Launch 2007 - Ottawa Community VIP Event

In each city we stop at for the 2007 Business Value Launch, we decided to take some time and acknowledge and thank the local IT communities we work with throughout the year. Instead of a traditional UserGroup presentation that is the norm - we decided to hold a special social networking event where each UserGroup lead was able to nominate a certain number of individuals to attend. The suggestion was to use the invites as a way to thank long term user group members and executive as well as invite influential people and partners to the mixing event in order for them to be exposed and possibly want to become more connected to the local IT community going forward.  We also mixed both MSDN and TechNet focused groups in hopes that new synergies could be developed.

The Ottawa event was held at a local pool hall called McClarens and was well attended by over 50 individuals. I decided to shoot some better quality video and post it up for you to see a short 5 minute stint of what the event was like.

I wanted to "call out" and thank David Campbell (Ottawa .NET User Group) for organizing the event - great job with the facilities.  From the User Group leader side of things - Orest Hirniak (president of Ottawa .NET User Group) and Garth Jones (Ottawa Windows Server User group) do a stellar job volunteering to keep these groups alive and active. Keep up the good work guys - you are doing a great job!

Video: Launch 2007 - Ottawa Community VIP

Garth surprised me with the presentation of a "geekman" action figure. I will have it up on the stage with me tomorrow.

Time for one last check of the demos.