Communicado

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

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.

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

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)

You might have heard that Microsoft is releasing the next version of Windows this month? If you haven’t then you must be living in an alternative universe!

Did you know there has been 50,000 downloads of pre-release Windows 7 in New Zealand? That’s a lot of people testing the product and giving feedback.

Look out for cool stuff happening on October 22nd.

We’re also launching Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010 - so October is a very big month, and the start of a huge wave of product launches over the next twelve months.

Tech.Ed NZ 2009 was a great event, the turnout (equivalent to last year) was a big vote of confidence from our industry, especially as many companies faced difficult times and reduced training budgets.

But the event lives on…

This year we’re making Tech.Ed content available to more people. You can start with the large selection of Technical Breakout Sessions, Rock Star Interviews, Roaming Interviews, PowerPoint Decks, Blog Posts, Flickr Photo Stream, Tweets…all freely available to anyone.

We also have Tech.Ed Online Premium Content (which usually costs USD $250 for 12 months subscription) available for FREE  for Tech.Ed NZ 2009 delegates.

All at http://www.microsoft.co.nz/teched

Here’s some pointers to get started:

1. Microsoft Tech.Ed New Zealand 2009 Keynote – Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell with new innovations from Microsoft including demos on Windows 7, Unified Communications, Office Web Apps, Azure, Silverlight 3!
2. The TechFest Party – The biggest party in the IT industry with more than 1500 guests, with lineup of kiwi talent including Oscar Kightly, Ben Hurley, Katchafire, Elemenop...after me “ain’t no party like an IT party!”
3. The Marketplace – with a great line up of NZ IT vendors and partners offering solutions and services.
4. Tech Girls Dinner – An exclusive evening celebrating women in technology. Line up included Julia Raue, CIO of Air New Zealand who provided an inspiring and insightful perspective into her career at Air New Zealand.

Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition. The first round is now open for all students! Simply come up with an idea that uses technology to solve the world’s toughest issue. And get the chance to win 1 of 3 Prezzy Cards worth $1,000 each. Register and submit your idea today! Imagine Cup NZ competition terms and conditions apply.

A huge day yesterday as we kicked off Tech.Ed 2009 in Auckland. The keynote featured an intro from ICT Minister Steven Joyce, the worldwide Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell spoke on the global economic situation and the part technology and innovation will play in the future – with some great demos from Microsoft NZ’ers Nigel Parker, Paul Dolley and Adam Hall…and of course yours truly.

Sessions, breakouts, hands-on-labs throughout the day with all sorts of other events going on: Tech Girls Dinner, Geekzone meet-up…phew!

Will post an event wrap up after Wednesday.

I’m a big fan of TED – it’s proof that the internet can be a force for good, inspiring us and improving our lives. TEDx is an independently organised TED event held around the world – and Nigel has earned himself a slot! Details here.

VS2010 and TFS2010 – What’s New?

Presented by Adam Cogan, Microsoft Regional Director and MVP

Date: Thursday 17^th September 2009
Gather at 5:45pm, starting at 6:00pm
Catering: Pizza & Drinks
Door Charge: Free!
Venue: Quadrangle B; Seminar Room 3(QB3), Massey University, Massey Albany, Auckland (find a map here); Map of Room Location

Register here: please reply to  nsug.net@live.com or sign up to the user group at http://nsug-dotnet.groups.live.com

Visual Studio 2010  and Team Foundation Server 2010 – What’s new?  Adam will take you through some of the new features of both these products. Some of the features Adam will look to cover include,  branch visualisation, build automation, hierarchical work items, SharePoint dashboards, and others. If you are at all looking at TFS 2010 as a release to adopt, this session is a must to understand the value you'll be getting.

Adam Cogan

SSW Chief Architect, Microsoft Regional Director and MVP (TFS + VSTS), SSW

Adam Cogan is the Chief Architect at SSW, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner specializing in custom .NET, SharePoint and Business Intelligence solutions. At SSW, Adam is also a Team System MVP and Microsoft Regional Director.

I have the great privilege of opening Tech.Ed again this year and I’m really keen to get some of your ideas and thoughts to use in my intro.

Comment below, Twitter @TheGasMan, or email me – here’s some starters:

• What does Tech.Ed mean to you?
• What’s it mean to your organisation?
• What’s the best part?
• How many have you been to?
• What technology do you want to see more of?
• What’s your most memorable Tech.Ed experience?
• How far do you travel to Tech.Ed?
• How many Tech.Ed bags do you own?
• Do you remember the excellent support band from 2006?
• What’s your ideal location for Tech.Ed?
• Do developers rock more than IT Pros?
• …whatever else comes to mind

If you’re speaking at Tech.Ed this year use this banner on your blog/email sig etc.:

If you’re planning to blog from Tech.Ed register your blog – you might be quoted worldwide via the Tech Ed Online website!

If you’ll be there and want to share - try this one:

Link any of these to www.microsoft.co.nz/teched

Another regular satellite Tech.Ed event is Microsoft’s Tech Girls Dinner.

Tech Girls Dinner is a very special evening celebrating women working within the IT industry with inspiring speakers and fantastic networking opportunities. Now into its third year, Tech Girls Dinner has quickly become an established and much anticipated part of the Microsoft Tech.Ed NZ Conference and you are invited to join the celebration this year at Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre on Monday 14^th September 2009.

Guided by this year’s theme of ‘inspire’, ‘engage’ and ‘empower’, we are pleased announce a fantastic line up of inspirational and entertaining speakers guaranteed to a great evening. Julia Raue, CIO of Air New Zealand will share her inspirational business and community success as keynote at this year’s dinner. Plus, we are also pleased to have Michele A’Court, NZ’s Best Female Comedian 2002-2007.

Tech Girls Dinner 2009 will be the place to be on Monday 14 September. Seats are limited so register now!

WHEN:                 Doors open at 7:30PM, Keynote begins at 8PM, Monday 14 September 2009

WHERE:               SKYCITY CONVENTION CENTRE, AUCKLAND, NZ

TICKETS:              If you are a Tech.Ed 2009 NZ delegate, Tech Girls Dinner will be complimentary for you to attend.  Please RSVP via the Tech.Ed CommNet Portal by Friday 4^th September.

If you are not a Tech.Ed 2009 NZ delegate, individual tickets are available at $99.00 + GST each. Please contact Avenues Event Management (call 0800 TECHED / 0800 832433 or email teched@avenues.co.nz)

www.microsoft.co.nz/teched

One of the really cool pre-Tech.Ed events is Code Camp, a great thing to do if you’re attending Tech.Ed (or even if you’re not…). This year Code Camp offers an impressive agenda with multiple streams:

Development

Programming Languages

Behaviour Driven Development

Domain Specific Languages

Silverlight with Prism

Certification

Security

Half-day workshop with Michael Howard

Secure Coding Practices

SQL Server / BI

Best practices in SQL Server Virtualisation

Query Optimization and tuning

SSAS and Gemini

Understanding SQL Indexing

SQL Server Maintenance

Speakers include

Alex Henderson - DevDefined

Andy Prow - Aura Software Security

Dave Dustin – Wolters Kluwer

Greg Low – SolidQ

Ivan Towlson - Mindscape

James Hippolite - Telecom

Michael Howard, Kamal Hathi & Nicholas Drisas - Microsoft

Owen Evans, Kirk Jackson & Sky Sigal – Xero

Code Camp is "by the community, for the community" so there is no cost for attending!! So add it to your Tech.Ed experience for 2009.

Sign up here: http://www.codecamp.net.nz/

Tech.Ed 2009 kicks off in two weeks time (14-16 Sep) at Skycity in Auckland. There are still some places available and you might have seen the special offer we’ve put in place for delegates – it’s a great machine, a real “business class” netbook:

Of course we have a fantastic line-up of speakers, tracks, sessions to inform and educate, a cool TechFest party to entertain with Elemenop, Katchfire, Oscar Kightly, Ben Hurley and more, plus opportunities to network with Tech.Ed drinks and  the Tech Girls Dinner, experience Windows 7,  plus a whole lot more…

Look forward to seeing you there!

Web: http://www.msteched.com/newzealand
Twitter: http://twitter.com/techedlive #tenz9