Reached Hyderabad on the 12th May, 2009 afteroon around 12:00 PM bearing the heat that raised to 43 degrees celsius. Visited the venue for setting up the community pavilion and ensuring the give aways have reached and on place. We have the India Community Guide printed that goes into every attendee kit and ensure the agency does their job of inserting them in the kit. Download the India Community Guide here.

Day 1:-

Long queues at the registration desk however, a separate shorter queue for all those registered through the user groups via the 25% discount offer and winners of free entry. In addition, Microsoft had provided a free entry to all the user group leaders those promoted about Tech.Ed in their respective communities which also helped us in conducting a UG Leader summit in association with Culminis, Ineta APAC with free accomodation throughout 3 days (Details on the summit to follow below)

Community Lives Here

Steve B at Keynote

As you enter in, you would find several stalls, however it is not the same case for the communities. We are provided with a large room for conducting all the community buzz to which we call “The Community Pavilion”. We set up the room with all the extra India Community Guides and the Leader Hunt Contest Forms which the attendees passing by may pick one, relax on the couch and interact with the Community leads, attend the un-conferences from afternoon, etc…

We enter the auditorium to see it jam packed with audience waiting for the Key note of Steve B. The event starts with a performance by Agnee singing the Tech.Ed anthem and followed by Steve B entering at the end of the song. Few updates from his speech and discussion with the audience can be found here.

The event starts as per its agenda and we visit the community pavilion. From here, I will now be just putting up the details of the activities that we did with promoting the communities.

User Group Leader Hunt Contest:-

Outside Community Pavilion

We had a contest on User Group Leader Hunt running. The basic objective of this contest was for attendees to know more about the communities and interact with the user group leaders. The attendees also get an opportunity to get in contact with their local user group leader, which most would have not known or interacted with. And at the same time, a recognition to the leader.

The idea of this contest was that the forms containing the user group name and it’s leader’s name mentioned in blocks. All that the contestant needs to do is visit the community pavilion, attend un-conferences, find badges of the leads, etc… and search them, interact, and take their signature. Check the photograph at left. Download the form here.

This contest initiative generated the highest buzz and a good participation from the attendees contesting. The community pavilion was soon getting packed for un-conferences and user group leaders being surrounded outside for interaction and signatures / autographs :-) and get goodies (Caps, T-shirts, Wooden Pens, Stress Balls) in return.

Buzz around the Community Zone

In addition, Ineta APAC had a True of False contest running. The forms were circulated by the Ineta volunteers which contained few questions to build awareness of Ineta services.

Interviews with Media:-

Some media personnel from few of the best news channels in India entering the pavilion in regular intervals to learn more on the communities and take interviews and shoot videos of the volunteers at work. It was a real great experience interacting with them.

Day 2:-

Day 2 starts with the Oscar winner Resul Pookutty’s keynote and in the same format, back to pavilion.

Dart Game Competition:-

Public await their turn on long queue for a Dart Game

The leader hunt contest continues. However, we had a requirement of more space in spite of the community zone for setting the Dart game. Hardik helped setting that on the X-box zone by providing the 25% of its space and the community now conquers another area for its reach We have the contest forms and community guides scattered on the table there for attendees to collect with the Dart board set and people queue up for their chance to hit the dart and win some goodies. Another most attractive zone for public to wander around and stay participating with the community.

UG Leaders Summit:-

As said earlier, we had arranged a UG Leaders summit and that happened in a closed meeting where we discussed about the current happenings around the user groups, user group leaders sharing some best practices. UG Leads affiliated to Culminis, Ineta, PASS discussing about their expectations and requirements with the volunteer leads of the association. Services from Culminis, Ineta, Pass being shared and their plans for FY10, and a major discussion on the post Tech.Ed initiatives. We will now be conducting mini Tech.Ed tagged with name as “Tech.Ed on the Road”. I will blog about this in detail on next post and provide all some better insights.

The attendees of the UG leaders summit were Microsoft DPE team, Culminis Team, Ineta Team, SQL Pass team, India Community Council members, UG Leaders, and some leading MVPs. All of them those associated with the community. This gave a better opportunity for all to have a formal get together and understand each other.

Community Evening (A fun filled party):-

The buzz just happened throughout the day as usual but today was even special. We had a party in the evening. Free beer, soft drinks, fruit juice etc… with munchies were served and a better opportunity to network with the community leads, MVPs, Microsoft, Culminis, Ineta, Pass, and few of the contest winners of the day in UG Leader Hunt who managed getting all the signatures.

The party was sponsored by Microsoft UGSS and partly by Culminis and Ineta.

3 together (Pradipta, Hardik, Ashwin) on Culminis Jersey

We had some Culminis jerseys designed as give aways which were distributed for the attendees to wear at the event. Few jerseys were specially customized for the UG leaders and Microsoft DPE team with their name printed at the back. All were simply looking cool and as Culminis team players / supporters all over

Adding to that it was even exciting to watch the IPL T20 Cricket match being telecasted Live on the large screen via http://www.iplt20.com/ that was developed on Silverlight by Microsoft.

IPL T20 Live Match telecasted through IE browser

Day 3:-

On day 3, still as the same above contests continue (today being the last day of the event and also the Leader Hunt contest), we had lots of more work to do before winding up.

Time to wind up:-

Several goodies from Culminis, Ineta, Pass that were being left out in excess were sorted and packed for all the UG leads available to carry back with them for using in the TechEd on the Road event. Cartons for each user group were filled completely and sealed. Excellent coordination and collective efforts seen here by all volunteers in seggregating them. Finally few more those remaining were saved seperate for the on site contests (dart game, Leader Hunt, Ineta True or False contests etc…

Much said about the community activities in whole, this is the first time one would see a lot of community participation at Tech.Ed and we look forward to have the same momentum going. Hope to see more community participation happening from every user group members with their local communities. View the photographs in the above slideshow to know more about the Tech.Ed as an event than the community activities.

After all these active contribution, we should really thank all the User Group leaders who came down and actively volunteered, the India Community Council Members, Sanjay Shetty (Regional Director, and Regional Lead APAC and EMEA for Microsoft UGSS) for his leadership, and DPE team at Microsoft whose invaluable support on providing an access and platform to the communities helped in making the community initiatives succesful, which wouldn’t have been else.

Sanjay has another blog post summarizing here.

Tech.Ed does not stop here… as we say, Tech.Ed Lives Here. Yes, now the Tech.Ed lives in the Communities and all the user groups are now taking the initiatives forward in June 2009 and few of the Tech.Ed sessions will be happening in your local user group. If you have missed the opportunity of attending the TechEd in Hyderabad, here is your sure-shot opportunity to join the heat wave and movetowards your nearest community.

“A PC on every desktop” – Vision of Bill Gates, 1979

We are looking for a few Indian brains that can match the envisioning prowess of Bill Gates. We are looking for bloggers who can pen down their thoughts on future of technologies.

In the contest you need to blog on your vision of the future technologies. Your blog entry should be made between May 4th to May 10th 2009. Post the link to your blog post here.

We have done the hard work of choosing the topics you need to blog on. You can choose any of the following topics:

1. The Future of Web Development
2. Virtualization
3. The Future of Mobile Technologies
4. Cloud Computing
5. The Future of Client Platform
6. Management of Enterprise Infrastructure
7. Unified Communication & Collaboration
8. Business Intelligence and Databases

The entries will be judged on unique ideas, feasibility and relevance from the current technology standpoint. The contest panel includes evangelists from Microsoft India.

The winner of the contest will be announced on May 11th 2009.

The winner of the “Future Sight” contest will win a FREE pass to the Microsoft premier technology event – TechED India 2009 in Hyderabad (http://www.msteched.in)

So go ahead and post your article, you also stand a chance to get some cool prizes in the form of goodies from Microsoft.

Unconference@TechEd:-

If you are attending Tech.Ed, there is a technology UnConference happening. A bunch of Microsoft MVPs have shown interest in delivering session at the UnConference which are listed here. All you need to do is vote for any 3 of your favourite UnConference@TechEd Session.

TechEd India is all about you – the community. In the true spirit of community we are happy to present the UnConference@TechEd India. UnConference will be hosted in the Community Pavilion @ TechEd India throughout the day and streamed live. It is the event where you are the presenter and you are the ones choosing the sessions. The attendees also get an opportunity to present at UnConference. The sessions are led by third-party experts (MVPs) and intended for attendees to enjoy free-flowing dialogues about products, technologies, and solutions.

Unconference is one of the favorite ways people connect at the conference. You can meet people with similar interests and challenges in an open-forum environment at the Unconference sessions.

UnConference sessions are an eclectic mix of technology and productivity sessions. You can vote for the sessions you would like to hear at UnConference here. Apart from the technology sessions, you will also find some productivity sessions on blogging, presentation skills etc.

As all Mumbaikars are now set for the Lok Sabha Elections happening here in Mumbai tomorrow – Thursday, April 30, 2009 here’s a final word that we need to check before visiting the polling booth.

Consider accompanying your friends and family members at the polling booth.

Check your voter registration status by:-

• Checking a copy of the final voter list at your Electoral Registration Officer’s (ERO) office. Locate here
• The website of the Chief Electoral Officer i.e. www.ceomaharashtra.nic.in points you to this On line Search URL http://220.225.73.202/ where you just need to enter your name and assembly location.
• You can also search your name on the voter list available at your polling booth. But is advisable to have it checked in advance.

Find your Polling booth

• You will find your polling booth address on the voter list in the section where you find your name registered as a voter.
• You can even check with your neighbors since most people in an area normally belong to the same polling booth.

Voter registration forms with sufficient address/id proofs and correct entries would have been duly processed to be included in the voter list at the discretion of the ERO.

In case you don’t have a voter ID card, you can use any of the other approved ID cards.

Know your candidate well. Find detailed profiles of all candidates contesting from your constituency. Here are some of the best initiatives and MUST VISIT websites to stay up-to-date are: MumbaiVotes, MyObv (A jaagore.com initiative), MyNeta.

Here you will find detailed profile, interviews and all details you need to know about them. For anything else, here is the website of Election Commission of India.

So lets go ahead and make our vote count!

Microsoft India TechEd 2009

Find more about TechEd 2009 on http://www.msteched.in/

Tech.Ed India 2009 Top Architect Contest

Find more about Tech.Ed India 2009 Top Architect Contest on http://www.virtualtechdays.com/toparchitect/

Microsoft Virtual TechDays

Find more about Virtual Tech Days on http://www.virtualtechdays.com/

Moreover, you may also find this Event Briefing and Marketing Plan which should give you all details at a glance. You would find 1 very interesting initiative for the bloggers coming at the time of event, “Blogathon 24 x 3″. And as I have said earlier, some surprises are yet to be announced especially for the bloggers. Get yourself updated from the discussions on the TechEd Facebook group. So if you are blogging about it, make sure you flash this badge Possibly, you may end up getting a goodie / discounted pass / Free Entry to TechEd

Well, as you can see that I’m Blogging about TechEd India 2009 – Are you? Let that be seen, show it Now!

Find more about it here: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/rupeesurvey.cms

And‚ if you don t like these and have a symbol of your own to offer, you may email to the Economic Times Editor at editoret@indiatimes.co.in

Find some designs from the ET Readers here: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/rupeesurvey_userreview/4358695.cms

Note: To view Learning Snacks, you need to install Microsoft Silverlight and enable pop-up windows.

Learn from the Virtualization Snacks

At the Microsoft Learning portal you’ll find a link for a free e-book: Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions, by Mitch Tulloch. In 8 chapters and 452 pages, Mitch’s e-book covers the following technologies: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

The e-book includes full search functionality as well as a 14-page Index.

Microsoft Press is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year 2009 are offering free e-books to readers. April’s e-books are now available (links below) and the first e-book features Canadian MVP Charlie Russel.

• Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator’s Companion by Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford (27 chapters, 3 appendices, 712 pages)
• Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now! by Patrice Pelland (9 chapters, Glossary, 254 pages)

The books will be available for download only till 22nd April!

About the author:

MVP Charlie Russel is the author of more than 2 dozen computer books, including “Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Administrator’s Companion”(MS Press) and “Microsoft Windows XP Resource Kit, 3rd Edition”(MS Press). He has also written numerous white papers and case studies on Microsoft.com, most recently around Windows HPC Server, and he was also a regular columnist for Windows Expert Zone.

Mumbai had a great turn up of around 150 audience. Just as planned, we had the registrations running from 9:00 am to 10:00 am. Breakfast was parallely served and we started the event sharp at 10:00 AM. Our presenter Hardik was on his way meanwhile I had to start with the key note and presented on the Windows 7 Deployment for the IT Pros. We started with Hardik’s session at 11:00 AM as he presented on the Windows 7 Desktop and must say that he was excellent as usual. We must thank our user group member Manan Kakkar for taking up and opportunity of presenting on PSR instantly and provided some very good insights. Manan has also taken 2 good pictures and a videos that is uploaded here. As we were running out of time due to 3 sessions back to back, and touched 1:00 PM we had to proceed for lunch. Sorry Manan as you had to cut short a little. A promise made for some other time:

Hardik will present on Windows 7 Security

Manan will get some good time for presenting

Post lunch we had a short session by our newbie member Hari Maurya and then concluded with a small tips presentation by me and the Install Fest – what we were waiting for

Feels really nice to see the members interested to install on their laptops and some taking away the bits home and explore.

You may find more pictures that we have taken on the user group events pics and the Snippet of Video that Manan shooted

More updates on MumbaiITPro from the user group members:

Hari speaks his experience on his blog TechSurface and shares with WinVistaClub, and MeraWindows

Here is an update from other user groups:-

Pune: Event Update | Photographs

Bangalore: Event Update | Photographs

Delhi: Event Update | Photographs

Siliguri: Event Update | Photographs

Chennai: Event Update | Photographs

Hyderabad: Event Update | Photographs

Most of you may have heard about Microsoft India Tech.Ed 2009 is happening at Hyderabad International Convention Center (HICC) in Hyderabad, India from 13th May to 15th May, 2009.

Some key exerpts:-

Microsoft Tech.Ed is the premier-most technology conference conducted by Microsoft globally for Developers, IT Professionals, Architects, Designers, Students and Faculty Members.

Microsoft Tech.Ed is an annual event being conducted across multiple locations since the last 17 years. Microsoft Tech.Ed-India has been an annual fixture since 2003 (2008 was the only year when Microsoft Tech.Ed-India event was not organized).

The last Tech.Ed-India event was held in Mumbai in June 2007, and was called Microsoft TechMela. The name change was necessitated by an urge to Indianize the event and its content – so that it aligned with the ethos of every Indian.

The 3-day Tech.Ed-India 2009 event is expected to host 5,000 Developers, IT Professionals, Architects, Designers, Faculty Members and Students. In addition, the event is also expecting to host 500+ CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, CSOs and other Senior Decision Makers from IT and IT enabled organizations.

More information is available here.

TechEd is happening in India after a period of 3 years. With Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft giving the Keynote, and illustrious speakers presenting.

Tech.Ed-India 2009 is all about getting yourself ready for the next wave of technology innovations and trends. In today’s economic scenario, more than ever before, it has become pertinent that we stay ahead of the curve so as to establish ourselves as the future trend- setters. Tech.Ed-India 2009 – with its offering of sub-events – offers you this opportunity to interact with some of the leading lights in the business and technology space globally, talk to Microsoft product development teams directly, and get in-depth hands-on-trainings and certifications in some of the most coveted and anticipated technologies of our time.

Hundreds of way to learn. Get an overview of what you can expect.

So now, just get set and start preparing yourself to attend the event. Register Now

Special Discount for User Group Members

Culminis, INETA APAC and PASS, have worked along with Microsoft India to secure a unique discount for their user group members. If you are attending TechEd, as a member of any of the user groups in India affiliated to Culminis, Ineta, and PASS you can get a 25% discount. This discount is available to the first 25 people to respond via an email by which you have registered on the portal  The first 25 people to respond will receive instructions on how to avail the discount. Please contact your user group leader for further details. For those members of MumbaiITPro User Group or in case of any questions about Culminis, you may contact me.

Find list of user groups in India through Culminis, Ineta, PASS

Announcing the TechEd 2009 – Top Architect Contest!

It is a contest based on your architectural skill. We give you a challenge – details on a system we’d like you to architect. In the allotted period you work out the architecture in line with the expected solution brief. Your submissions would be judged based on the judging criteria and the top three candidates would be invited to Tech.Ed-India 2009 showdown to present their proposal in front of a live audience and a panel of judges. You match wits against your peers to see who can architect the best system to address the challenge … and, get ready to WIN BIG in the process.

Showcase your architectural skills by participating here: http://virtualtechdays.com/toparchitect/default.aspx

All work and no play makes _____ a dull boy/girl:

(Just fill your name in the blank above )

By the way, Tech.Ed will not only be about Learning, and Technology. But when you feel lazy, just get into the community zone and feel some more excitement happening (We have more updates coming on this soon). If that’s not all, you have over 100 Xbox 360 and PC Games consoles at the Gaming Zone!

Night is the time when you will enjoy some live performances by AGNEE and INDIAN OCEAN, some of the most celebrated Rock bands in the country. You have 2 nights (14th and 15th May) to jam. Well, interested in jamming with Agnee band live on stage?

Bring out the potential musician in you and jam with the Agnee – Microsoft Tech Ed theme song (you can play the drums, the keyboards, bass, guitar or sing!).

Here’s how:

1 Download the song from this page
2 Download the lyrics
3 Learn the parts and come to Tech Ed!

That’s all you have to do. We’ll have the instruments for you to come jam with the song, and you can even take home your own video of you performing the Agnee – Microsoft Tech Ed Theme Song!

What’s more, the top few participants among you will actually get a chance to be on stage with Agnee, performing the Agnee – Microsoft Tech Ed Theme Song live!

Download the song

Download the lyrics

I still remember the excitement we had back in 2007 at the Microsoft TechMela that happened at The Renaissance, Powai, Mumbai. We had the team of Agnee performing some fantastic numbers Live! and with Nikhil Chinappa with his crew of MTV Select interviewing them live on stage was simply awesome. I can just feel the excitement how will that be this time after 2 years!

Buzz is the Word, Tech.Ed is the name:

Want to spread the word about TechEd 2009? Here is a list where all the action is happening in the world of social networking:

FaceBook, Twitter use HashTag: #techedin, Orkut, LinkedIn, MSDN, TechNet, Digg

The FaceBook group contains TechEd Badges available in the photos section which you may feel free to use them as your email signatures, or on forums.

There is much more about the Tech.Ed Buzz coming but just hold on to the news and excitement.

And Finally:

Mumbai (Hosts: Mumbai IT Pro): Register here

Pune (Hosts: Pune User Group): Register here

Gurgaon (Hosts: Delhi IT Pro): Register here

Bangalore (Hosts: Bangalore IT Pro): Register here

Siliguri (Hosts: WindowsSupport): Register here

Chennai (Hosts: Chennai IT Pro): Register here

Hyderabad (Hosts: Hyderabad Techies)

You will find lot of buzz happening so far around the blog-o-sphere and hope to have equal enthusiasm around the event across India. Few of those I could point instantly are:

Hari’s Blog

Vasu’s Blog

South Asia MVP Blog

Ramesh Kumar

and the list continues… all over, on blog repository, Event portals, Forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc… Just point us, where have you updated today?

[[UPDATE] 16th April, 2009

Aviraj Ajgekar’s TechNet blog

Announcement on MeraWindows.com

Discussion on WinVistaClub Forum / here

Also do check out this month’s (April 2009) edition of ComputerActive Magazine featuring a review on Windows 7 with a mention about Windows 7 Day as well.

[UPDATE] 16th April, 2009

TechNet India Flash newsletter is on its way tomorrow. Make sure you have subscribed

[UPDATE] 16th April, 2009

But there is one common thing that I should point out worth mentioning is that the banner you see on all the blogs (also flashed here above) was created by Hari Maurya of Tech Surface. Hari is an enthusiastic guy and would be seen all over on web and also has Dugg this event. So did you digg?

Moreover, there also are quite a few of our user group members who have been spreading word across their peers, organization, friends etc… Great to see the momentum happening.

Doing a little search, I see that Google is promoting us even more Just have a look at the below screenshots:

and on Live: