Thoughts and photos from a HERO.

I’m not sure if everyone is aware of this but… I am a real live hero. It’s true, at the launch event I attended yesterday Microsoft told me that I along with all of the developers, geeks, and admins in the IT industry are heroes as long as we run their new software.

That new software is of course Microsoft Windows Server, SQL Server, and Visual Studio 2008. The all-new additions to the Microsoft arsenal offer endless new features and functions designed to make management, storage, and development easier for the rest of us. You can check out all of the details about the new titles and the launch events on the tour website.

This was my 4th Microsoft event, 3rd Launch event at the Minneapolis Convention Center (MCC). My first Microsoft conference was the Windows Server 2003 launch about 5 years ago and when I compare the photos from then and now not a lot has changed. There are more vendors at the partner pavilion and some of the workshops (or breakout sessions as Microsoft calls them) moved around but for the most part it’s the same event just with new banners and products to show off. Still, it’s a lot of fun.

Tuesday’s conference had a great keynote speech done by Gabriel Broner who is the General Manager of the Storage Solutions Division at Microsoft. Gabriel claims that he works in Redmond, WA but keeps a home in Edina, MN. I found that interesting because it is a ‘tour’ after all and the other speakers didn’t claim to be residing in Minnesota. I’m curious if Gabriel actually does have a home here or maybe he just looks up a city in each state he hits on the tour and claims he has houses there also. As if I didn’t already have limited free time on my hands now I’ll have to call random residents of Edina asking if they work for Microsoft just to get to the bottom of his shenanigans.

The massive convention center is a great venue for something of this size as each area can essentially have its own floor and each session has its own room. The Partner Pavilion where all of the sponsors had the booths set up was moved to the lower floor into an utterly gigantic warehouse like space. Totally underground, I didn’t even know it existed. In fact, MCC is such a large complex that while the Microsoft thing was going on they were also holding the Minnesota Sportsman’s Show along with another private conference simultaneously and there were still tons of unused space.

Having the opportunity to learn about the new technology is quite an experience but we all know the best part about trade shows is the free garb. I literally got a huge Dell tote bag full of pens, t-shirts, balls, Frisbees and magazines along with a flying monkey, USB charger, and a thing that untangles the cord on my phone. I also received a very nice Microsoft branded lunch bag but the crème de la crème, the big enchilada is of course the mind blowing $550+ worth of software just for attending. I received a kit that includes full copies of Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, Visual Studio 2008 Standard, and a year licensed copy (extended trial) of Server 2008 Enterprise. Now you know why I bother going to these things.

Despite snapping pictures with a camera being frowned upon I did manage to take a few more pictures while I was down there, you can see them all by Clicking Here.