Archives May 2009

What a beautiful day it was here meeting these wonderful people here at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville, GA.    Everyone was excited to be there, and eager to learn more about Microsoft Certification, Learning as well as Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.

We got the opportunity to meet a lot of really amazing folks who are doing their part to drive forward their own lives as well as the lives of others around them by leveraging technology

Education comes in all shapes and sizes, and even some ghosts!

I’d like to especially mention Joey Snow, IT Pro Evangelist who delivered the Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 here at Gwinnett Technical College and will be joining us at further places on the tour!    You can follow Joey on Twitter at @JoeySnow

Also, thanks to the Gwinnett Microsoft Users Group who meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at Gwinnett Technical College. Visit their website for more details here.

Here is a glance out at the next 3 days so you can stay in touch with us!

Sunday, May 3rd: Greensboro, NC to Philadelphia, PA

• Philly TechFest 2009 sponsored by Springhouse Education and Consulting Services, 12:00pm – 4:00pm (featuring live rounds of “Are You Certifiable?” Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 previews, and more)
• Microsoft Career Express at Cheyney University (Center City campus), 6:00pm – 8:00pm (register here)

Monday, May 4th: Philadelphia, PA to Cincinnati, OH

• Philly TechFest 2009 at Springhouse, 8:00am – 10:00am
• Antonia Pantoja Charter School, 7:30am – 9:00am (private event)
• Edward W. Bok Technical High School, 10:45am – 12:00pm (private event)
• MCP “Tweet-up” in Columbus (be sure to follow us on Twitter for details!)

Tuesday, May 5th: Cincinnati, OH to Indianapolis, IN

• MAX Learning Luau at MAX Technical Training in Cincinnati, 11:00am – 1:00pm (featuring Windows 7 previews, lunch, drawings and more!)
• “Bring a Friend” Night at “LANTech Training, Indianapolis, 5:00pm – 7:00pm (bring a friend interested in starting a career in IT, and you both might win a TechNet Plus subscription (and your friend might win a laptop, too!))

Hey, I use Twitter, you use Twitter right? Want to follow us on the Career Express and beyond on Twitter? me thinks you’ve come to the right place! Stay tuned for impromptu tweetups!

What a great time we spent at New Horizons in Atlanta, with a great hosting atmosphere!

The folks from New Horizons were extremely receptive as Louie Bernstein, General Manager of New Horizons Georgia welcomed us at the door as we came in! (above giving a thumbs up)

Moving on from New Horizons we proceeded to meet up with Eric Griffin, Author of Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 (Express Edition) I have a great video with him which I will see if I have the time to actually convert and edit it in order to post it!

Oh, and last but not least, here is the WRDW Channel 12 interview I spoke about before.  Edited but in the end I made it on the air, so go me! :)

Here is a breakdown of what to expect for Saturday and Sunday!

Saturday, May 2nd: Atlanta, GA to Greensboro, NC

• Gwinnett Technical College, Lawrenceville, GA, 9:00am – 12:00pm
• Tweetup in Charlotte at 3PM
• Springsteen in Greensboro! (The unpublished tweetup! ;))

Sunday, May 3rd: Greensboro, NC to Philadelphia, PA

• Philly TechFest 2009 sponsored by Springhouse Education and Consulting Services, 12:00pm – 4:00pm (featuring live rounds of “Are You Certifiable?” Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 previews, and more)
• Microsoft Career Express at Cheyney University (Center City campus), 6:00pm – 8:00pm (register here)

What do you get when you get on a bus at 5AM and drive 3hrs to a US Military base?  Amazing experiences like the types you’ll read about and see in picture form below!

As you can see above, we had a decent turn out of highly qualified IT Professional Soldiers.  The type of training these soldiers receive is far above the standard bar set for other IT Pro’s with such attention to detail paid toward Real Practical experience, that the the value of their training alone is absolutely amazing.

The finest of the finest stood around our Career Express bus to show us their colours!

Some other high-lights of this, is that at one point WRDW Augusta Channel 12 interviewed both @chrisrue and myself outside in front of the bus, including a little tour of the bus!

In honor of my phones horrible ability to take photos, I am not including the sleeping while sitting photos taken on our way to Fort Gordon :)  After this point we took off for New Horizons in Atlanta, where I am writing this blog post right now!   Look forward to more details later!

Hey, are you going to TechEd? Stop by and visit NetApp (and me! :))

Join NetApp at Microsoft TechEd 2009

Booth 417

Join us at booth 417 to discover how you can do more and store less with NetApp. Guaranteed.* See how our comprehensive portfolio of storage and data management solutions can help you reduce costs, reach new levels of efficiency, and increase data protection in your Microsoft environment.

You’ll also have the opportunity to meet with our executives and technical experts. Together, we’ll look at how our innovative solutions for Microsoft Hyper-V™, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server®, and Microsoft SQL Server® can help your company go further, faster.

In addition to learning about NetApp® storage and data management solutions for Microsoft environments at the NetApp booth, you’ll get a free NetApp t-shirt and a chance to win an Amazon Kindle 2 and a $200 Amazon gift certificate in our daily raffle. You’ll also be entered to win our grand prize—a $5,000 AMEX gift card!

If you would like to get more in-depth information on our innovative storage and data management solutions for Microsoft environments while at TechEd, fill out the form to request a meeting with our executives or technical experts.

Furthermore, the kinds of things which will be covered?!

NetApp virtualization solutions for Hyper-V:  Enabling customers to realize the promise of a flexible, scalable, and efficient data center by eliminating common challenges with storage provisioning and data protection encountered when transitioning to a virtualized environment.
NetApp storage and data management solutions for Microsoft Exchange:  Helping customers reduce costs, increase availability and simplify management of their enterprise messaging systems.
NetApp storage and data management solutions for Microsoft SharePoint Server:  Helping customers reduce costs and improve availability by improving ways of managing and protecting their data in collaboration portals and document repositories across the enterprise.
NetApp solutions for Microsoft SQL Server: Enabling customers to reduce costs and increase availability using our highly efficient, scalable storage and data management solutions.

NetApp Birds-of-a-Feather session

NetApp will be hosting a Birds-of-a -Feather session, “Gaining Efficiencies with Virtualization” on Wednesday, May 13^th from8:00 pm – 9:00 pm.

So, come on down, and I’ll be there as well! Feel free to tweet me, or find me around!