MSDN Malaysia blog

Thomas Cheah - the Speaker Idol winner

"The experience in Speaker Idol competition at TechEd SEA 2008 was great. It reminds me of those debating competitions that I participated when I was in high school. Presentation skills are something that will go a long way in your career. Most people have no problems giving presentation, but not many can see how well they are presenting. Speaker Idol is a good testing ground for this. With the 10 minutes time limit, it requires you to focus on giving the most captivate presentation that is within the attention spans of most audiences. Most people tend to be long winded and afraid to miss out every single detail in the presentation. This risks losing the audience attention before the core message is presented. Some of the tips that I would like to share are:

1. Make your presentation simple and logical. Presentation with smooth flow of thoughts is more important than thoroughness and details, as you don't really know which details are interesting or boring to the audience. Specific details can be addressed during the questions and answers session. Keep reinforcing the core message throughout the presentation.

2. Break your audience guessing machine. In order to capture your audience attention, you must present something that seems obvious to them, but then  end up something unexpected. There is a caveat in this, the key is you must establish the obviousness beforehand, or otherwise the audience will get confused and irritated before you show them the unexpected outcome.

3. Speak in a concrete manner. We are so used to these jargons and knowledge and take granted for it without realizing what is like for those people without. Try to give concrete examples during presentation that relate to your message. If you can find a powerful metaphor, that's even better.

4. Touch the emotion of your audience. This is not an easy feat, but if you can bring out the emotion of your audience, you had given an impactful presentation. The easiest way is telling some real world stories that are related to your presentation.

5. Finally, some of the standard presentation tips are: Engaged the audience by looking at the them and not your slide; Do not stand still, but trying to pay attention to different audience. (So that they don't get jealous. :P ) Do not make your slides too wordy as the audience will be busy reading it instead of focusing on you. (Prepare presentation notes if you afraid of forgetting important points.); Do not read your presentation slides; Use animation and sounds sparingly and appropriately or otherwise it will cause more annoyance."

Speaker Idol Day 1 judges - (L) Dennis Chung, Tony Krynen, Hoong Fai Lai, Steve Riley (R)

Speaker Idol Day 2 judges - (L) Walter Wong, Darien Nagle, Loke Uei Tan (R)

Speaker Idol Final judges - (L) Hoong Fai Lai, Daniel van Soest, Steve Riley (R)

Thomas in action

the captivated crowd

Thomas being interviewed by TechNet Edge

More about Thomas

"I am the CTO of Objective World Sdn. Bhd. We are an MSC Status Company located in Microsoft Innovation Center (Cyberjaya) that specializes in R&D and commercialization of software that manages and visualizes information over the complete building lifecycle in the construction industry. As a young company, we have a diverse responsibilities range from software development and project management, to product and marketing strategy planning, as well as involving in the commercialization process.

I enjoy my job very much. Developing great software has been my hobby since I was little, and I have great passion of doing it. To me, I often say software technologies is the representation of knowledge economy, as it is the key driver that transforms intangible knowledge of various domains into tangible and practical applications that lever up business capabilities. We should be proud as programmers of these contributions to many industries. On the other hand, working in Objective World is fun. As a small but dynamic company, it provides me plenty of opportunities to gain exposure from the technical and commercial side of software business to harness my capabilities further."

Speaker Idol @ TechEd SEA

Ever wanted be a speaker? Standing on stage and sharing your passion for technology? Now you have the chance at Tech·Ed SEA 2008 Speaker Idol!!

Each evening at Tech·Ed After Hours, 5 of you will compete against each other for a chance in the FINALS. The winner will win a set of Pioneer Home Theatre System worth RM1,500 AND get an opportunity to present in an upcoming local Microsoft event!

Read more about the presentation theme, rules and judging criteria in TechEd SEA official website.

What are you waiting for? Download registration form here and submit your registration by emailing techedspeakeridol@crystaledge.net

Good luck!!

Calling for all IT heroes in Klang Valley

Intel IT Technical Community Malaysia Chapter .NET SIG, ELITE, MIND and SPAN hosted a very successful community event focusing on technical dives of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008 in Penang last Saturday. They are coming together again to bring technical deep dives for folks in Kuala Lumpur on the 28th June! Reserve a seat here !

Date:      28 June 2008, Saturday

Venue:   Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd

               Level 29, Tower 2, Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur City Center, 50088, Kuala Lumpur

Agenda*:

9:00 - 10:00am      Windows 2008 Server new Security Features by Azra Rizal Noor Azman, Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

10:00 - 11:00am    Managing Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V by Poo Ching Loong, Max Solution (M) Sdn Bhd

11:00 - 11:15am    Break

11:15 - 12:00pm    Keynote by ELITE, MIND and SPAN leaders

12:00 - 1:00pm      Lunch

1:00 - 2:00pm       Availability Enhancements in SQL Server 2008 by Gerald Hoong, Info Trek Sdn Bhd.

2:00 - 3:00pm       Overview of New T-SQL Programmability Features in SQL Server 2008 by Jagathesan Balakrishnan, Intel Technology Sdn. Bhd.

3:00 - 3:15pm       Break

3:15 - 4:15pm       LINQ to SQL Introduction by NG Yew Ban, Avanade Malaysia

4:15 - 5:15pm       Silverlight in Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 by Ng Yee Jie & Chin Chong Yong , ISA Technologies

* subject to change

There will be Ask-the-Expert and demo sessions scheduled for you to network and interact with the speakers throughout the day. what's scheduled so far:

1.00pm - 1.45pm     Windows 2008 Server Server Core Demo @ Vista Room

1:45pm - 5pm         Windows Server 2008 Q & A sessions @ Vista Room

12.00pm - 3.00pm    Silverlight Q & A sessions  @ Navision Room

We love to have you with us in this great IT communities get-together and be one of the first to receive technical demos & training, product readiness resources!! Register here to reserve a seat today!

good stuff from D6 and TechEd

great videos from Gates-Ballmer interview in D6: All Things Digital

TechEd Keynote by Bill Gates

Bill Gates' interview with Channel 9

Gorgeous Geeks Video

World Congress of IT

Last month, Kuala Lumpur hosted the World Congress of Information Technology 2008 (WCIT), an event more commonly known as "the Olympics of the ICT World". Held once every two years, WCIT2008 is a premier global ICT forum that brings together global leaders in business, government and academia and impacts global economic and social development through the exchange of policies and ideas on technology. Microsoft is honored to be part of this vital event.

In case you miss the event, Bill Gates' hologram session is available here.

read more in Poh Sze, Patrick and Hoong Fai's blog

.NET sessions for friends in northern region

We had 2 great .NET mamak sessions with overwhelming responses in Kuala Lumpur and we thought we should bring the speakers and replicate the event for folks in northern region.

Agenda:

8.00am - 9.00am        Registration

9.00am - 10.00am      Learn .NET Code .NET

10.00am - 11.00am    Windows Mobile Programming - Part I

11.00am - 12.00pm    Windows Mobile Programming - Part II

12.00pm - 1.00pm      Silverlight 2.0

1.00pm - 2.00pm        Refreshment

Date: 5 June 2008 (Thursday)

Venue: Penang Skills Development Centre 1, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, Bandar Bayan Baru, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Fee: FOC

What are you waiting for? Reserve your seat here !

And, for those of you who want to get hands-on learning experience with .NET, here are the scheduled workshops

2 & 3 June   Getting Started with .NET

4 June         Silverlight 2.0 - Where developers and designers come together

6 June         Getting Started with Windows Mobile Programming

Venue: MCSB Systems (Pg) Sdn Bhd Suite 401 4th Floor, Island Plaza, Jalan Tanjung Tokong, 10470 Penang.

Fee: RM80 per topic

note: Each workshop is limited to 20 participants only, on a first-come-first-serve basis upon receipt of payment.

For enquiries or registration, call 03-7958 5155 or download the registration form here & email dotnetprogram@crystaledge.net

snippets from ReMIX Essentials

This is the first joint collaboration with Lim Kok Wing University of Creative Technology(LUCT) and the response was great. We had more than 200 attendees where they learned some cool new features and technologies of Expression 2. The crowd were wow-ed by those awesome demos such as Deep Zoom, designer-developer collaboration and new Live features.

Here are some pictures for those who couldn't make it to the event. Read more about the event in LUCT's press release or Angus and Stephannie's blog

Opening gambit

Audience awed by Deep Zoom technology used in http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/

Attendees having their hands on Expression Studio 2

Lucky attendees walking away with Expression Studio 2 software

Awesome ReMIX Essentials speakers (Leon Brown, Arturo Toledo, Rohan Thomas, Angus Logan and Eka)

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last but not least........ Arturo's reaction to our favorite durian flavored drink ;)

2007 in Review, 2008 in Focus

this is an old post - broken images fixed

2007 AND GOING.
What a great year it was - so much buzz and excitement around the latest technologies from Microsoft ! Many of you joined us in a great run up of activities, gatherings and even the launch of a networking group for women. As all things good, we want to record our thanks for your support and look forward to a deeper engagement with you this year. If you missed some of these, get on the ball and join us this year as we have TONS of exciting stuff for Malaysian IT Professionals.

Tech.Ed SEA 2007: Made Its Mark!
September 2007, Kuala Lumpur
The Highlight of the year and the BIGGEST IT Pro & Dev gathering ever! 2500 IT Professionals and Developers, 50 world class speakers, in over 120 breakout sessions, a Robotics Workshop, SumoRobot competition, LIVE Fest. and of course, TONS of goodies & prizes..

The Malaysian Face of Windows Server 2008
September 2007, Nationwide
400 IT Professionals signed up to upload a photograph of themselves, which made up the composite human "face" of IT Professionals of Malaysia. The FACE initiative brings the global IT community together. To learn how much they are alike, learn from each other and celebrate what's common.
More than 2000 copies of Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 have been handed out to IT Pros and Devs joining over 100,000 across the world.

 
Microsoft® System Center and Microsoft ForeFront put you in control
November 2007, Kuala Lumpur
Over 150 IT Pros learned how these new products put them in control of an infrastructure that empowers their business at every stage. They also learned how to plan and maintain an agile infrastructure and help protect it from harm - just like DELL an other world-leading corporations.

MOVIE Mania: Visual Studio 2008 Technical Preview
January 2008, Kuala Lumpur
YES! You'd definitely remember this one. A SELL OUT @ GSC1U! Over 230 developers got great insights into the new features of VS2008 enable you to build richer, connected applications with compelling user experiences - with sessions on ALM, C#3.0 and VB.NET9 and the MS .NET Framework 3.5 and more!

 
TechNet/MSDN Expands.
January 2008, Nationwide
We hit the roads in KK, Kuching and Penang to showcase the latest in Vista, Office, Windows Server - a fantastic platform to engage and hear what you think of these products too!
To download the presentation slides, please click here.

   
GORGEOUS GEEKS
January 2008, Kuala Lumpur
To inspire women in technology to realize their full potential while achieving a balanced lifestyle. Open to all Malaysian women in IT. Kicked off our heels, and had a fabulous time at the launch & networking dinner, "Women of Today vs Woman of Tomorrow".
To join Gorgeous Geeks today, please email my.gorgeousgeeks@live.com

GET AHEAD. BE A .NET EXPERT

START.NET program workshops are an easy and affordable way to sharpen your .NET expertise.
At only RM80 per session (worth at least RM1500 each), be exposed to a HUGE range of .NET topics, including developing for web, PC, server or mobile devices; robotics, gaming, rich interactive online services, embedded applications and many other fascinating and emerging areas! It doesn't matter if you've been tooling with Java, PHP, COBOL, PASCAL, RPG or Macromedia. If you've got the will, we've got the means to get you started with .NET easily and affordably! Sign up today! Over 100 sessions to choose from.

.NET In DEMAND
"There is a current uptrend demand for [Microsoft's] .NET programmers and good IT project managers. The market could do better with more .NET programmers, while good IT project managers are scarce".* - Ashran Dato Ghazi, CEO of Asiastream Group
*Source: ZDNet Asia Special Report "Asia's IT Employment Trends 2007" April 13, 2007

Learn. Connect. Explore.
August 11-14, 2008

Kuala Lumpur Convention Center

The largest Microsoft IT Professionals & Developers technical education and networking event in Malaysia is rolling in and this is your opportunity to get up-close and personal with the technologies, industry leaders, market movers and shakers. Be a part of the experience. Register now.

Look out for more exciting events and activities that will get you the knowledge and skills to get you ahead in your career.
Realize your potential.

For more events and promotions please visit us at: www.microsoft.com/malaysia or opt in for email communications from Microsoft Malaysia by choosing "My Contact Preferences" in Microsoft Profile Center. 

ReMIX Essentials is now in KL!

REMIX Essential 08 is your opportunity to experience cutting edge technologies in Silverlight 2, Expression 2, Windows Live and a host of other great web technologies from Microsoft. You will also see how innovators are creating the next generation of engaging websites and unprecedented user experiences (UX) for the web and window client.
In conjunction with the launch of Expression 2, be the lucky winner to win a full copy of Expression Studio 2, worth up to RM2300.

You are invited if you are :
. Web Designer
. Web Developer
. Web Strategist

Join us and explore how you can collaborate better to create the next-generation Web experience!

Event Details

Date: 27th May 2008

Time: 9.00am - 1.00pm

Venue: Limkokwing, University of Creative Technology

Click here to view the map of the university

Agenda

8.00am      Registration

9.00am      Keynote by Leon Brown

9.45am      XAML-Ready Design Agency with Expression Studio* by Arturo Toledo

10.30am     Windows Live Platform: Take the best of Windows Live and make it yours* by Angus Logan

11.15am     Kickstart Development with WPF and Silverlight by Rohan Thomas

12.00pm     Lunch

*All Topics are subjected to change

Click here for more details

Heroes Come Together in {Penang}

Four Malaysian technical communities, Intel IT Technical Community Malaysia Chapter .NET SIG, ELITE, MIND and SPAN, are coming together to host a community event focusing on technical dives of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008.

Date: 14 June 2008, Saturday

Venue: Intel Technology Sdn. Bhd. (PG12 Auditorium)

             Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone

             Phase 3, Halaman Kampung Jawa

             11900 Penang, Malaysia

Agenda:

8:00 - 8:30am       Registration

8:30 - 9:30am       Lap Around Visual Studio 2008 by Walter Wong, ISG Technologies Sdn. Bhd.

9:30 - 10:30am     Introducing Microsoft Entity Framework by Ryan Tee, SSW Pty Ltd

10:30 - 10:45am   Break

10:45 - 11:45am   Overview of New T-SQL Programmability Features in SQL Server 2008 by Jagathesan Balakrishnan, Intel Technology Sdn. Bhd.

11:45 - 12:45pm   Keynote by ELITE, MIND and SPAN leaders

12:45 - 1:30pm     Networking lunch

1:30 - 2:30pm       SQL Server 2008, WTF?! by Chia Sheng Sin, Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

2:30 - 3:30pm       Using Performance Studio in SQL Server 2008 by Phua Chiu Kiang, Entellium Technologies Sdn. Bhd.

3:30 - 4:30pm       Windows Server 2008 Features & Upgrade Consideration by Nadzif Jay, Iverson Associates Sdn. Bhd.

4:30 - 5:30pm       Windows 2008 Server new Security Features by Azra Rizal Noor Azman, Microsoft (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.

Come join us for the IT communities get-together and be one of the first to receive technical demos & training, product readiness resources!

Register here to reserve a seat today!

See you there!

Heroes Happened Here!

Heroes Happened in Kuala Lumpur on April 8, 2008!!!

It was the historical joint launch of three wave products: Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 in Malaysia.

Here are some launch highlights from Tuesday 8^th April:

Crowd: Biggest server launch in the history of MS Malaysia – 3,023 attendees comprising IT Professionals, Developers and Press Media! The main tent session was at bursting capacity together with the spillover room, and the breakout tracks in the afternoon were full right till the end of the day, wow!

People-Ready, Business-Ready: Besides all the cool speakers which you can see at the pictures below, three Early Adopter customers (Genting, Carsem and Cinema Online) shared their experiences very candidly to the audience at the panel discussion during keynote which made it one of the highlights!

Partners: Over 20 partners including HP, Dell, Intel, Sun, Quest, Guidance View, Rentwise, Infotrek, Iverson, iTrain, ChassAsia, MS Security & Exchange teams, Symantec, Kingston, ObTech, FalconStor and many others wowed the crowd with their solution showcase at the expo hall.

Last but not least, our awesome {heroes} i.e. everyone who attended the launch!

Congrats to all four winners of the {IT Heroes} contest: Paul Tham, Kang Chian Gim, Siang Hwee Goh and Low Weng Seng!

Apart from the track sessions for different products, there was hands-on-labs running throughout the day; ask-the-expert sessions as well as a series of activities such as mobility smackdown, lucky draw and etc to keep the attendees busy.  

What's new in Visual Studio 2008: Visual Basic 9.0 - If Operator

Patrick Yong, OBA specialist, is going to show you one of the new features in Visual Basic 9.0 - If Operator

VideoBlog.NET - Blog about all things .NET and win a Trip for 2 to Bali!

So you’ve been talking and hearing about the super duper cool Start.NET program that Microsoft Malaysia is currently running….  but have you been getting the anticipated attention from your friends and colleagues?

How? 

Read on for more details. 

Who are we looking for?

Anyone who share the passion and excitement on .NET, and do it in the most creative and interesting ways.  Someone who can create a sparkle of getting to know more about .NET!

What do you need to do? 

·         Create a VideoBlog about .NET (between 30 – 60 seconds). You may obtain the facts and information from: http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/press/archive2007/linkpage4361.mspx

·         The ending frame of your VideoBlog must include the URL: www.startdotnet.info

·         Upload the video on your blog or online

·         Email your Name, Company, Telephone number and Email Address, together with your VideoBlog URL to blogdotnet@crystaledge.net

But… what do I VideoBlog about?

VideoBlog the coolest, slickest, cutest, or most elegant styles you have to drive the excitement of getting to know .NET.  VideoBlog about what you LIKE, who do you WANT to see, what technology in .NET that you LOVE about … Seriously, just blog about ANYTHING that’s related to .NET!

What are the rules on blogging?

·         You must be located in Malaysia

·         You cannot post vulgarities, defamation notes, pornography or anything illegal

·         You cannot defame anyone in any ways

Violation in any of the rules will result in disqualification without notice. (Be responsible for your video)

Detailed terms & conditions will be available on the official www.startdotnet.info website by next week

How is the VideoBlog measured?

·         .NET and the url www.startdotnet.info must be highlighted in your VideoBlog

·         Creativity of the VideoBlog

What will the winners get?