New Job, New Product, New Blog
Boy, has it been a long time since I posted here.... it is very bad of me.......
But i have a very tenuous excuse. OK, I have no excuse but anyway......
Since the last time I posted I have helped drive the SQL Server 2005 launch (seems such a long time ago (november 2005)) and I have also changed jobs at Microsoft. I found out about this new role over the christmas holidays and basically I had to take it.
So now I am resident in the developer division at Microsoft and I am resposnible for marketing Visual Studio Team Edtiion for Database Professionals. If you want to see more about this great new product then see my new blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/mattnunn/ although I am sure I will post stuff here from time to time, if you want the product focused blog then go to the MSDN site.
I am currently on the road sitting looking forward to getting maybe 1 day at home in the next 2 weeks so I am signing off to find dinner but expect to see more from me in the near future
Do you have experience with SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 or BizTalk? Do you want to show the rest of the world how good you are at developing solutions with these prodcts? If so, there is still time to enter the Connected Systems Developer Competition being run by Microsoft in conjunction with MSDN Magazine. You have the chance to win $50,000 plus an all expenses paid trip to the joint SQL Server 2005/Visual Studio 2005/BizTalk 2006 launch event on November 7th in San Francisco. If you are interseted then go to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/devcompetition to register.
Are you ready to experience SQL Server 2005?
Announcing the launch of the SQLS erver 2005 Virtual Hands on labs.In these labs, you will get to experience many of the new features in SQL Server 2005 including CLR integration, XML support and deep business intelligence integration.
Just follow the link and experience SQL Server 2005 for yourself
http://msdn.demoservers.com/login.aspx?group=sql2005
Tickets are going fast, so if you want to come and hang out with the SQL Server Express and Visual Studio Express teams from Redmond, along with many of the top speakers, get down to the Microsoft Ask The Experts area and collect an Invite.
Football, Football, Football (Soccer to some attendees)
European Cup Semi-Final
Holland v Portugal
Huge Projection Screen showing the Match
Werck is know to have one of the best screens on which to watch football in all of amsterdam, so if you want to watch the match then head on down to the Microsoft Ask The Experts and pick up an invite.
Join the SQL Server Express and Visual Studio Express teams for a party in Amsterdam on Wednesday 30th June and help them celebrate the announcment of the new Express family of products announced this morning at Tech ED Amsterdam. (http://sqljunkies.com/WebLog/MattNunn/archive/2004/06/29/3312.aspx)
Collect your Invite from the SQL Server or Visual Studio Ask The Experts area in the Exhibition Hall, or come and find me around the convention center, I am wearing a Black Microsoft shirt and Red shoes.
This is an invite only party for 500 people and invites will be distributed on a first come/first served basis.
I look forward to seeing you all there............
Details
Event: SQL Server Express Party
Date: Wednesday June 30th
Time: 20:00 - 12:30
Location: Werck
Invites: Available from the SQL Server or Visual Studio Ask The Experts Area, Exhibition Hall, RAI Convention Center in Amsterdam
The wait is over!!!!!! We have just announced the availability of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. a lightweight, redistributable version of SQL Server 2005 that is optimized to provide a data store for small-scale data-driven applications.
You can download the SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Technical Preview from http://msdn.microsoft.com/express/sql/default.aspx
Also take a look at the full set of Express products at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/
I have just found out that there will be a DJ at Werck for the SQL Server Party. The DJ is DJ Marvin.
Also, it appears there is some type of free giveaway, details to follow once I have more information.......
Hopefully it will be a nice night, I swung by the venue to take a look as it is very close to my Hotel. There are 2 great outside deck areas to party on as well.
Finally arrived into Amsterdam at 9am yesterday morning and spent the day with a friend recovering from Jet Lag. It obviously worked because I am ready to go this morning.......
Been into the convention center and everything looks great. The Microsoft Ask The Experts is located at the back of the exhibition hall and SQL Server is located in the middle of the ATE. Drop by and visit us, ask some questions or just hang out.......
The SQL Server Party is fast approaching. Don't forget to stop by the SQL Server Ask The Experts booth to pick up your invitiation. There are only 500 Invites so get there early and come and party with the top SQL Server and .NET experts at Werck in downtown Amsterdam. There will be free food and drink, TV's to watch the European Cup Semi-Final on plus a live DJ.
'This former Restaurant / Cocktail bar has been transformed into the newest place to be in town! Werck is located in a historic location along the Prinsen Canal between the Western Church and the Anne Frank House. It has 3 areas inside and 2 terraces outside.'
Werck is located at
WERCK, Prinsengracht 277, 1016 GW Amsterdam
Finally arrived into Amsterdam at 9am yesterday morning and spent the day with a friend recovering from Jet Lag. It obviously worked because I am ready to go this morning.......
Been into the convention center and everything looks great. The Microsoft Ask The Experts is located at the back of the exhibition hall and SQL Server is located in the middle of the ATE. Drop by and visit us, ask some questions or just hang out.......
The SQL Server Party is fast approaching. Don't forget to stop by the SQL Server Ask The Experts booth to pick up your invitiation. There are only 500 Invites so get there early and come and party with the top SQL Server and .NET experts at Werck in downtown Amsterdam. There will be free food and drink, TV's to watch the European Cup Semi-Final on plus a live DJ.
'This former Restaurant / Cocktail bar has been transformed into the newest place to be in town! Werck is located in a historic location along the Prinsen Canal between the Western Church and the Anne Frank House. It has 3 areas inside and 2 terraces outside.'
Werck is located at
WERCK, Prinsengracht 277, 1016 GW Amsterdam
TechEd Europe is only 4 days away and we are all preparing to jump on airplanes to fly to Europe for this fantastic event.
I have some more details on the SQL Server Party to be held on Wednesday night.
The Party is invite only and there are only 500 tickets. If you want to come and join the party I suggest you get to the SQL Server Ask The Experts area early on Tuesday morning.
The Party is to be held at Werck (http://www.werck.nl/). This looks like a really cool bar in downtown Amsterdam. My sources tell me it has only been open for about 8 weeks and is one of the happening places to be......
I also found out that Wednesday is the European Cup Semi-Finals day and that the party will have TV screens where you can keep up with your countries football match (assuming they made it through)
Along with the football there is also going to be a DJ and an open bar with food.......
All in all, sounds like one of the parties to be at. I hope to see you all there....
Well, Tech ED San Diego is over and we are all back at the fort getting ready to travel to Europe for Tech ED Amsterdam.......
SQL Server will be represented in full force with people from Redmond presenting as well as being in the Ask the Experts area and, of course, at all the various parties....
Talking of parties, I hear rumours that SQL will be hosting a SQL Server Party on the wednesday night. I don't have all the details at the moment but I do know that it is Invite Only and you need to go the SQL Server Ask The Experts area at the conference to collect a ticket. I will post more details as I get them....
I hope to see many of you there, if you see me come over and say hi, I will be the Microsoft guy in the Red Shoes.
So, I made it to monday morning. I would have updated last night but all I could do was crash, it was a long day that started Saturday night.
Firstly, lets get the travel pain out of the way. I left Seattle (or was supposed to) on the 2.18 Alaska flight. When we eventually left at 3.20 I figured I'd still make it in in time to get the convention center. Then, we get diverted to Reno because of a medical emergency on the plain. Spent 2 hours on the runway at Reneo. By the time we finally get to San Diego we arrived later than the 5pm flight............(8 hours from Seattle to San Diego, I could have gone to Tech ED Europe in th esame time :-)). Just to top it off, when I get to San Diego I find out that someone messed up my hotel reservation at the W. I was, apparently (news to me), supposed to arrive on friday and when I didn't they gave my room away.... I eventually managed to secure what I believe to be the only room left in San Diego at th OMNI.
To the show........ The conference center is pretty well laid out and I think as people start ariving it will be relatively easy to get between sessions. The Sails pavilion which is where the cabanas and Comm Net are located is great and I think the cabanas are going to be a huge success. Make sure to drop by the SQL Server cabana's (8 and 9) and ask our guys the difficult questions.....
Kimberly Tripps Pre- Con session went well, although in her traditional style she ran 1.5 hours long. All great content though, I recommend going to one of her other 5 sessions this week.
Also, don't forget to check out the PC Gaming pit where you can play Unreal Tournament 2004 for AMD 64 and have the chance to win an Alienware PC
I spent most of the day running around making sure everything was where it out to be. I am pretty sure we are all set to go this morning, talking of which, I'd better jump in the shower and head over the convention center....
I'll update again later and as I have time...
Well it is Saturday morning and I am getting ready to leave for Tech ED 2004 in San Diego. For those of you who don't know me my name is Matt Nunn and I work at Microsoft for the SQL Server group. One of my responsibilities in the group is to own SQL Server's overall participation at Tech ED. To that end I am flying down today to make sure that I have all my ducks in a row before the 11,000 people show up. That's right 11,000, thats a lot of people, I am sure that by now you are all aware the
Tech ED 2004 is SOLD OUT.
I wanted to start the week by blogging about all the great stuff we have going on at Tech ED this year.
- SQL Server has 80 Sessions covering the best in SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 (code named “Yukon”) In fact we have 20 sessions dedicated to SQL Server 2005 alone.
- To complement the sessions we also have 13 SQL Server 2005 Hands On Labs so that you will have the chance to experience SQL Server 2005 up close and personal.
- We have a full compliment of Product Group members on hand in the cabana area to answer your evey SQL Server question so I encourage all of you to drop by the SQL Server cabana's in the Sails Pavilion.
- While you're about come and visit us in the Microsoft Pavilion where we have cool giveaways and more people on hand to answer your questions
- Last, but not least, don't miss the PC Gaming Pit where you can play Unreal 2004 for AMD 64 in a tournament with a first prize of an Alienware AMD 64 games machine plus many other prizes including AMD 64 PIB's and copies of SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition.
Well, I don't want to miss my flight so I had better go pack, expect to here more during the course of the week as the Tech ED story unfolds, I am sure that this is going to be the best Tech ED yet. If you are going, have fun, if you are not, stay tuned for all the gossip from the biggest Microsoft Technical show of the year...............
Someday I hope to be as cool as Doug and Donny.
For all those of you who wanted to go to PDC but didn't get a ticket before it sold out, check out this link on EBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2198175447&category=16122. That's right.... This could be the first time in the history of the industry that people have sold conference tickets for a technical conference on EBay, I wonder how much it will go for :-)