On Tuesday I took a day off work and went to a couple of TechNet events which were running in Newcastle. Big thanks to the guys at TechNet for answering many requests to visit the North East and visiting us in Newcastle, I hope the MSDN team are planning some events in Newcastle, cos we'd love to see them here too!

This was not the usual type of event for me and to be honest most of the content in the main session of the day - "Creating and Managing a Virtual Environment on the Microsoft Platform" was outside the realm of my job and professional experience, however I did find it very interesting.  The way in which Steve Lamb and James O'Neill delivered the session, 90% live demos with 10% slides was very good, and I appreciate the amount of hard work involved in delivering that type of session. Big thumbs up guys and I think it is an excellent way of delivering content.

Links from TechNet On The Road:

• James O'Neill's Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone
• Steve Lamb's Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/steve_lamb
• Eileen Brown's Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown
• Steve and James' Slides and Eileen's Slides

The evening session was a very enjoyable and consumer oriented session delivered by James Senior and Matt McSpirit.  This session covered Windows Vista, Xbox 360 and Media Center. This was a great and relaxed look at how users can use the technology for home orientated tasks such as Photo storage using Live Photo Gallery, make DVDs using DVD Creator, Movie Maker. They showed some of the features of Photo Synth. Gave a good demonstration of Media Center, and Media Center Extender on XBox 360, Sideshow gadgets and James had a LG Z1 laptop which has a SideShow panel in the lid (see my earlier post - CES - So Many New Toys! - Windows Vista SideShow). They gave away a couple of copies of Windows Vista Ultimate - One through a Guitar Hero II Challenge (in which Matt was soundly beaten by an attendee!) and the second through a text competition.

One of the most interesting pieces of technology on show was Windows Home Server which is a server for the home, which stores your music, photos, files, backups and is remotely accessible. This looks really cool and is certainly added to my ever growing wish list :-). For more information see the guys' blogs:

• James Senior's Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/james
• Matt McSpirit's Blog - http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit

Earlier this week these two events were highlighted by Phil Cross of Microsoft in an email I received.  TechNet on the Road will be running in Reading, London, Manchester, NEWCASTLE and Falkirk.  Vista After Hours is running in Manchester, NEWCASTLE, Falkirk and London.   These look to be great events for IT Pros and even for Developers who have an interest.

The following information on the events was taken from the latest Technet Flash Newsletter:

TechNet on the Road
This new-style TechNet event, featuring powerful product demos, will start by explaining the environment we'll be working in, and then use Windows Deployment Services to jump straight into a server deployment. The new server will form part of a server cluster. We'll generate workloads to run on the cluster, using Windows Server Virtualisation, with which we'll create a number of Virtual Machines - Domain Controller, DNS and DHCP VMs. We'll also create a Windows Server 2008 'Server Core' installation. Next we'll explore clustering further, specifically the failing over of workloads between nodes. We'll close with a session dedicated to managing this infrastructure, using tools such as System Centre Operations Manager (SCOM, formerly Microsoft Operations Manager, MOM), System Centre Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and PowerShell, the fantastic new command-line shell and scripting language.

20 September 2007, Manchester: Creating and Managing a Virtual environment on the Microsoft Platform

21 September 2007, Reading: Creating and Managing a Virtual Environment on the Microsoft Platform

25 September 2007, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Creating and Managing a Virtual environment on the Microsoft Platform

27 September 2007, Falkirk: Creating and Managing a Virtual environment on the Microsoft Platform

03 October 2007, London: Creating and Managing a Virtual Environment on the Microsoft Platform

Vista After Hours
You may be familiar with Windows Vista at work - whether you have deployed it or are evaluating it - but have you ever thought about the possibilities of Vista outside work? This session, aimed at IT professionals, explores not only the built in elements of Vista (such as Search, Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, and the Networking and Sharing Centre) but also how you can extend your Windows Vista Experience with Windows Media Centre, Xbox 360 and specific applications to open up a new world of gaming and home entertainment.

20 September 2007, Manchester: Vista After Hours

25 September 2007, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Vista After Hours

27 September 2007, Falkirk: Vista After Hours

03 October 2007, London: Vista After Hours

I am thinking of attending at least the Vista After Hours event in Newcastle and maybe the full day on Windows Server 2008 too, so if you're attending I might see you there!