It has been quite a while since my previous post. I was quite busy at work and had some very interesting times. Here is a short (and limited) overview of my past activities:
April 18 - JavaPolis partner meeting
The previous 2 years, Microsoft participated in JavaPolis as a sponsor. I already wrote a post explaining why we are sponsoring that event. In short: we do care about developers and all developers should get the information they want/need. So, yes, even a Java developer might want/need information on the Windows platform, on SQL Server, on Office, ... JavaPolis is a unique opportunity for them to talk to us about this. Although initially there was some fear from the Belgian Java User Group about our sponsoring, I think we're now working together quite well.
April 19 - MSDN Security Evening in Mons
Because we take application security very seriously, we organised several "Developing secure applications" briefings. This was done together with Walter Stiers, who is taking care of the student and teacher community at Microsoft. So several speakers visited several locations and schools throughout Belgium. The first session was delivered by Grégory Renard, our local Regional Director.
I find it always nice to talk to developers on such events. They always give me some great feedback and things to think about. Feeling the excitement of these guys is so gratifying.
April 20 - Blogger meeting with Phil Holden on Windows Live
David, Kris and I teamed up to reach out to some of the Belgian bloggers that we know for an evening with Phil Holden, the director of Windows Live at Microsoft Corp. Here are some of the reports that were writting about this:
April 23 to 26 - Microsoft Worldwide Developer Audience meeting
On April 23rd I left for Vienna where we had the Microsoft WW Developer Audience (Marketing) meeting. Such meetings are very interesting the people from the local subsidiaries (such as I) can communicate with our colleagues of other countries as well as with people from Microsoft EMEA and Microsoft Corp (i.e. the people from our HQ at Redmond). It were quite intensive days with lots of new information and fantastic discussions. Unfortunately I had to leave a bit earlier because...
April 26 - Visit of Michael Leworthy, corporate product manager Visual Studio Team System
Michael Leworthy - you might know him from the MSDN "Visual Studio Team System On Tour" event - dropped by for a planning and feedback meeting. Very interesting discussion, but way too soon to blog about the content of the meeting.
April 27 & 28 - MSDN Hands-On Labs on Visual Basic and ASP.NET
More than 100 developers attended our hands-on labs in Mechelen. I didn't know this upfront, but apparently the business center where the labs were hosted was owned by Anouchka Balsing. You might know her as one of the jurors of "Sterren op de Dansvloer" TV show.
During lunch, I talked to several of the attendees. Happy to hear that you were satisfied with the labs. And happy that I've been able to help some of you with your requests and unanswered questions.
April 27 - Security presentation from Jesper Johansson
We were able to security a slot in the agenda of Jesper Johansson for a security presentation. Amongst the attendees were Microsofties, but also some MVP's and MSDN Belux article authors. Had to leave early because I wanted to go by the security evening in Liège, but I heard both Security Development Lifecycle presentation and the Windows Vista security presentation were quite well appreciated.
April 27 - MSDN Security Evening in Liège
Yet another security evening session that I could attend. Nice to meet some people again that I didn't see for some time: Gérard Leblanc, Tony Bastianelli, Jérôme Noirfalise, Stéphane Hildebrandt, Didier Danse, ...
May 2 - MSDN Security Evening in Antwerp
This is the first security presentation of Bart De Smet that I see. He already did some before, but unfortunately I couldn't attend all security evenings... I got one very interesting reaction from a student at this session. He congratulated us because we were not bashing our competition. Apparently he recently attended a presentation from another software company, where the local speaker was constantly making jokes about Microsoft. Well, I'm not convinced of the approach to bash competitors. Luckily, the Microsoft "Standards of Business Conduct" is on my side...
May 3 - Team lunch
Lovely DPE team lunch at a Brussels tapas restaurant. Can't remember the name though... It has been a long time that the entire DPE team sat together in one room, so it was nice to have this team discussions.
May 4 - Windows Vista and Office 2007 meeting
To be honest, this is not the first one and it was definitely not the last one... More on Windows Vista en Office 2007 later... (You might want to mark 22 June in your agenda for an MSDN Evening on Office 2007 development).
May 4 - MSDN Connection "Book of the Month" promo launched
It might look silly, but this is one of the things that I've been working on for quite some time. So I'm very happy that finally we can offer 40% discount on a selected MS Press book through MSDN Connection. For May, the selected book is "CLR via C#, Second Edition" of Jeffrey Ritcher. The offer expires end of May and is only valid at selected bookstores in Belgium. Get more information on this "Book of the Month" promo on MSDN Belux.
May 10 - MSDN Security Evening in Kortrijk
Again, more than 40 people showing genuine interest in learning how to develop their applications more securely. It's always good when you hear people saying: "I think I'd better check my website for security". I do hope that one day, all developers will be aware of security in their applications. Hopefully very soon, there are no websites left that are prone to cross site scripting or (SQL) injection attacks.
May 11 - MSDN Security Morning in Leuven
Finally a session close to my home... It was the last public security session for this year. There will be more sessions online though. Have a look at the Microsoft webcasts.
May 11 - Dinner with Simon Brown, Vice President of DPE at Microsoft EMEA
Our team went to the Japanese restaurant "Tagawa" in Brussels for a dinner with our vice president of DPE EMEA, Simon Brown. The atmosphere was relaxed and we had quite some strategic discussions.
Next week we'll be meeting with our VIP Community. This community consists of several of our MVP's, article authors of MSDN Belux and very knowledgeable developers and IT professionals. More on this later...