Category Microsoft

Exiting the bus at Cheyney University in Center City PA, we were greeted by an exuberant crowd of people (Wow! Are we rockstars?! I think so… certification rock stars I tell ya!)

Unfortunately the photos I got of the greeting process, were terrible so you won’t be seeing those! But do not let that dishearten you from the rest of the experience!

Upon arriving upstairs we were greeted with tables of information, turn tables, and chair swag!

Let me tell you, they had some absolutely amazing art work on site there, which was donated to them.  Absolutely beautiful and absolutely stunning, piece after piece.

So, while most of my photos turned into blurry mobs, I did get some great video footage which I’ll need to edit together (soon?!) so look forward to that over the next coming days.

Cheyney University was (whoa!) founded in 1837, and is one of the oldest colleges and universities in America.    The folks I had the opportunity to meet here are doing some great things, trying to help get certified and educate in general people who are looking for improvement.    In addition, they have opportunities available to people out of work or in a number of other scenarios.    I had the opportunity to talk with Kyle, Jillian and Tim Bryant who is the CEO of Knowledge Solutions International, and let me tell you, their drive and passionate in working with Cheyney operating as an IT Academy as well as other community efforts is great from my perspective.

It’s one thing to say, that it is good to see opportunities like this being available in a down economy, but I wouldn’t even stop there, as opportunities like this existing period are just one of the reasons I find this particular focus of technology to be so absolutely exciting.

This is one of those things you honestly would never be aware of if you weren’t out here on the bus, visiting people of all types and of all backgrounds.   Whether a secured and regimented military base in southern Georgia, or the inner city of Philadelphia, the mission is the same: To educate, to make yourself more relevant, to secure a future for yourself.

The future is in your hands, regardless of background there are opportunities waiting for you to leap upon them, I’ll keep watching and seeing more and more of this as these absolutely life altering days pass, and I’ll be loving every minute of it!  This is the future, rock on or rock out!

(Oh, look at that.. when we got back to the bus, look who was rocking on their future!)

Wow! Welcome to Exton, Pennsylvania! We drove tirelessly from Greensboro, NC all through the night to end up here in PA this amazing (rainy) day.    But What a day and what an event that lay before us as we arrived!   It started with a wonderful greeting in the rain!

Ken Rosen shakes hands here with Nadine Sievers and Certified Trainer, MCT, MCTS Project server and Project, Melanie Rosen (Oh, did I mention Professional Photographer?! :))

Bruce Cooper starts off Springhouse TechFest 2009 to a full room. Full crowd on a Sunday!

The whole crowd was great, they all seemed eager to learn, and learn they did!   The day ended with the whole Springhouse team taking a photo in front of the bus in the rain, and many conversations and connections were had by all!

I encourage you to check out Springhouse’s blog, and you can also follow them on Twitter @springhouseeduc and Facebook!

So, You notice I mentioned above that there were great conversations and learning to be had by all right? Well, allow me to share with you some insight of those conversations that I found

I was fortunate to get to know the type of character and culture which makes up not only the organization of Springhouse, but also how their mission around Education and Consulting is above all one of the best I’ve seen!   Their focus on full value solutions and ensuring that you are taken care of in the long run, whether consultatively or educationally is awe inspiring and not the type of behavior you see from other training organizations.

The relationship they have with their own internal staff has people coming back for more and more, and the things I heard about the types of training they offer and their educational guarantees left my speechless!

I definitely encourage you to check them out at their website, because these are seriously great folks and while they’re doing amazing things today, I know we can expect them to grow on that in the future.

What are the odds that Bruce Springsteen would be in Greensboro at the same time that the MSLearning Career Express bus is passing through? Apparently, those odds are so good, we had tickets for 8 of us to attend!

If you followed the tweets during that time, while I was actively watching and experiencing the concert, I was also interactively sharing the experience with everyone on twitter via @cxi :)

What followed this, which rocked out the night after a totally rocking time, was playing Guitar Hero World Tour with 4 players in the back of the bus.  We were rocking it out on Bass and Guitar, Microphone and Drums, all while moving 60mph!

What a time, what a time! We just got rained out of our MCP Tweetup in Charlotte!

We were visited by some amazing certification hungry PSS Engineers who read about it on the blog and not even on Twitter! (grr! tweetup! :))

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!))