Microsoft Tech Ed 2009

As mentioned in the last Newsletter, several developers attended Microsoft TechEd, held on the Gold Coast Queensland. One of our most exuberant and enthusiastic team members - Anna won the competition for the Best Trip Report. Here is an excerpt from Anna’s Report and a listing of the papers and presentations she attended. I am sure this will only whet you appetite for more, so contact us for a copy of the whole report or contact Anna to discuss any of the topics in detail.

"This was the first time in my life that I have had the opportunity to go to a conference. I was so excited, that I did not pay much attention to my flight details and almost went to Sydney (my flight number was JF444, but the number of flight to Sydney was QF444). The flight was full with Tech Ed delegates and the two hour flight time passed quickly as I chatted to a couple of guys from a company called PnP. We had arranged for Kevin to pic me up at the airport. and after a short wait Kevin rang. He was there to pick me up. However communication problems occurred and I couldn't hear him clearly on the phone. I was inside the airport and he was outside. I finally heard a great word “Outside”, ran out and with relief saw Kevin waving to get my attention. At the Hotel my room looked huge and far too luxurious for me. But, no time to enjoy the large bed or watch the big TV right now, I had a quick wash and imediately went to the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre for Tech Ed registration."

Lesson 1: Use Visual Studio 2008 Team System to manage Application Lifecycle Management
Lesson 2: Improve the code Quality with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Test
Lesson 3: Building solutions with SharePoint and Visual Tools for Office
Lesson 4: SharePoint Strategies for Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Lesson 5: ASP.net MVC
Lesson 6: Pitfalls of Software Development
Lesson 7: Migrating to Exchange 2010: Deployment Best Practices
Lesson 9: Building Fast, Standards Compliant ASP.NET sites
Lesson 10: What’s new in security in .Net4.0
Lesson 11: Server Query Plans and Query Performance
Lesson 12: .Net 4.0 Parallel Extension
Lesson 13: Tools for the DBA- better, faster, easier to use – SQL Server 2008.
Lesson 14: Big Algorithms made easy with Microsoft’s F#

"In Conclusion, after studying in Tech ed, I have gained some ideas about project management. I now have some new concepts about how to develop a website and a search engine techniques. I am far more familiar with New Visual Studio, SQL Server and windows 7 platforms. Plus as an attendee I was given a new(sweat) laptop, I think this is the best event I have attended in my life. I have to give my special thanks to my boss who gave me the chance to attend such a great event. Appreciate you, Kevin!!!"

Microsoft Tech-Ed Australia

This year Microsoft’s Tech-Ed will be held from the 8th to 11th September 2009 on the Gold Coast. Like last year we will be sending as many staff as practical to participate in this valuable event to be sure our skill sets are kept up to date.
http://www.msteched.com/australia/Public/default.aspx



We are promised that there is a lot to learn and that Kevin, Joey, Keegan, Chris, Shane, Anna and Gab will return to the workplace with up to date information about today’s cutting-edge trends, and skills and knowledge that will help make us more valuable, more productive and of greater value to you our clients.



You might recall that last year Kevin was Keynote presenter at both the Australian and New Zealand Tech-Ed happenings, and deemed an 'Expert". He has the white lab coat and hat to prove it. He presented SmartAsset as part of Microsoft's 'Software plus Services' strategy whereby client side applications such as Windows, Office based PDA functionality meet Internet-based services such as our use of Virtual Earth to track assets by their GPS coordinates.

So we are looking forward to renewing relationships from last years participation and to further build personal connections with other Microsoft 'Experts' and IT colleagues that will last far beyond the event.

SmartAsset Workshop

April this year saw a gathering of many of our FMMS clients in Melbourne for a two day workshop to review SmartAsset. We had representatives from Fremantle Port Authority, Hydro Tasmania, Barwon Water, Edith Cowan University, Daracon, Institute of Child Health and Research and Queensland Rail.



The Workshop initially was to be conducted at our offices but due to the response we moved it to Clifton's (a conference facility) in the City, where they were able to load and ghost a Virtual PC copy of SmartAsset, thereby enabling each participant access to their own copy of SmartAsset to carry out the workshop exercises.



Whilst workshop participants were enjoying themselves working through exercises and gaining in-depth understanding of SmartAsset, Gab was back at the office up to his armpits in laptops fulfilling our promise to load SmartAsset along with data onto laptops which the participants had brought along. At one time Gab had given consideration as to how much he could get for the laptops on eBay.

Getting the SmartAsset Message Out There.

An important aspect of establishing a new product such as SmartAsset in the market is getting the knowledge of how the product will bring benefit to an organisation through to your target audience.

We adopt several different vehicles for this task. This Newsletter is of course one such vehicle, others include; Conferencing, Exhibitions, Technical Presentations, technical papers, Print Media Articles and Workshops.

On Conferences and Exhibitions, in March this year we exhibited at the SIRF Conference held at the MCG. Here we have Shane enjoying a well earned beer at the members area of the MCG after a long day multitasking at the stand.


We have enjoyed a long term relationship with the Asset Management Council and over the years have exhibited at ICOMS many times. This year ICOMS 2009 was held at the Masonic Center in Sydney in June, where Gaye Montgomery shows off our new LED monitor.