Tech•Ed Team -Unplugged

Sorry that I went dark after Tech•Ed...seems that all the fun, excitement, barrage of speakers interested in recording content, organizing Virtual Tech•Ed stage presence and giving away of T-shirts and Frisbee's wore me out.  Tech•Ed was incredible and we captured almost 50 interviews with awesome speakers at the conference.  Our  crew has been working tirelessly to get these edited and converted to post up on the website. 

Check out the hottest webcast on the site this week!

A Closer Look at the Visual Studio Shell
Microsoft’s Joe Marini discusses news around Visual Studio 2008, while Grafx Software’s Brian Feldman expands on how the Visual Studio Shell will allow customers, like Grafx, to leverage the power of Visual Studio as a platform to build their own applications.

Looking to be entertained?  Check out Mario's show floor adventures...

Strange Sights, Sounds & Swag
Take a tour of the Tech·Ed 2007 show floor to find random acts of weirdness.

Want to hear from one of TechEd's favorite speakers, check out Steve Riley and Byron Hynes...

Steve and Byron cover a wide range of Windows Server 2008 topics

Watch an informal discussion between Steve Riley and Byron Hynes, as they cover ground from Windows Server 2008 to troubleshooting content and core security events including BitLocker.

In the weeks to come we will be posting more of the fish bowl interviews so keep checking back for the latest.

Also, have you heard about the Defy All Challenges Competition? 
Check out these clips created by attendees and vote for your favorite.

Our team is also dreaming and creating new features for the site in the months to come.  I'll share more as we solidify plans and start to work on the details.

In the meantime, I hope that Virtual Tech•Ed is providing a you with the information and content that is helpful and useful.  If you have ideas or thoughts about things we can improve please reply to this blog and let me know.

Best wishes,

Zaakera R.

Emerging Media PM, Virtual Tech•Ed

We are very excited about the enthusiasm and response we have received from speakers at Tech·Ed.  Our interview schedule for the Fish Bowl has soared and our hard working AV crew has been amazing and capturing all of our awesome speakers.  Individuals like Michael Howard, Steve Riley, Ron Jacobs and many other amazing speakers have stopped by to talk tech with us throughout this week.  Later today we will begin to post these videos so check back in the featured content section of the site for these awesome interviews.

Here is a preview of our first post from the Fish Bowl!  ...Paul Karsten, IT Program Manager and Tim Stevens, Software Heretic, British Telecommunications, show how by simply writing one line of code you can make phones ring. To learn more about BT’s SDK that offers a variety of services, go to: http://web21C.BT.com

Yesterday we had 3 winners for Speaker Idol heats.  Congratulations to Sarbjit Gill, Rob Windsor and Steve Smith who were the winners yesterday.  Also, thanks again to our awesome judges Stephen Forte, Kate Gregory, Joel Semeniuk, Scott Golightly, Joel Semeniuk, Michele Leroux Bustamante and Barry Gervin. 

Our final Speaker Idol winner was Steve Smith!  Congratulations Steve and we look forward to seeing you speak next year at Tech·Ed as your prize for winning the contest.  All of our speakers were fantastic and this was a very hard choice for our  judges so we appreciate the passion and time that the contestants put into this.

Hope attendees at the conference are loving every moment and that everyone in our Virtual Tech·Ed world is enjoying the content we are posting. 

From the VTE Fish Bowl

Zaakera S.

Emerging Media Program Manager for Virtual Tech·Ed

Day 1 on the show floor held its usual ups and downs, getting schedules solidified, video taping setup completed and working out the kinks in getting the flow of content reviewed, edited and up on the site.  Richard and Carl have been rocking the house with their 64-Bit question game show and there were lots of happy winners as no participant walked away empty handed. 

Speaker Idol stole the stage today and the winners of Heat 1 and 2 are Bob Roudebush and Alain Tadros.  Thanks to the other contestants today and the judges especially for their time and attention to detail in providing all contestants with awesome tips on refining speaker skills.  Steve Forte, Kate Gregory, Michele Leroux Bustamante, Tim Huckaby, Chris Kinsman

We have posted a lot of new video's that highlight Mario Juarez interviewing the VIP's and covering the hot topics at the event.  Mario and his team have been rocking the floor with their energy and great interviewees. 

Our video taping studio has now been dubbed the 'fish bowl' so stay tuned for great featured content from our little cozy corner at Tech·Ed.  Our schedule is packed with tremendous speakers coming by to give us the latest dish on their area of expertise.  We even had an individual come by from the FBI to share some great technology insights.  Thanks to everyone who is participating onsite and to those of you who are out in the cloud checking out all the content we are delivering.

Days are long but oh so fun!

Zaakera S.

Emerging Media PM,  Virtual Tech·Ed Dreamer

TechEd officially begins today and Virtual TechEd is in full swing!  Within the past week we have added a featured content tab and video page.  Onsite we will be creating a lot of great content which users will be able to view using the new Silverlight application or Windows Media player.  Also, starting Tuesday check out the on-demand Bob Muglia keynote where they deliver a great Silverlight demo.  We are also getting ready to post our "Day 0" video.  Go check it out and see what we have been up to on the main conference show floor. 

Virtual TechEd also has a stage and recording studio setup onsite.  Tonight Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin will host a 64-bit question contest with awesome prizes like 900 Mhz Wireless Headphones, Swiss Army Cybertools and many other cool items!  Everyone is a winner and we will have lots of fun stuff to give out to all who participate!  If you are onsite come by at 6pm.  Richard and Carl will also be working their magic from the VTE space and we are thrilled to have them here.  Tune into their shows from the TechEd floor.  Stay tuned for more great content and fun this week!

Zaakera S.

Emerging Media PM, Virtual TechEd Dreamer

10 more days until TechEd begins!  Here in Virtual TechEd world we are also quickly ramping up to host lots of amazing content created onsite.  Today we posted some updates to the site which we are very excited about:

• Microsoft Silverlight will be our platform to deliver all video's on the portal!  We are thrilled to be able to use this exciting new technology and look for your input as we continue to make updates to the VTE site with content rendering.
• Blogs, blogs, blogs...We are hosting the Top News and Recent Posts from TechEd Bloggers in addition displaying a HOT blog list.  If you know of other great TechEd related blogs, let us know so we can review and potentially add it to our HOT list!  Moving forward our goal is to create a VTE team blog so we can directly connect with the community as the site grows, morphs and changes.  This will also provide folks with an inside view of our day to day world in creating a great resource for all who choose to partake.  :-)

Keep checking back as we will have more pages posted late next week before the live event begins. 

Hope everyone who is attending TechEd is excited and ready for a fantastic week!

Back to my virtual world...

Zaakera S

Emerging Media PM, Virtual TechEd Dreamer