It’s Nearly August… Don’t Ask Me How That Happened

I don’t know where the summer has gone! With vacations, keeping busy at work and all those things we love about managing our lives and families… I just can’t believe August is approaching!

Of course, Windows 10 is coming! I’ve got a couple devices just waiting for July 29th, including my parents machines… so I’ll be enjoying some time helping them get their computers upgraded.

However, once August rolls around, there are other things to do, so it’s time to get out from behind the computers and check out some upcoming events.

First off, for you Seattle folks, SITPUG will be having their August 5th meeting from 6:00 to 8:00pm in Bellevue. Visit www.SITPUG.com for more information.

If you are in Boston, Portland and Denver, be sure to check out the upcoming Angelbeat events in those areas. My Tech Evangelist colleagues and I have been presenting at those events as we can and they are a great way to get a quick update on tech topics. The Boston and Denver events will even be having special extended sessions on Azure.

SITPUG Meets Again on May 13th

If you are a Seattle local, the May SITPUG meeting has been scheduled!

Due to Microsoft Ignite conference in Chicago the week of May 4^th, the meeting has been moved to the following Wednesday. SITPUG will meet on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 from 6pm-8pm at the Microsoft Civica Office in Bellevue.

Presentation – Extending your Datacenter to Azure with Virtual Networks and PowerShell:

You might love your on-premises datacenter and the GUI tools Microsoft has provided since the NT 4.0 days but the cloud is here to stay and it’s sometimes easier to manage the cloud if you leave the GUI behind. Learn how you can use a VPN to connect your datacenter to Azure, or how to create your own test lab in the cloud, then use PowerShell to create and manage Virtual Machines (VMs) from your desktop.

RSVP Here!

Join Microsoft DX for After Hours @Build – April 29 – San Francisco

The Microsoft Developer Experience & Evangelism (DX) team and the .NET Foundation have partnered together to bring to you After Hours @Build – a special event on April 29th designed for developers, startups, and technology leaders. Come join us to hear the latest news and innovations from Build 2015 during an exclusive evening at San Francisco’s stylish Terra Gallery. You do NOT have to be a Build attendee.

Get the inside scoop from the .NET product teams, .NET Foundation, and GitHub on the innovations in .NET and the journey into open source. We’ll also show you what’s new and what we’re building, including ASP.NET 5, C# 6, .NET compiler platform (Roslyn), and how we’re taking .NET cross-platform in the open on GitHub.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015 | 6:00PM – 11:00PM
Terra Gallery
511 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 | 415.896.1234
*Must be 21 years of age, with identification, to attend

AGENDA

6:00PM – 6:45PM – Registration
6:45PM – 7:00PM – Welcome & Announcements
Featuring Matt Thompson (General Manager, US DX, Microsoft)
7:00PM – 8:00PM – Keynote
Featuring Scott Hanselman and Phil Haack (Github)
8:15PM – 8:30PM – Closing Remarks & Event Drawing
Featuring Martin Woodward (Executive Director, .NET Foundation)
8:30PM – 11:00PM – After Hours @ Build Reception

Doors open at 6:00PM and the speakers will begin at 6:45PM. Enjoy lively presentations, delicious food and drinks, and lots of time to chat and sip with your peers. Space is limited, so register now!

Upcoming Community Tech Events in SoCal

For those of you in southern California, I’ve gotten wind of some upcoming events that might be of interest. Check them out if you are in the area.

So-Cal Azure User Group – Costa Mesa, 2/24
Register Here: http://www.meetup.com/SoCal-Microsoft-Azure-User-Group/events/220261351/

So-Cal System Center User Group – San Diego, 3/2 or Irvine 3/3
Wally’s Top SCCM 2012 Features with Cool Tips and Tricks
Register Here for March San Diego Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/microsoft-system-center-so-cal-user-group-msc-scug-san-diego-march-2nd-tickets-15150502561
Register Here for March Irvine Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/microsoft-system-center-so-cal-user-group-msc-scug-irvine-march-3rd-tickets-15149810491

San Diego SharePoint User Group – San Diego, 3/11
Fundamentals of Creating SharePoint Apps with Tim Odell
Register Here: http://www.meetup.com/San-Diego-SharePoint-User-Group-SanSPUG/events/219661901/

PFE Days – San Diego, 3/19
Getting the Best from Azure IaaS with Javier Dominguez
Register Here: http://www.meetup.com/Microsoft-PFE-Days-Technology-Event-SoCal/events/220098582/

Los Angeles Big Data Users Group – Multiple Events (visit their link)

Seattle IT Pros: Feb 4th is the next SITPUG Meeting!

The next meeting for the Seattle IT Pros User Group is scheduled for Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at the Microsoft Civica Office Commons (South Tower) in Bellevue, WA at 6:00PM. Please RSVP if you will be attending!

The guest speaker will be Ben Armstrong of Microsoft. Officially Ben is a Principle Program Manager at Microsoft who works on the Hyper-V development team. Unofficially, he is the virtualization guru at Microsoft. Some of you may know him as the Virtual PC Guy from his blog posts on MSDN. The topic of his presentation is Hyper-V in Windows 10. Ben will discuss the new functionality for Hyper-V that is coming in Windows 10 and the new scenarios Microsoft is hoping to enable in the new version.

Ben’s complete bio is available here.

Windows 8 Giveaway

SITPUG will be giving away a copy of Windows 8 Professional at the meeting. The name of the lucky winner will be announced at the end of the meeting. Please check out the rules on the SITPUG Web site.

Directions

The meeting is held at the Microsoft Civica Office in Bellevue. Parking will be validated by the receptionist at the sign in. Visit the Directions page for details.

Microsoft Civica Office

205 108th Avenue NE
Suite 200 (4^th floor)
Bellevue, WA 98004

In the Seattle Area? Check out the Upcoming SITPUG Meeting!

I don’t often get a chance to hang out in Washington, but one of the long standing MVPs in the area runs this quarterly meeting for Seattle IT Pros.

Date/Time: November 7th, 6-8pm

Location: Microsoft Civica Office, 205 108th Avenue NE, Suite 200 (4^th floor)

Bellevue, WA 98004

The guest speaker will be Teju Shyamsundar of Microsoft. Teju is a System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) Premier Field Engineer. The topic of the presentation is “What’s New in System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager.”

Looking for an easier way to manage all devices in your organization? In her presentation, Teju will go through some of the new features available to manage devices with Configuration Manager 2012 R2. She will focus on integrating Windows Intune with Configuration Manager to manage mobile devices, including Windows Phone 8, iOS and Android.

As a Premier Field Engineer, Teju has extensive experience with SCCM. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer & Information Technology from Purdue University. Her complete bio is available here.

Future meetings for 2015 are scheduled on February 4th, May 6th and August 5th!

TechDaysSF is June 5th and 6th

Did you miss TechEd? Do you regret it?

Then register now for TechDays-SF which will be happening June 5th and 6th in downtown San Francisco. PacITPros brings you a great list of presentations and speakers. This year the price has been lowered to $200, you really can’t beat that. Details on sessions at http://techdays.org and the schedule is up on Eventboard.

Some great topics being covered: PowerShell, Microsoft System Center, Hyper-V, Lync plus many more.

Presented by folks such as: Jason Helmick, Darren Mar-Elia, Symon Perriman, Aleksandar Nikolic, Steve Evans and many more.

Even I’ll be there!

Happy Holidays!

It will be a light week here in blog land! Lots of holiday cheer and keeping busy with family and friends. I hope you are spending part of your week relaxing and spending time with the people you love!

When you do get back to your desk and start reconnecting with the tech community, I hope you take a moment to check out the Microsoft Technical Community website at www.technicalcommunity.com.

If you are a User Group Leader looking for resources, this is the place to go. Register your group and you can get $100 worth of advertising monthly for your meeting or event. Also, for each event you register you will earn 50 points to save and use toward swag for your group! You can also request up to $250 in cash for some events – to cover food, etc.

If you are a subject matter expert looking to find places where you can get speaking opportunities, list yourself as a speaker and other leaders can contact you for possible engagements. This is a one stop shop for connecting people who are interested in technology and getting rewarded for it!

See you in 2014!

On the Heels of VMworld!

Today, I’m playing catch up, which always happens after a multi-day conference. I always think I’ll have enough downtime during the conference to keep my inbox and to-do list under control, but it never happens.

I do have an official “post-VMworld” post brewing in my head (vCloud, VSAN, NSX, oh my!) but first here is a couple Azure and Hyper-V related events that are coming up soon, really soon! Both events will be held in the San Francisco Microsoft office.

PacITPros September Meeting (9/3, 6pm) – Hyper-V in the Real World! Join Steve Evans and Nick Hawkins as they give a preview of a day long class they will be doing in October. Please be sure to RSVP if you’ll be attending.

Cut past the hype and let’s talk about the real world design decisions you need to make when building your Hyper-V infrastructure. We won’t just prescribe the solution, but talk through the decisions and the pros and cons of the different options. The event will cover networking, storage, management and lessons learned.

** If you want more than an hour of Hyper-V, consider the full day event on October 11. It’s $99. **

Azure IT Camp (9/5, 8:30am – 4pm) – Discover Key Hybrid Cloud Solutions for IT Pros. Late notice I know, but the Azure IT Camp has some extra seats available and you are welcome to them! One of my IT Pro Evangelist colleagues, Brian Lewis, will be presenting.

You CAN have the best of both worlds! With Windows Azure, IT Pros can easily extend an on-premises network to embrace the power and scale of the cloud – securely and seamlessly. You’ll hear the latest on the Microsoft cloud platform, dive deep into Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, and participate in hands-on labs that demonstrate the power of this on-demand, scalable compute infrastructure. Includes Windows Azure Storage, Virtual Machines and Virtual Networking. If participants complete all of the hands-on labs, they have a fully functional Windows Server 2012 cloud-based test lab running Windows Azure.

Women in Tech Panel from TechDays SF Featured on RunAs Radio

For those of you who weren’t at TechDays SF in early May, we held a Women in Technology panel as one of our featured sessions. Richard Campbell from RunAs Radio was our host, and as an added bonus the session was recorded so it could be made available later.

You’ll find the whole hour as show #317. Join me, Jessica DeVita, Christa Anderson and CA Callahan as we talk about how we started out in technology, what we love, what is challenging and we hope more woman can see what’s great about the nuts and bolts that make our jobs rewarding.

Personally, I’ll never get over how different my voice sounds compared to the one in my head.