Contagious Curiosity : TechEd

SoCalDevGal interview Bart de Smet and Mwansa Lumpa at TechEd Africa 2009

llangit — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:36:56 GMT

Enjoy - (can you tell I was a bit jet lagged?)

first Bart on his work with .NET 4.0 Framework

then Mwansa on his work developing SmartCare in Zambia

Report from TechEd – WomenBuild 2.0 SeriousPlay with LEGOs

llangit — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:12:44 GMT

Happy to have led the Women in Technology event at TechEd last week. Asli Bilgin and I have been working with a team at Microsoft to build this event brand for a year now. Microsoft has hosted WomenBuild events across the US and Australia already and intends to host more in the future. (Take a look at the original video of the day Asli and I met and the day we got this idea – just for fun.)

The idea is to hold events which implement a type of speed group problem solving facilitated by table leaders and LEGO bricks. We’ve worked directly with the originator of the SeriousPlay concept, Robert Rasmussen to customize the implementation for WomenBuild. We were quite lucky to have Robert over from Denmark to act as lead facilitator for this event at TechEd.

At each event small groups of women and men who are interested in working on this problem (too few women working in technology) build models with LEGO bricks to answer directed questions around this issue. We have a Facebook group to share knowledge and to connect people who are interested in WomenBuild. At TechEd we had over 100 participants in WomenBuild 2.0. To get a sense of the event, take a look at the video below (thanks, again, to our friends at TechZulu for this one!):

So, what were the key learnings from WomenBuild 2.0? I’ve compiled the feedback (after building a model to represent their ideas around a specific question related to WiT), each participant then shares ‘their story’, and then writes down their key thoughts. Here’s what some of the participants had to say about these questions:

1) Why are you here? i.e. motivations for wanting to make change

Together we can improve the situation

To meet other technical women

Increase the visibility of women in technology (many people said this)

Want to get new ideas on how to solve this problem

My co-worker (a female) asked to attend

My graduating class in IT had too few women in it

2) What is essence of the problem?

Work/Life Balance – too much to do, especially if raising kids (many responses)

Different expectations “there is a mental wall – false expectations”, IT not seen as feminine, technology implemented via a ‘male vision’ (good old boys club), women feel alone or apart from the group of men at work in IT, women must work at least 2x as hard to prove their technical competence as men

Women don’t expect to have careers in IT, area not seen as attractive to women, it is not expected that women will do these jobs,

Women are not encouraged to be creative or to ‘take risks’, limits their ability to be effective at work

Women are isolated, feel alone, ‘only women in the room’

3) What actions could be taken to address this problem?

Educate girls about IT career possibilities – participate in DigiGirlz, level the playing field at an early age (many, many responses!)

Be more visible as women in IT, i.e. attend more IT events, public speaking, educate, act as role models, mentors

Act as a mentor to a girl (many mentioned younger family members or neighbors)

Train (enlighten) teachers and parents about gender bias in STEM education

Consciously attempt to ‘hear from’ everyone in the room, both men and women (at work)

Reward risk taking women at work, break or change the rules

Listen to my wife more closely (multiple responses!)

Accept part-time work from busy women, especially mothers

Ask my husband/boyfriend, etc…to take on more family responsibilities

Take time for me to learn, get certified, attend user groups, attend conferences, seek out a mentor

Engage girls in Green Development and Green IT

Bring Robotics to girls

What’s next for WomenBuild?

We are evaluating the first year and planning for year two roll out. We are attempting to sharpen the focus of the event to result in more actionable information. Were you there? Have you attended WomenBuild somewhere in the US? We’d love your feedback! (via this blog or our facebook group). We are also considering what we call *Build programs, i.e. GirlzBuild (for DigiGirlz), etc… We would also be interested in your thoughts on that.

Also, I must thank the 10 table facilitators who made WomenBuild 2.0 possible – Cidgem Patlak, Kim Schmidt, Cindy Palmer, Elisabeth Vanderveldt, Julie Lehrman, Jenny Nielsen, Karen Henderson, Dana (from Hynesite), Julie Yack, and Catherine Eibner.

Report from TechEd – Jam on IT Community Party

llangit — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:19:27 GMT

Thursday was community party night at TechEd. In addition to the attendee party, we in SoCal were able to invite around 300 people from the local tech community (who weren’t registered to attend TechEd). It was really cool to see who turned out for our free food and drink, and then hung around for the social events, the Birds of a Feather informal tech sessions hosted by INETA, the women in tech event (more on that in the next blog post) and/or the speaker idol competition. Here were the activities:

The mix was really great. In particular, in addition to SoCal MVPs and MS community members, our local evangelism team reached out to invite SoCal tech luminaries from social media and those who use competitive products (i.e. Adobe, Google, etc…)

In general, I heard lots of good comments. Probably the best way is to look at highlights from the TweetStream – complete stream here.

Report from TechEd – Windows Mobile Applications Update

llangit — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:39:35 GMT

People ask me ‘how do you keep up?’ Well, sometimes I don’t. I am horribly ‘behind’ in the world of Windows Mobile applications, development, etc…So I decided to spend a bit of time at TechEd trying to remedy that situation. First I attended the (in)famous Windows Mobile Smackdown session. If you’ve never seen one of these, catch the video or, better yet, attend live. The mobile team is well-known for their crazy all-demo and only-demo style. For this smackdown, they just showed one cool application after another.

Because I am so lame and only use the default applications on my (new) HTC mobile TouchPro phone, I felt like a complete loser after this session!

Tomorrow is ‘fix up my phone day’ BTW. Here are some apps I’ll be installing and links. Facebook – link here. Screens below. Also cool was a GestureTek soccer game – link. And Kinoma Play for rich media on the phone – link. Really I am just getting started though. I’ll blog more as I work on installing apps on my phone.

Also they announced the Windows Marketplace for Mobile store – check it out here.

Because I was having so much fun with the team, I crashed their party (at the Conga Room) that night as well.

It was really fun and informative. I met several local Windows Mobile MVPs and have invited them to create a mini-smackdown event at upcoming local BarCamps (next one is in San Diego on May 30 and 31 at the Intuit Building there). If you are like me, you’ll be amazed at the cool apps that are out there for your phone.

If you are still a bit behind on developing for this platform, check out this video from a TechEd session – linked here.

Report from TechEd – ITPros know how to throw a great party!

llangit — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:17:24 GMT

Well it wouldn’t be TechEd, if there weren’t one or more fun parties to attend, but I have to hand it to our corporate ITPro team this year. Their Windows 7 SpringBoard party at the StandardLA was really great.

The atmosphere was great – Stephen Rose (Sr. Community Manager Windows Client ITPro) was a great host. He’s also been literally traveling the entire planet talking non-stop about Windows 7. If you know an ITPro – send them his way.

Joey Snow from TechNet Edge was doing DJ duty at the party. Joey is another ‘rock-star’ speaker. In fact he and Stephen are often traveling together these days, speaking everywhere from the MCT summit in Prague, to TechEd and more. What makes both of these guys so effective is not so long ago they were working ITPros (both joined MS only in the last couple of years), so they really know what it’s like in the real world. Also they’ve both been MCTs for years, so they are effective communicators.

Of course you probably already heard the big announcements (Win7 ‘on track’ for holiday delivery, WinSvr2008 R2 RC available at the show), so what else is on the mind of ITPros at TechEd? Although it’s not really my world, there was much talk around the team’s Springboard website – even mentioned in the TechEd keynote as being a top site for customers.

*special thanks to my friend and top photographer Wm. Marc Salsberry for yet again, taking incredible pictures.

Report from TechEd – What’s new with SQL Server BI?

llangit — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:45:23 GMT

During the day, whenever I could I hung out in the SQL Server Business Intelligence world (another main site – here) – sessions, floor booth, also I did a book signing for my BI book. I was also fortunate enough to have a long lunch with Gemini PM Donald Farmer. So, what did I see?

1. GEMINI! What the heck is this? “Self-service BI” (delivered from within Excel) is the shortest description. This really doesn’t do it justice though. From Mosha’s blog:

In the couple of hours since the announcement here at MS BI conference, I talked with few people already and saw few threads and comments in the Web, and (as expected), there is plenty of confusion about what “Project Gemini” is and isn’t etc. Here are the facts:

A. Project Gemini is the Analysis Services

B. It is next version of Analysis Services, which will ship before SQL11, as part of SQL Server “Kilimanjaro”

C. It uses column oriented processing and in memory storage as core technological principals

Out of all coverage on the Web, that I saw so far – the best explanation comes from Doug Henschen article “Microsoft Will Bow In-Memory Analysis, Appliance-Ready Database in 2010” in Intelligence Enterprise. Here is the key quote from this article: “It's essentially another storage mode for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services with access via MDX, so existing applications will be able to take advantage of the performance enhancements”

Just to repeat it in other words: Existing applications that work today with Analysis Services through XMLA and MDX will be able to work with Gemini, because Gemini is Analysis Services. In fact, in “SQL 2008 and beyond” session today, Thierry demonstrated how Report Builder worked with Gemini seamlessly. And because column oriented (and in-memory) are used as a foundation of storage engine, the performance and scalability by data volumes is much better.

Take a look at Donald’s demo – at TechEd during the ‘BI Power Hour’ he did the demo on a NETBOOK – just to show off!

2. Master Data Services – so what is this? Essentially it’s a system for enterprise data management (universal types if you will) – more from the announcement “Master Data Services provides customers with master data management (MDM) capabilities that help manage the data organizations rely on to create a "single version of the truth”– for more detail take a look here. We announced at TechEd that Master Data Services for SQL Server will ship as part SQL Server 2008 R2. The first CTP will be available in H2 of 2009.

3. BI in action – I just love it when we use our own stuff. Check out this short video about the use of a mobile BI application at TechEd that the BI team used to monitor session and speaker scores at the show. The takeaway is that BI doesn’t have to be HUGE or ENTERPRISE, rather it has to be relevant and appropriately sized.

Report from TechEd – MVP pre-show summit

llangit — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:19:44 GMT

Sunday before TechEd I represented local evangelists at the TechEd MVP pre-summit. In addition to meeting several MVPs for the first time, I got a chance to plan new events with key SoCal MVPs (most of whom also lead or actively participate in local User Groups as well) -- James Johnson, Denny Cherry, Mike Vincent, Andrew Karcher, Mark Rosenberg and more attended.

Here are some of the ideas for new types of events that we kicked around – what do think?

1) Give Camp – a weekend coding smack down, to be held at a university, with teams of developers working to create solutions that will benefit non-profits. Judging, technical resources (i.e. help) from MS and more. MS did this in Dallas last year with great success. Also post solutions to CodePlex. (Later in the week I had dinner with Sara Ford, who runs CodePlex for Microsoft and she thought this was a great idea and agreed to highlight any projects we might produce there. Also tie this project to James’ NING site - ‘Geeks Without Borders’ to increase reach beyond SoCal.

2) Proctored Hands on Labs with prerequisites – repeating our highly successfully Silverlight 2.0 HOLs last year, with themes of WPF and/ Windows 7 development. Have a first night (Tues) with lecture, which is also recorded, in case you can’t make it, then the lab night is on Thursdays. Repeat frequently, host at technical training centers throughout SoCal.

3) geekSpeak guests – I am always looking for interesting new guests for my weekly webcast series (MSDN geekSpeak) and I met several MVPs at this summit who I’ve invited to appear on the show this summer.

Report from TechEd – What is Oslo? What is M? What is Intellipad?

llangit — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:38:19 GMT

All week at TechEd I worked in the Oslo booth in the SOA area. I worked with Kris Horrocks, Miguel Llopis and Shy Cohen. Kris and Miguel are on the Oslo product team and Shy is an architect and trainer, who recently left Microsoft after over 10 years in Redmond. Working with Softies from the Product Team is always a treat because I get to ‘go deep’ into a technology. This is definitely something I miss about my job as a broad reach developer evangelist. I spent a good amount of time listening, and doing my usual translating, trying to help the customers to understand our vision of Oslo. So the questions came is two groups.

1) I am a developer and this is a developer thing that I have never heard of - so what is it exactly?

2) I am an architect (usually a large enterprise architect) and I use product X right now, how does Oslo compare?

To answer the first one, we started with basic concepts. Oslo is a platform for creating model-driven application and it contains a language, M; tools, IntelliPad and Quadrant; and a (SQL Server) database, Repository. The MSDN Oslo developer center is a great place to start learning – it’s here.

Oslo allows developers to use, extend or to create DSLs (domain-specific languages). DSLs are used to create models which conform to schema or grammar types. All artifacts, i.e. models, schemas, etc…are stored in the Repository. We intend to provide several core DSLs as part of Oslo when it ships as a product. These include MWeb for ASP.NET, MService for WCF / WF, MEntity for the Entity Framework, and MSchema for SQL. You can use these DSLs ‘as is’ to improve developer productivity, i.e. write in a more natural way (for developers) and get output in various formats, or you can extend the DSLs we provide, or even write your own. A fun example that we showed was a ‘MWindow’ DSL that ‘translated’ input in the form of a poem, i.e. ‘Give me a Window, With a Title of New, Color the Outside, And the Inside too, Make them both, blue, light, blue’, which was then translated into XAML, which was next associated with the runtime to output a WPF application.

Of course the key to using any new toolset is understanding the language. For a quick look at M, see the video referenced below.

We also showed some other DSL examples, (such as one for the X10 home automation domain) via IntelliPad. The example shown below is from the IntelliPad team blog and it shows MSchema, or SQL generation.

Quadrant, which was previewed at PDC last fall, is NOT part of the current Oslo CTP (Jan 2009). This CTP includes all the samples we showed at TechEd as well as IntelliPad. Principal Architect of Oslo, Don Box, also presented a session at TechEd on Oslo, which should be available online (eventually) after the show.

As I told many customers as the show, we are ‘early’ in the development of our modeling platform, so if this is an area of interest for you, please grab the CTP, check it out and send me your feedback. Our product team really wants to hear from you.

Post TechEd SoCal Tech Events

llangit — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:01:02 GMT

There are worse problems to have, but a person really needs stamina to keep up with all of the possible tech events in SoCal. I had fun at TechEd, working in the Oslo booth with the team (finally met Don Box in person!), leading the WiT event, attending sessions (mostly BI or Windows Mobile), and, of course, being social.

If you didn’t make it to TechEd US last week, check out TechEd Online. I think one of the most interesting parts is the blog aggregator page – here. Also our friends at TechZulu did a series of interviews with top TechEd developer speakers at TechEd. I’ll post links to those videos soon. TechZulu was also kind enough to cover the WiT WomenBuild SeriousPlay with LEGOs at TechEd. That video will be linked here as well. Check out the facebook group for more info about this global program.

Now that we are ‘post-TechEd’, what events are on my radar this week?

MON – DigitalDrinksLA at the Viceroy. Facebook link here.

TUES – geekDinner at uWink in Hollywood. Upcoming link here.

WED – MSDN event ‘Best of Mix’ at MS LA. Registration link here. Event is also running at MS Irvine next week (Thurs, May 28) – reg link here. I plan to definitely be at the Irvine instance, probably will bring some of my books to raffle and sign as well.

WED – DigitalGames go Social Panel discussion at uWink in Hollywood – reg link is here.

THURS – Black Card Circle in Pasadena. I think this is an invite only event – it’s tech and charity, so, of course, I will go. :) Here’s the facebook link.

Lest you think that all I do is attend events, I’ll mention that I am beginning work on a couple of projects as well.

1) DigiGirlz summer courses and events.

2) SQL Data Services webcasts for the Azure team

3) Abstracts and Sessions for TechEd South Africa in Durban Aug 2 – 5.

Going to TechEd in LA next week? – find SoCalDevGal there

llangit — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:53:00 GMT

TechEd starts for me on Sunday, May 10. Here’s where to find me day-by-day – if you can’t find me send me mail via this blog with your number and I’ll text you back.

Sunday
day - MVP event at LACC -and- OSLO booth prep
night – SharePoint by Night Party -and- MCT ‘foodie’ meet up

Monday
morning – at the show
afternoon – Oslo booth
evening – Win7 party

Tuesday
morning – Oslo booth
afternoon – MCT lounge, then book signing at TechEd bookstore (4pm – 5pm)
evening – West Region team dinner

Wednesday
morning – at the show
afternoon – Oslo booth
evening – secret party

Thursday
morning – Oslo booth
afternoon – WomenBuild prep (facilitator training starts at 4pm)
evening – Community Party 5pm, WomenBuild 6:30pm

Friday
morning – Oslo booth

Want to go to Tech-Ed 2009 in Los Angeles for free? Volunteer to work there

llangit — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:38:41 GMT

Submit your name via the Call for Staff tool. You will then be considered for a staff position helping at one of the product demo stations in the Technical Learning Center (TLC). Upon completing the required fields and clicking on the “Submit” button, your information will be reviewed by the TPM for your area of expertise. Selections are based on your experience and the staffing needs of the Track area. In return for helping in the TLC area for a total of 20 hours, Tech·Ed will provide a 100% discounted full-conference pass. You will be responsible for arranging and paying for your own travel and accommodations.

Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2009 » Home

Hey, look I'm in the Fishbowl at Virtual TechEd

llangit — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:47:23 GMT

Here in Barcelona, there is activity going on everywhere. One area is the 'fish bowl' which looks like a 'great glass elevator'. Catch me talking about Business Intelligence.

Virtual TechEd from Barcelona starts Nov 5

llangit — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:00:18 GMT

Many of you have sent mail saying you 'wished you were here too'. Now you can be, kind of - starting tomorrow (well, today where I am - jet lag is really got me!), you can catch some of the conference on Virtual TechEd. I am scheduled to record on Tuesday and Wednesday - so, check it out!

I'm in NorCal next week == busy!

llangit — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:04:52 GMT

Monday / Tuesday, I am scheduled to do something really different for me - attend a technical conference where 'no boys are allowed' - it's called She's Geeky and will be held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The attendee list is pretty darn interesting. I think I'm going to have fun at this one!

Wednesday, I am off to an internal meeting north of San Francisco, so I can enjoy my new Foo Fighters CD as I drive up there from SVC. Because of this, I'll miss this week's geekSpeak - Glen and a substitute co-host will talk with High-Performance Compute Clustering expert (and recently hired Microsoft Developer Evangelist) Dariusz Parys from Germany.

Then back to SVC (Microsoft campus) on Th/Fri to speak at the internal Microsoft Women's conference both days. My session is called 'Curiosity will get you Everywhere' and will be available on the post-conference DVD for Microsoft employees. Depending on how it goes, I may start presenting a variant of this to external audiences as well.

It looks like I am getting interviewed for Channel9's WM_IN (Women in Technology) series while I am there too, so I'll post that link once it's available.

I'm still at it on Saturday, speaking at the SVC code camp on SharePoint for Developers -- looks like a good crowd too, with nearly 70 people indicating interest already. Again, it will be interesting to meet SharePoint developers from a geography other SoCal.

After this whirlwind week, I'm home for a couple of days, and then off to TechEd/Developers Barcelona - where I'll be speaking on VSTS in Africa, Data Mining in Excel, and will be moderating a panel of Women Developers.

Shows, shows, shows - which one should I go to?

llangit — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:17:00 GMT

I've attended or worked at most major Microsoft shows over the past few years and am often asked "Which show is best and why?" Having just returned from attending a terrific week-long show (TechReady - it's for internal MS employees only), I've been thinking a bit about this. First here's my non-inclusive list of shows

Covergence - 3/11 in San Diego - if Dynamics is your thing, this is the show for you
Mix - 4/30 in Las Vegas - this one is for Web developers and Web designers - it's also the best "party" of any show. Also, it's one of the few Microsoft shows which has a relatively large amount of non-MS presentations, i.e. EBay, etc.
MEDC - 4/30 in Las Vegas - all things Mobile development - this year it's being held at the same time and place as Mix. Where else can you actually have robot car races and claim that you are working?
BI Conference - 5/9 in Seattle - new this year, focusing on data warehousing (or business intelligence) using SQL Server, Analysis Services, etc...
TechED - 6/4 in Orlando - this is big kahuna, everyone and everything is here. If you've never been - pace yourself. For first timers, exhaustion by the third day is quite common.
WWP - 7/10 in Denver - this is one (World Wide Partner) that I've not attended, I hear that this is more sales than tech focused
PDC - 10/2 in Los Angeles - want to see the future? Attend this one. Here you'll see hard-core developer presentations on current products as well as a first glimpse of stuff coming down the road. PDC is only held when there is something new to talk about, which has translated into NOT every year. Lately it's been held every other year.

Now I know you may be saying, "Hey, where's <insert your favorite show name here>?" And, to be fair, I haven't attended every conference there is. I've heard good things about WinHec, FlashForward, SQL Pass and others.

Here are my top 10 tips for getting the most out of shows:

Read about it before you go - plan what you'll attend based on your interest in topic and speaker
Sign up for sessions in advance - conference planners add repeat sessions based on this information, so that increases the possibility that you'll actually be able to attend more things that you are interested in
Adjust when you get there - things change, speakers cancel, you may not be as interested in something as you thought you were, if bored in a session, leave, go do something else
Pace yourself - I've seen lots of people literally sleeping (and not because of boring sessions) by the third day
Bump into new people - sit with peple you don't know at meals, introduce yourself, I've met a large number of very interesting people that way
Listen - in the halls, at parties, etc. this is one of the most valuable things about any conference. People say what they really think while they are walking between sessions (and none of that gets recorded on the post conference DVD!)
Follow the blue shirts - particularly at PDC. Microsoft employees know which sessions and speakers are most interesting. If you see a group of blue shirts heading over to a session, you might want to check that session out too.
Try out the hands on labs - and while you are there, talk to the proctors. Ask them which labs they like best
Do evaluations - conference planers really do make adjustments based on attendee feedback - plus you can win prizes
Don't carry a laptop - just use the CommNet area to check email. It's a great place to hear what people actually think. Also if you don't have a laptop, you'll be less inclined to not pay attention during sessions.

I'd be interested to know which conferences you like best, why and what tips you have for getting the most from a technical conference.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, if I could pick only one show, I'd attend PDC every time. Why? The show's focus on the future. Attending this show may not make the most business sense for everyone, but, if you can manage it, and, if you are a curious person, then you'll really enjoy it.