN Subscription!

TheGasManNZ — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:55:30 GMT

With the commercial launch of Windows Azure coming on Jan 1st 2010 we’re running a competition to celebrate.

Check out the details and fine print, but all you need to do is request an Azure token (these are limited so be in fast), then deploy an app to Windows Azure – any app! If your app is running on the 11th Jan 2010 when we do the draw you have a chance to win a 12 month subscription to Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Premium Download Only RRP NZD $5,028 (this will be upgraded to Visual Studio 2010 Premium on the 22nd March 2010).

PDC Day 2

TheGasManNZ — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:26:13 GMT

Excellent keynote from Steven Sinofsky opened the morning – how we built Windows 7, what a great story to tell to a room full of developers. Steven showed off a whole pile of new hardware from netbooks to ultra-thin notebooks, server strength workstations and consumer touch screens.

He also demonstrated a special new Acer touch screen laptop and then went on to announce they were available to PDC attendees…for free! Cue rapturous applause and something of a standing ovation.

Steven gave a sneak preview of some of the IE9 features that might just get people excited about the browser again. Fully standards compliant, hardware-accelerated rendering and much more.

Next up was Scott Guthrie who announced the beta of Silverlight 4 and a host of new features that drew warm appreciation from the crowd.

Scott really is a hero developer, king of the geeks, the PDC audience love him and he delivered a bucket load of features that people have been waiting for.

As an aside this was my favourite quip from his talk - while showing a silverlight site featuring both a Victoria’s Secret catalogue and a sports portal the crowd goes whoooo, his response “must be a lot of sports fans in the room…”

Kurt DelBene then covered Sharepoint and Office 2010 as a development platform. Basically Sharepoint as a first-class development citizen, with all the features and capability you’d expect as a traditional .NET developer. This is really important – stats show that .NET developers are far less likely to leverage existing apps and services, preferring to build it from scratch. This makes the cost of a .NET development project higher on average than other platforms where developers tend to take a number of components and glue them together. Hopefully this mentality will start to change as Sharepoint, Dynamics CRM and other platforms become more .NET-ified.

Favourite session yesterday was Gary Flake’s tour through Microsoft Pivot. Building on the DeepZoom work he deconstructed how we view and interpret information and showed how Pivot can help us make sense of massive amounts of information - “using the forest to see the trees” is the main concept.

He demoed this with a Pivot view of Wikipedia where top level articles have been “pre-processed” allowing you to view the context of the information. The example he used was searching on Albert Einstein. Typically we move in a linear fashion between pages, with Pivot you can see every page that links to or from the one you're on and the relevance or frequency of those links. So, for instance the highest relevant links for Einstein were for his work in theoretical physics, at number 10 or so on the list were links related to him being a Jewish German physicist – quite different pieces of information but allowing the user to “swim” through the data rather than step through a piece at a time.

This was Gary’s kinda flow diagram approach to information engineering:

Data –> Information –> Knowledge –> Wisdom

All up a really good day with Microsoft delivering on the promises made across a number of platforms.

PDC Day 1

TheGasManNZ — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:32:54 GMT

A beautiful late autumn day in LA and thousands of developers descend once again on PDC. You may have heard something about cloud computing over the last year or so – well, there’s no escaping the next computing application model here at PDC, on day one anyway.

Ray Ozzie kicked off the keynote with the expected announcement about Windows Azure general availability (in brief: selected customers live from today, CTP continues until 31st December 2009, commercial launch 1st Jan 2010, billing starts February 2010). Last year was about whipping the covers off and showing the brand new baby that was Windows Azure, while this year Ray and Bob Muglia both took a more pragmatic approach – making the case for cloud computing and taking attendees on a tour through the ever increasing set of technologies that live behind and support Azure. Bob in particular covered the platforms, services and tools – the componentry – that constitute Azure, and may well have a place in your enterprise.

BTW in case you’re wondering what the cloud looks like here is one small piece of it (one of the Azure Data Centre “containers”):

Unplugged – Places Filling Fast

TheGasManNZ — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:14:52 GMT

December Unplugged – It’s Big!

We’ve seen enormous demand for our December Unplugged tour over the last week, so I’d encourage you to register for your free place as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

PDC Starts This Week!

TheGasManNZ — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:10:47 GMT

Arrived in LA today and ready for a full on PDC week. Stay tuned for updates throughout the week…

December Unplugged – It’s Big!

TheGasManNZ — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:38:58 GMT

We have a big line up planned for our December Unplugged tour through New Zealand. It’s post-PDC (MS Professional Developers Conference) so of course we’ll be focusing on Windows Azure along with what’s coming in Visual Studio 2010.

On the TechNet side Nathan will take you through the process of migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 – plus an end of year extravaganza highlighting a pile of things like the Web Platform Installer, Sysinternals Disk2VHD, what’s new in Office 2010 client beta, Microsoft Online Services including Business Productivity Online Suite, Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation…and a whole lot more

More details and registration are here.

Tue 1 Dec WELLINGTON Intercontinental Wellington

Wed 2 Dec CHRISTCHURCH Hotel Grand Chancellor

Thu 3 Dec DUNEDIN Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Tue 8 Dec TAURANGA Sebel Trinity Wharf

Wed 9 Dec AUCKLAND Heritage Hotel

Professional Developers Conference – LA 17-19th November

TheGasManNZ — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:44:56 GMT

I’m looking forward to PDC again this year. Last year was the first time I have had the opportunity to attend and it was a real experience. We unleashed Windows Azure on the world and laid out the Microsoft cloud story, previewed the Office Web Apps plus a whole heap of other things – it was good to be there, to be part of it.

This year is we see the maturation of the vision with the commercial release of Windows Azure and SQL Azure – the services have really benefited from the year long Community Technology Preview (CTP) which has seen a load of developers kicking the tyres, telling us what they like, don’t like and really need. This user contribution has made for a much better product set, better suited to our customers needs.

PDC will also focus on Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4 .0 Beta 2 and of course Windows 7.

You can still register for a $300 discount until 30th October (that’s 31st in NZ) – I would recommend the experience.

Channel 9 Learning Centre – Free Training

TheGasManNZ — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:41:27 GMT

Did you know there’s a whole lot of resources available to help you get up to speed on our latest technologies – and it’s all free! It consists of a set of courses with each course including a set of videos, hands-on labs, and source code samples to get you up-to-speed quickly.

The first two courses available are Visual Studio 2010 + .NET 4 and Windows 7

Welcoming Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

TheGasManNZ — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:13:20 GMT

We’ve just launched a beta wave – Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 2.

Darryl has written a great blog post on the new VS 2010 SKUs, but here’s the skinny:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN: the comprehensive suite of application lifecycle management tools for software teams to ensure quality results from design to deployment.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN: a complete toolset for developers to deliver scalable, high quality applications.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN: the essential tool for professional development tasks to assist developers in implementing their ideas easily. (Note: Visual Studio 2010 Professional will also be available without MSDN subscription)

Tue 1 Dec	WELLINGTON	Intercontinental Wellington
Wed 2 Dec	CHRISTCHURCH	Hotel Grand Chancellor
Thu 3 Dec	DUNEDIN	Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Tue 8 Dec	TAURANGA	Sebel Trinity Wharf
Wed 9 Dec	AUCKLAND	Heritage Hotel