Favorite TechEd Australia and New Zealand moments

IT-Wire article on "The First Rule of Data Protection"I really enjoy giving sessions at TechEd – and the international events are great for giving me different perspectives on bandwidth, regulatory compliance, etc.  Over the past two weeks, I gave 6 breakout sessions (AU sessions & NZ sessions), did a few podcasts, press interviews, etc.

In fact, the first article from that week is already published by IT Wire on “The First Rule of Data Protection

But my favorite moments of these trips are the 1:1 meetings. 

Teched2010-AU-Paul-Schnackenburg I finally met Paul Schnackenburg (right), one of my favorite technology writers in the southern hemisphere.  After having briefed him on multiple Microsoft product releases and reviews (SCE 2010 and DPM 2010), and routinely reading his articles in various online periodicals, it was great to meet him in person.

The meeting of the minds - @jbuff & @ohcrap. #AuTechEd on TwitpicAlso, had the chance to hang out with Orin Thomas (twitter/OrinThomas), who is almost as passionate about DPM 2010 as I am.  After contributing to the last round of DPM whitepapers, he’s also almost as versed in DPM 2010 as I am these days.

On the Left, I am with Matt Marlor (twitter.com/ohcrap) who is celebrating the first anniversary of AuTechHeads, an IT Pro group in Australia.  These folks are really passionate about server infrastructure, and especially seem to like System Center.

Matt and I have traded email and tweets for probably a year, but hadn’t met in person until this week.

Happy First Anniversary, AuTechHeads !!!

These guys are so much fun that I joined AuTechHeads.  (hey, I am usually in Australia one week per year.  Doesn’t that count?)

In Other News

Was exciting to see the New Zealand kickoff session for System Center was staggeringly beyond standing room only.

003_3I gave away several copies of my book – and was pleased to sign others that folks had already purchased.

Had some great conversations with partners that are looking to provide hosted Disaster Recovery for their small/medium business clients.

Also enjoyed working directly with a few customers who had committed to DPM 2010 and looking for implementation suggestions, based on their special circumstances.

And I did finally get over my fear of heights long enough to climb the Harbour Bridge in Sydney (right).

THANK YOU to all of my Aussie and Kiwi friends, customers, partners, and fellow-Microsofties for making it a great two weeks. 

I hope you got as much out of it as I did.

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