TechEd Orlando 2008

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The week of TechEd IT PRO was both a great experience and educational. If you haven’t been to TechEd or missed it this year, check online for a recap (https://www.microsoft.com/techedonline/).

 

For me it was all about the Office Deployment Booth. I was given the opportunity to be up close and personal with customers and their questions or feelings, on the Office Suites and how to deploy in their particular environment. The majority were still on 2003 with an XP O/S, but were eager to migrate to 2007… as long as I answered a couple key questions. =)

 

For those of you that are still in that evaluation arena of moving up to 2007, check out the many deployment articles on TechNet within the Office Resource Kit (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/desktop/default.aspx ) .

 

For those of you that have deployed and needed a Training Plan, slow down – we have one for you! Actually, as I pointed out to many of the folks who stopped by, we have a lot of resources to share with you and make the transition for your end users more enjoyable. First the Enterprise Learning Toolkit (https://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/elf/welcome.aspx ) lets you customize the results for a Training Plan that highlights your needs. Second, the Fluent UI Resource Page (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/desktop/bb736211.aspx ) where you can find videos, Add-ins, and all sorts of explanations on how to use, modify or create changes to the Ribbon. Thirdly, Office Online hosts specifically user friendly interactive videos that expose the 2003 commands with their counterparts in 2007.

 

If you did stop by the booth and we didn’t have any more of the CD hand-outs, you can download the Running Start CD online (https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e466d4d3-3c57-4ae3-9ebe-29e9d8d90804&displaylang=en )

 

Aside from Deployment Strategies, I was able to attend a number of the Deployment and Virtualization Sessions. Diving deeper into the many options that are available was like being in a candy store. It’s exciting to see how many ways you can manage your infrastructure regardless what the number of clients are.

 

When the thunderstorms ceased and the days came to an end, it was nice to be able to catch up with a few of the MCT’s, and relax with my co-workers.