Sign up for Office 2010 Technical Preview

I’m at TechEd in LA, but it seems I could get just as much excitement just watching the Twittersphere today and watching #tela09 tags!  And my feet are killing me.  So be glad you’re sitting at your computer instead of walking around Los Angeles!  Let me give you some highlights for Office developers:

Watch the Keynotes which include Office 2010 demos.  Also some interviews on Office and SharePoint on the same TechEd site.

Office 2010 The Movie:  Countdown to Awesome is the new site where you can watch a slick video and more importantly, click the Sign up for the Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Preview.  When you click the link they show you the “fine print” which I will now print in large font:

By registering you are signing up to be considered for the Technical Preview Program, you will be waitlisted for consideration to be invited into the Technical Preview Program. We will notify invitees in early to mid July.

“What does that mean?” you ask.  Well, it means that Microsoft wants to collect a wide variety of customer-types and ensure that our TechPreview covers all the different types of customers.  For example, the sign-up form asks if you will test the Tech Preview at Home or Work.  Be honest in your answer because we truly want to get perspectives from all types of Office users.  Similarly the survey asks the size of your company and if you read Japanese.  There is no trick to get invited. 

If you don’t get invited, then don’t fret.  We’ll give you some useful information on this blog and other Office blogs to help you prepare your business for the future.  For now, I encourage you to build great solutions for Office using all of the resources at Microsoft including Visual Studio, VBA, Open XML SDK, code samples, Forum support, Code Gallery, and the Office Developer Center.

Sincerely, Christin Boyd, Program Manager