Office Hours

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Blog post updated yet again on 8/18/10.  It seems my initial mistake was the correct dates for the cities.  I have corrected this (again).  September 20th is in Irvine and September 21st is in Culver City.
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Blog post updated yet again on 8/17/10.  I accidentally swapped the addresses for the September office hours in Southern California.  I have corrected this.  September 20th is in Culver City and September 21st is in Irvine.
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Since I live in Phoenix and cover a multi state territory, it is hard for me to meet with folks in person on a regular basis.  Part of the challenge is that I am not physically in a given city (like Los Angeles) on a specific day or week of the month.  To make it easier for people who want to meet with me and have a chance to chat about different things (technology or otherwise), I have decided to hold regular office hours in two key cities to start with – Phoenix and Los Angeles Area.  I put some thought into the location and timing and decided not to use the Microsoft Office in either of these two cities since parking can be quite expensive.  For that reason, I have decided to use a Starbucks as my “office” location.

What I haven’t decided on is whether I use a different Starbucks each time or if I should just standardize on one Starbucks and always use that one location.  I am looking for feedback from everyone on what you think makes the most sense.  For August and September, I will go ahead and just pick the locations and times and will adjust starting in October based on feedback.

In Phoenix, I will be holding office hours at the following Starbucks on the specified dates and times.
August 24, 2010 (10:30 AM – 3:00 PM): 6137 N. Scottsdale Rd. #B-14 Phoenix, AZ 85250 (Scottsdale Road and McDonald)
September 28, 2010 (10:20 AM – 3:00 PM): 6137 N. Scottsdale Rd. #B-14 Phoenix, AZ 85250 (Scottsdale Road and McDonald)

In Southern California, I will be holding office hours at the following Starbucks on the specified dates and times.
August 19, 2010 (9:30 AM – 12 PM; 12:45 PM – 5 PM): 17913 MacArthur Blvd., Irvine, CA 92614 (Main and MacArthur)
September 20, 2010 (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM): 17913 MacArthur Blvd., Irvine, CA 92614 (Main and MacArthur)
September 21, 2010 (1:30 PM – 5:00 PM): 10705 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 (Washington and Overland)

I am open to any topic of conversation during these office hours.  If you want to give me feedback on how I can be more involved with the community, I welcome it.  If you want to ask technical questions about Microsoft technologies, I will do my best to answer your questions.  If you want to talk about sushi, I would be more than happy to do that too – :-).  In other words, any topic is welcome so come and engage with me.  I really look forward to meeting and talking to everyone.  Thanks!

Harold Wong