TNX: TechNet Exchange Tour - Ottawa (YOW)

I thought I would try something a little different. I wrote this post on my Windows Mobile 5 UTStarcom 6700 smartphone from Telus Mobility while en route to Toronto.  While I wrote this post on the plane, I am now offstage at the Toronto event watching Damir present on Sharepoint and Sharepoint Portal Server... I am on my 6700 smartphone and posting this using the EVDO high speed network from Telus and Bell.  Talk About Mobility!

What a tour it has been to date... 

Last week, we started out in Vancouver with just under 400 of our closest friends talking about the collaboration platform and empowering the mobile workforce. After the event, Damir and I split up and took on two cities simultaneously - Calgary and Ottawa.  I will let Damir talk about his experiences in Calgary - I will cover Ottawa with this post. 

First was the user group meeting on the 25th held at the Ottawa Microsoft office with members from the Ottawa Windows Server Usergroup in attendance. I think our numbers were in the mid 30`s - not bad at all.   I have been involved trying to help get this group off the ground and the nights meeting seems to have attracted a number of new members - always a good thing.  I must admit the tour schedule is a hectic one, but I love the intimate size of these events.  There are always lots of interaction and lots of great questions.  I even saw a couple of "east coast" friends who crashed the meeting to get in on the hard question action.  They decided to make the trip up from Moncton to catch the event the following day. All in all, the user group was a great time and lots of people liked connecting with each other and getting an opportunity to get some more hands on with Mobile 5. 

The day of the event in Ottawa (26th) was a little chilly. I arrived later then expected, but the events staff was already working full tilt and as always, has everything under control.  I have to say - in case you didn't know, Microsoft contracts out our events logistics and planning to an extrnal company called Maritz. As a speaker at public events with Microsoft - I have to say they ROCK.  Our events couldn't be a smooth as they are if we didn't have top notch people working with us to make them a success. Once I arrived on site and got all set up with my devices and devices ready to rock, I started to get some attendees coming down to chat.  I can't believe the interest in mobility! I was fielding questions on devices, capabilities and being asked to contrast the various devices including the BB and BES (you can figure out what device and service I am talking about, can't you?).  One thing that has come up a lot is comparing the Mobile 5 experience and devices against BB and their "BB Enterprise Server".  Ottawa marked the earliest question about BB (at 9:23 I think).  Because of all this interest, I will have a post and article talking about the differences of the platforms coming soon!    I am happy to report that the Ottawa event went very smooth and I was pleased to see the level of interaction for session 5 wrap up and q&a.  It's always nice to be able to present and connect with IT Pros in Ottawa, since it's currently my home base city.

Now on to the Toronto event!