Tag Get On The Bus

Welcome to Washington DC! Is what we would have heard.. err.. no, but seriously :) Hi! We are here in the Capitol as the starting point in our whirlwind tour for Charity, Non-Profits, Education, Learning, Consulting, Technology and innovation!    Also known as the IT Grand Prix sponsored by Microsoft and NPower working with non-profits and more!   Most of us arrived either last night, or this morning, but nonetheless we are all here!   So, how did we start off the day?!

After eventually getting from the airport to the shuttle to the hotel, I took a walk over to meet my fellow Red Team member Daniel Nerenberg and Gold Team member Susan Ibach who waited for me on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.    On the way to meet them, I did pass by the White House where I took this photo of apparently Biden taking advantage of the fact that Obama was back in my native Chicago and moving some things out! err… I mean something else entirely! Though tweeting my ‘joke’ about that resulted in a rather awkward snafu of ‘auto-correct’ gone wild :)

In all, it was a good start off to what is already a fairly confusing (intentionally) adventure of working with non-profits, charities and others as we travel our way over the next several days before finally descending upon New Orleans.      For those who had not seen our ‘agenda’ so to speak, here is the breakdown of where our travels will take us:

• Tuesday, June 1st – Washington DC
• Wednesday, June 2nd – New York City, NY
• Thursday, June 3rd – Houston, TX
• Friday, June 4th – New Orleans, LA

After which point, we take a brief moment to relax before each of our respective responsibilities take charge at TechEd, whether it is running labs, working a booth, interfacing with customers, or in my case – Covering the event for the Media, Press and general community so you can get a unique perspective on stuffs, so to speak :)

And if that doesn’t wrap up the day.. Enjoy this little story my good friend Jorge sent me… Notice: my little picture/name are there on the left/middle.   I guess that’d translate into.. I made it onto the Front Page of the Chicago Tribune! :)    In the meantime, if you have not already joined the Red Team! Please do so :)  It’s for our charity NetHope that we are trying to win $10,000 for!

Enjoy, and look forward to sharing the festivities and events of Days 1 and beyond for you!   Take care and talk to you soon!   – Christopher :)

Hey, you remember the bus! Well, the locations have been published! Which is especially great if you’re a number of destinations along the path you will want to hook up and meet the bus along the way!

• Milan, 26 Oct
• Zurich, 27 Oct
• Paris, 28 Oct
• London, 29 Oct
• Brussels, 30 Oct
• Amsterdam, 2 Nov
• Frankfurt, 3 Nov
• Munich, 4 Nov
• Vienna, 5 Nov
• Prague, 6 Nov
• Berlin, 9 Nov

Host a Career Express and/or a TechEd EMEA community event!

The best part of the tour are the local stops the Career Express makes at training partners and community events. On the Career Express USA tour in May, we stopped at a luau thrown by a partner, high schools, and colleges. What do you get when you host an event?

1) Company profile promoted on Get On The Bus Tour website

2) Event resources to facilitate local event in your area as part of Get On The Bus Tour stop

3) Increased visibility with TechEd EMEA registrants and/or attendees

4) Technical training on Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

If you would like to host a local event, we are taking applications until August 18. For more details, download the application form here: Bus Tour EMEA Event Application Form

Why yes, much of this was hijacked from Born to Learn, but hey! I had a lot invested in that trip and I equally want to see this one be successful! So get out there! Be a hosting location, or visit one of the hosting locations, it’ll be an experience unlike no other!

*Heavy Breathing* Ken, I am your father, err, Sorry about that.. but welcome back the BUS, Euro-style!

That’s right! For those of you who missed it the first time, this time it’s back, and more euro than ever!   But what does this mean?

Oh, I have no idea! But my thoughts are, a rocking cross-multi-country bus tour across Europe which if you knew about the first tour at all… should ROCK!   More details will come as I find out about them!

Watch this page for updates, and find out how you can join us on the bus for a free trip to TechEd Europe! Oh, and watch my blog for my take on things too!

What do you get when you have a bus load of SME’s, technology people, education zealots and Certified Professionals and coop them up?  You let them roam free in Santa Fe!   One thing, you may notice that these photos are much better than previous photos.. reason being: I had to use my camera (which only works in well lit areas) because my iPhone was bricked when I woke up in the morning and it took me several hours to recover ;)

We started our day in Santa Fe with lunch at The Shed where we ate some of the most interesting and amazing food in our journey.  And considering we are in New Mexico, the authenticity was not to be questioned!   

We went on a walk around Santa Fe, the gnarly trees above were found in the Shed’s sitting area, but we carried out into the streets!  Came across this cool Designs by Alex sign :)

We came across this weird and interesting mailbox… for some reason, it was worth taking a photo of… Infact, multiple photos, but that is neither here nor there :)  After this point, we got on the road to Bandelier National Monument!

Welcome to Bandelier National Monument…! Be careful for Mountain Lions! Got an amazing shot of the bus here with that beautiful background! It was a cloudless sky, and a day filled with not a whole lot of wind (So, can I say hot? yea I think so :))

Another random shot of me (Look ma! no eyes!) That beautiful shot down below is of an ancient day office-block.   This is where people went to work, as you can see those are open air cubicles for the people to work and attend to daily business.  I think that’s actually a call center!

Yea, this is my classic dating photo, right? It shows how adventurous I am, and look I’m a property owner! I have a hole and a ladder to climb in to! Oh, and do not handle the bats!

This is one of the first flat screen televisions – It’s obviously Organic LED (OLED :))

Watch quietly as the MSLearning team treads softly into the dark.. softly.. softly…

It was a great day, beautiful sights, decent food!  We finished with Dinner at Atomic Grill! On a side note, it appears that Atomic Grill supports Windows Live ID on their website – Wow, quite an updated Website and Restaurant! :)

To sum up dinner, it was a great dinner with a lot of variety.  We were cared for by an amazing waitress who was working –every- table in the place, constantly on the run and she did a spectacular job!  They had some amazing artwork on the inside and have a menu leaving you with options, options and options!    After a quick rush back to the bus we proceeded on to Phoenix AZ where we are now as I publish this! 

I’m going to take liberty with this post (Doh!) but seriously! I wish these photos came out better, but I’ll go with what I have which are the best of those I’ll be selecting!

We finished up eating, meeting and greeting at Tony Luke’s and proceeded on to the Liberty Bell and more! We were fortunate to have our wonderful walking guide @Krosen to take us on a tour in the drizzly sunday evening!

You know that old saying, give me liberty or give me death.   I’ll take Liberty, kthx!

After this point, we walked around and saw some great sights, had some amazing laughs, to the potential tune of Sarah being in tears of laughter! Oh, and Robots.. WTF, why are there robots on the street everywhere in philly?!   Time to crash! Have to meet with some great kids in the morning for yet another wondrous day on the Bus!