dinsdag, maart 11, 2008
Heroes happen here
I've attended the Belgian launch event from Microsoft's new products today. It is called 'Heroes happen here' and celebrates the release of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. As usual I got a very professional show, good food, a vendor exhibition and once more 1/3 or more of the audience seemed to be students.
I go to these events part out of nostalgia to the times I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and gave courses, or even made some like on the Wolfpack cluster. Good times. It's not my job anymore to follow these evolutions, but I still keep a high level view as a hobby. Actually, I don't find the new releases that dramatically different from when I stopped around 2003. They became more secure, more reliable, more easy to manage, faster, more trouble-free, etc, but the core was there. Actually, Microsoft has a hard time to come up with a big bang announcement on what is so great about these releases. And the reason is the products have been reworked at their core. They do their jobs better, more secure, etc. But not dramatically different. And I think that is a good thing.
So marketing-wise, the main message was not on the products (yes, they are released and they are great and have tons of new little and bigger features on all kinds of areas) but on the participants. Microsoft celebrated the 'silent heroes', aka the IT people that make all these great applications and that make sure they keep running. It was also the first time I did not go home with a nice conference bag with goodies like the actual software. They gave everyone a book that has photographs of various IT heroes around the world by Carolyn Jones. There are 20.000 copies of it, only handed out to the participants of the launch events around the world. (When I came home and showed the book to Stijn, he immediately called it 'the book of nerds'. I don't agree but can see his point.)
While I appreciate the hero message, I would have preferred the copy of Visual Studio 2008 I was secretly hoping for. I guess I'll keep making about2findout.com on the copy of Visual Studio 2005 they gave me at the previous launch event.
I go to these events part out of nostalgia to the times I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and gave courses, or even made some like on the Wolfpack cluster. Good times. It's not my job anymore to follow these evolutions, but I still keep a high level view as a hobby. Actually, I don't find the new releases that dramatically different from when I stopped around 2003. They became more secure, more reliable, more easy to manage, faster, more trouble-free, etc, but the core was there. Actually, Microsoft has a hard time to come up with a big bang announcement on what is so great about these releases. And the reason is the products have been reworked at their core. They do their jobs better, more secure, etc. But not dramatically different. And I think that is a good thing.
So marketing-wise, the main message was not on the products (yes, they are released and they are great and have tons of new little and bigger features on all kinds of areas) but on the participants. Microsoft celebrated the 'silent heroes', aka the IT people that make all these great applications and that make sure they keep running. It was also the first time I did not go home with a nice conference bag with goodies like the actual software. They gave everyone a book that has photographs of various IT heroes around the world by Carolyn Jones. There are 20.000 copies of it, only handed out to the participants of the launch events around the world. (When I came home and showed the book to Stijn, he immediately called it 'the book of nerds'. I don't agree but can see his point.)
While I appreciate the hero message, I would have preferred the copy of Visual Studio 2008 I was secretly hoping for. I guess I'll keep making about2findout.com on the copy of Visual Studio 2005 they gave me at the previous launch event.
Labels: heroes happen here, microsoft, visual studio
