New Microsoft Extended Experts Team (MEET) Web Site

I’d like to inform you all that there is a brand new site for the Microsoft Extended Experts Team (MEET) in Belgium. They did a great job here. Click on the link below to visit the site.

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If you need expert advice on Microsoft Technologies this is a good place to find the right people. The members are skilled and very knowledgeable experts who gladly contribute to the community. This means they also have access to an extensive network of very smart & experienced colleagues and they can get you into touch with them if need be. They come from all sectors and walks of life and as such provide for a excellent mix of backgrounds and points of view.

Their community work (blogs, presentations, user groups, .etc.) provides for a significant resource of readily available, real world in expertise and insights in how to leverage Microsoft technologies. You can follow their related tweets via the #meetbe hash tag.

I’m proud to be part of MEET, as I can help out and by doing so learn a lot myself. I’ve experienced  that there is truly a tremendous amount of skills accumulated in that group. So, for my closing word’s I’d like to say …

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Carsten Rachfahl Interviews Me On Windows Server 2012 Storage Improvements

Carsten Rachfahl, a German Hyper-V Expert, friend and fellow MVP, interviewed me after the joint MVP effort at TEC 2012 in Barcelona. The subject was storage in Windows Server 2012. We found a great setting in the garden and got into quite a nice discussion on the subject.

It’s no surprise to anyone I guess that I’m very enthusiastic about what Microsoft is doing with storage on all levels in Windows Server 2012 and is trying to achieve for us, the customers from both a cost and performance and reliability perspective. It was a lot of fun to do and I see blinking lights in our eyes at many moments during this interview. Yes, working is important for many reasons, but when you can enjoy your work and have fun whilst doing it, life is pretty good Smile. So enjoy, we certainly did.

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I’m Presenting at the Technical Experts Conference 2012 Europe

I’ll be speaking at the Technical Experts Conference 2012 Europe in Barcelona on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and it’s storage and network related improvements and promising new features. Some of you might know that I’m a Microsoft MVP in the Virtual Machine Expertise (i.e. Hyper-V), but these sessions are not marketing or vapor ware. Being an MVP is about sharing knowledge and experiences with you. I’m are early adopter in production from the day the RTM bits became available and we’re already reaping the benefits of those features, so it’s more than just lab work and theory.

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I won’t be there alone, as my friends, colleagues and fellow MVPs Aidan Finn (@joe_elway), Carsten Rachfahl (@hypervserver) and Hans Vredevoort (@hvredevoort) will be there as well to present and share their knowledge, which is extensive, I assure you. It’s great to have the chance to come together again and talk about our technology passions.

You can find an overview of the session agenda here

So I hope you can join us for an interesting conference and interactive event where we can discuss your challenges and ways to address them. Trust me when I say that talking to other customers and technologist is a great way to learn, understand the needs and find opportunities. We learn a lot from presenting and talking to you. I’ve attended a lot of conferences in my career now and I still find them valuable. The return on investment for my employers has been great. Motivated and skilled employees can save a business 10 fold the cost spent to keep them that way.

Haven’t heard of TEC  before?

Neither did I before a couple of years, but by good fortune I had the opportunity to attend as a delegate and found it very worth while in both content and networking opportunities. As it turns out The Experts Conference Europe 2012 (TEC) has been running for over a decade now and it delivers level 400 sessions on core Microsoft technologies. It focuses on Active Directory and Identity, Exchange, Virtualization and User Workspace Management.

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TEC Europe is held at the Hotel Rey Carlos in Barcelona from 22-24 October 2012. Quest , as an alliance partner of Microsoft, welcomes program management, product management, development staff from Redmond and a number of field team members to the event every year to support the training requirements of its users. This means two things: It’s a valuable event and, I admit, I’m honored to be invited to speak at this event.

Budgets are tight

A great tip. Quest is offering a discount rate of 850 Euro to delegates who register by 21 September! You can get a discount code for registration by sending an email to [email protected]

I’m Attending The E2E Virtualization Conference

Well I’ve just finished doing the paperwork for attending the Experts 2 Experts conference in London http://www.pubforum.info/pubforum/E2E2011London.aspx. It runs from 18th to 20th November 2011. I’m looking forward to this one as I’m going to meet up with a lot of people from my on line network and have a change to discuss our virtualization experiences and share information in real life, face to face.

It’s good to get to attend vendor independent events and exchange information, enrich and extend our networks. I already know several people from my twitter/blogging network will be attending and I’m happy to meet up with you if you’re there. Just let me know via e-mail, the feedback option on this blog or via twitter (@workinghardinit). Well, I’ll see you there!