One of the great things about being an intern at Microsoft is the level of involvement you get to have in the planning and development of various events. One such event i have been lucky enough to be involved with is the Heroes Happen 2008 Launch - the launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Many months of planning and a dedicated team has brought this launch to life, so it's great to see customers and partners getting excited about Microsoft's innovation in the Server and Tools space. So far we have had positive feedback from customers, partners and even impressed competitors at the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth events.....

I have just returned from another fun-filled day at the Heroes Happen {2008} Launch Event in Brisbane. Brisbane inspired us with a beautiful autumn day, a great turn out of delegates and lots of smiling and satisfied faces.

Dan Neault, SQL Server Product Management and Marketing lead, started off the day with an inspirational insight into the changing nature of IT in the workplace and how these products will address - Secure and Trusted Platform, Virtualisation, Web and Developer Productivity and Business Intelligence.

I was able to listen in on the Security and Management track which was great as i am taking on some work within this area as part of my internship. There were some fantastic presentations on where security sits in organisations today and the real threat at hand for those not taking action to deploy security programs.

At the end of the customer day, we held a Partner evening before heading back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation - it had been a long day with the daylight savings time difference!

Just Canberra NT and Tas left to go :)

Check out the Heroes Happen twitter updates here

Want to see some photos? - click here

Check out the Heroes Happen twitter updates here

Want to see some photos - click here

On March 18th and 19th i attended the Gartner BI Summit at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. I had been working on the lead up to the event with our events agency, so it was great to be able to participate on the day and gain some real customer insights into BI.

It was an early start, a 5am wake up call, for the drive into the city, but i was well rewarded with the awesome cocktail juices the bar staff were making :)

Gartner has recognised Microsoft as one of the leading providers of Business Intelligence platforms, so it was as expected that delegates would be wanting to find out some more into what we have to offer.

Guy Weismantel, Director of Marketing in Microsoft's Office Business Applications Division gave delegates an informative presentation on Business Intelligence and where Microsoft is headed in offering full scale solutions for business success. After this session everyone converged on the Microsoft stand to get some demo's on Performance Point, and applications in mobility.

Microsoft was supported at the event by partners B(iQ) and Calumo. Nick Barclay from, B(iQ),  gave some great demonstrations on Performance Point, even teaching me a thing or to on its applications. Overall it was a great experience for me to learn about specific customer pain points in their organisation and understand how Microsoft can accommodate these concerns and offer solutions with pretty much the click of a button.

There are some great resources available, in particular two books by Adrian Downes and Nick Barclay on planning with Performance Point Server, and Monitoring and Analysing with performance Point Server. You can check these, and other resources out online here

Til next time........