Catherine Eibner

Women in IT Networking Event at PDC

ceibner — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:26:23 GMT

Are you attending PDC? Come along to the PDC09 Women in Technology Luncheon to meet and share stories with the powerful, insightful, and intelligent women attending PDC09. Take part in speed mentoring - an opportunity to gain insight from colleagues' experiences in the workplace through a confidential circle of peers - based on 'mentoring circles' design, but turbo charged for PDC. We hope you will join host Shoshanna Budzianowski, Partner Group Program Manager at Microsoft, for lunch while learning from each other's wisdom and successes!

Wednesday, November 18 - Location TBA

Register here to come along to the Women in IT networking event this year at PDC: http://microsoftpdc.com/WhatsHappening/Women-In-Technology-Networking-Luncheon-Nov-18

CRM/xRM Content at PDC

ceibner — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:06:36 GMT

I am lucky enough to be in Los Angeles attending PDC in person. This year there are 3 xRM related sessions:

Managing the Solution Lifecycle for xRM Applications on Tuesday at 12:30 PM
Developing xRM Solutions Using Windows Azure on Thursday at 3:00 PM
Build a .NET Business Application in 60 Minutes with xRM and SharePoint on Thursday at 12:45 PM

There is also CRM 5 related Hands on Labs available which I will be making sure I get to play with (and try to grab some of the content to bring back to Australia)

In the main Product hall, will be the Dynamics CRM booth – which I will be at on Wednesday Evening from 7pm – 9:30pm while the social “Geek Fest” is on so be sure to come & say hello! :)

ADXStudio will also have a booth (#310) where Shan, Alan and Craig will be there to demo their latest xRM offerings.

If you cant make it in person, the sessions will all be available online after 24 hours – and I believe the keynotes are all being streamed live!

Australian CRM User Group Community Update

ceibner — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:59:31 GMT

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the local Australian CRM community is growing. We now have 4 MVP’s, and as of next month, there will be 3 regular in person CRM user groups. Not only that, but our user group leads have joined forces! They will now be working together to share content, speakers & resources with you ensuring that you get access to the latest & greatest information, no matter where you are. This applies to the in person user groups as well as our exciting new Virtual User group!

SYDNEY

The Sydney User group is still going strong with meetings on the 4th Tuesday of every month at Microsoft North Ryde. The next meeting is the 27th of October, starting at 6pm.

Venue:

Microsoft Sydney Office

1 Epping Rd

North Ryde

ADELAIDE

Our Adelaide user group kicked off a few months ago & is going strong with growing attendance & some exciting topics coming up. The next meeting will be on the 25th of November from 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm covering SureStep methodology. (Also – keep in mind, I will be there on the 2nd of December sharing some of the XRM goodness)

Venue:

Microsoft’s Adelaide Office

Level 2, Westpac House

91 King William St

Adelaide

RSVP: via email to rickrofe@x-rm.com.au

MELBOURNE

Our newest addition to the CRM User group community is the Melbourne User group, having their inaugural meeting on Wednesday the 4th of November with a 5.30pm start for Pizza & Drinks and a 6pm start presentation start.

Dimaz Pramudya will be presenting “See the Light in XRM”, which will cover the awesomeness of Silverlight 3 and how to integrate Silverlight with XRM seamlessly.

The session will be a mixed of demo and implementation.

Venue:

Microsoft Melbourne Office

Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place

Southbank

RSVP: http://xrmug.eventbrite.com/

VIRTUAL

Our 3 user group leaders are also joining forces to bring you a regular Virtual User group to cover some of the latest news & features. In collaboration with LIDNUG http://www.lidnug.org/ we will be giving you regular updates on what’s happening in the CRM world, ensuring that you stay up to date, even if you can’t make it to a meeting! Stay tuned for more details on that VERY SOON!

Can you build an xRM system in < 3 hours? We did!

ceibner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:56:05 GMT

Last week in Sydney, we had 2 special guests from Microsoft Corp in Seattle, Bryan Nielson, Director of Worldwide Product Marketing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Nikhil Hasija, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM who ran our XRM summit event. It comprised of 2 tracks, a 1 day Sales & Marketing Track & a 2 day Technical Track.

I joined over 50 other attendees in the Technical track which on the first day covered an Introduction to xRM concepts, Technical audience overview, Technical architecture and the Underlying Microsoft technologies.

The second day was where things really got interesting; we were given a scenario of a Recruitment solution that required remote access, workflows, sharepoint integration and BI. Then came the cruncher: We had 3 hours to build a working demo using xRM.

Fortunately, Nikhil who was guiding the session, shared the valuable lessons learnt on the 24hrs to build an XRM Application experience that he had while at Worldwide Partner Conference in July. The result of which was a Rapid Prototype Deployment methodology – which had tasks broken down into 15-30 minute brackets.

Below is a Panorama I created with Windows Live Photo Gallery during the first (and perhaps most critical) stage, where we negotiated the features to include.

Throughout the stages, Nikhil continued to closely watch the clock & point out to us that “you should only build what you are going to demo”, and that if we over engineered the system, it would really hurt us when we get to the later stages of more complex customisations & sample data entry.

Once we defined the scenarios we would demo & the BI reports we would build, suddenly the required entities & attributes where easy to define and within the first hour we had our demo solution defined, custom entities created & were ready to kick off the design of our forms! We needed a break for lunch!

After lunch the rapid pace continued with everyone madly contributing to the solution. We designed workflows to schedule tasks, alert users to changes in the system and manage a multi user approval process.

We used the great Microsoft Dynamics CRM Demonstration Tools to help us customise the GUI, removing the items we didn't need & adding the ones we did.

Next up – our reports. But reports are useless without sample data so before we built them, we also used the Demo tools to generate the Random Sample data – a great time saver – but still a stage that did take 30 mins! Nikhil was right! The number of custom entities you have is directly related to the amount of time it takes to get the sample data together so keep that in mind!

Once we had our sample data, the required BI reports were built that included a pipeline analysis funnel report, a categorised bar chart & a drill through data report. The pipeline report was converted to a Dashboard & added to the GUI as the default page.

We were running out of time - we had 30 minutes left!

We set up Mobile access (which literally only took a few clicks & was configured & deployed in under 5 mins!). After this, one of the more complex customisations, which involved building & deploying custom C# code that created a SharePoint Document Folder on creation of a new Job & then added a link back to it to the Custom Entity in CRM.

After setting up some security groups it was time to test! We need to make a few changes to our forms, but all seemed good! We even had a few spare minutes up our sleeve so deployed the new Portal Integration Accelerator.

TIME IS UP!

I couldn't believe it! In 3 hours, we managed to define, design & build a custom xRM solution for recruitment that included custom entities, sample data, BI reports & a dashboard, Windows Workflows, custom call outs, Sharepoint Integration, a mobile client & a Web Portal!

Overall, a fantastic experience and an eye opener for everyone involved. Most of the group didn't think it was even remotely possible to build what we did in that time, yet impressively – we did! :D

Ever felt like there was more you could do?

ceibner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:56:26 GMT

As most of you already know, I am a big believer in programs, events & facilities that support Women in IT. One of the things I have always wanted to do was get proactively involved in a Mentoring program to help support Women working in IT who may not have access to the amazing resources that I have been lucky enough to have, both here at Microsoft & especially here in Sydney.

I also am a strong believer that everyone can be both a mentor to someone and at the same time, a mentee, no matter what stage of their career or area of interest.

So, last month, while chatting to Erin Guy & Kerriann Tyson-Jones (2 of the lovely ladies that run Females In Technology and Telecommunications (FITT)), they mentioned that they have a formal Mentoring program & are always looking for people to get involved both as mentors, and to be mentored.

This started the ideas flowing and now we are all very excited about the first step in getting more involved in the promotion of their Mentoring program through our upcoming networking event that Microsoft is sponsoring:

Be a 3 minute Mentor and Mentee - North Ryde Social Event with Girl Geeks and FITT

Sydney Girl Geek Dinners are joining forces with Females In Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) for its first networking event that will provide a fun and interactive speed mentoring game, with the overall goal of sharing ways you can get involved in mentoring & give or receive support from your peers & our amazing role models we are lucky enough to have.

The aim is to provide an interactive networking to share and discuss work related experiences that could include anything like the following:
-If only I knew 5 years ago what I know now
-What works for me in this situation
-I know I have a strong skill set here, but could use help here
-What type of course could help me progress in this area
-I just want to make sure I’m heading in the right direction

So bring your questions as well as your answers as this is one opportunity to make great introductions, learn from your peers and have fun.

This event is kindly sponsored by Microsoft
Light lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Thursday, October 29th
12 pm – 2pm
Microsoft
1 Epping Road, North Ryde

Register Now: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=29I3Y9PhkHCqPGziAqwlXg%3d%3d

and then there were 4! The Australian CRM MVP forces are growing!

ceibner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:58:23 GMT

Interest & excitement around Microsoft Dynamics CRM is growing – Gartner reports it at a staggering 75% in 2008! Coinciding with this is the ever growing community that supports developers & end users alike.

In Australia, our number of CRM MVP’s has also grown by a similar rate. In the last 18 months, our 1st CRM MVP, the ever amazing Guy Riddle has been joined by 3 other fantastic CRM community members!

In July 2008, George Doubinski a highly talented CRM developer from AlexaCRM joined the ranks. If you have ever looked at the CRM developer Forums, its near impossible to find a question that George hasn't helped to solve.

In October 2008, I found out I had been awarded MVP for CRM. Unfortunately(??), it was just days after I had joined Microsoft as the Dynamics Developer Evangelist so cancels the MVP out – but I figured worth a mention anyway! :)

Our 3rd member of the special CRM MVP team is Ayaz Ahmad who decided to make the move to Australia in August 2009 from NZ, and set up camp in Perth, working with CSG. His blog is one you really must add to your CRM related blog posts as his detailed, graphic descriptions of common queries for CRM (3.0 & 4.0) are always educational & easy to follow.

At the beginning of this month our newest CRM MVP Leon Tribe received his MVP award, taking the number of CRM MVP’s we have in Australia to 4! Leon’s background is in CRM consulting and has been working with CRM since version 1.0. He recently joined Praxa & is actively involved with the Sydney CRM user group and also a regular contributor to the CRM forums.

Each of these guys are amazing, friendly, helpful, with great depth of knowledge in CRM & the related technologies in their areas of specialty. I just thought today I would take a minute to highlight each of them because of the great work they do! They are each great contributors to the success of Dynamics CRM here in Australia!

Working at Microsoft: 2009 Diversity@Work Awards

ceibner — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:36:48 GMT

People often ask me what it is like to work at Microsoft. Many are often as surprised as I was to find out how much they supported my Work/Life balance needs, especially ensuring that I get the time I need with my son. This was one of my greatest concerns with accepting the role as it is especially important to me. However, once I started, the flexible start & finish times that fit around my son’s daycare hours and the extensive support of remote work to allow me to work from home when necessary are invaluable & give me all the flexibility I need.

There is also a strong culture that supports Diversity – one of the things I am particularly passionate about so it is also very important to me.

With this in mind I was not surprised to hear that Microsoft Australia has been recognised for its commitment to diversity by winning two awards at the 2009 Diversity@Work awards last week.

We won both the Women in Leadership & the Work Life Balance categories.

The Work Life Balance category was awarded for Microsoft’s progress in making work something that you do and not a place you go. The submission highlighted the Working Flexibly initiative, which includes purchasing additional annual leave, leave without pay, career breaks, remote work, part time, job share and flexible start and finish times. All of these make balancing a toddler & full time work – actually possible!

In reference to the Women in Leadership, the judges said, “Microsoft Australia's focus to address the gender gap, experienced across all IT companies, has proven to make a difference. The company’s strategy is all encompassing and strongly integrated through HR. Good goals are set for women and are well communicated throughout the organisation.”

All in All – it makes Microsoft Australia a great place to work!

Please welcome WebsiteSpark to our Spark Family

ceibner — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:03:50 GMT

You all know how much I love BizSpark… well, I am now so very excited, as last week at Web Directions, the newest member of our Spark Family was announced: WebsiteSpark.

In a similar vein to our BizSpark & DreamSpark programs, WebsiteSpark is the new global program, designed to ignite the success of professional Web developers and designers by driving new business opportunities through connections with global partners and customers. WebsiteSpark also provides Web professional companies with Microsoft tools and hosting solutions, as well as the support and training they need. There is no upfront cost to enrol in Microsoft WebsiteSpark.

To be eligible, a Web design and development company must have the following characteristics at the time of joining:

A professional service firm whose primary business is providing Web development and design services for its clients, with
no more than 10 members (including owners and employees).
the company must deploy a new public and Internet-accessible website developed using Program software within 6 months from Program enrolment, and report it and other new websites through the WebsiteSpark Portal.

So, why should I join WebsiteSpark?

Get Business Opportunities: Get opportunities to expand your customer base and drive new business through showcasing your capabilities and connecting with partners, by featuring your talents in Microsoft marketing and business networking vehicles such as:

WebsiteSpark Marketplace, a site where customers can find a participating WebsiteSpark
Web developer or designer.
Partner Solution Profiler, a Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) resource for promoting solutions and services to the more than 170,000 customers who search Microsoft.com for technology experts every month
Web App Gallery, a resource that provides Web developers and designers with instant access to the most popular community Web applications available, and where Web developers and designers can also submit and showcase their work.

Get Support and Training: Get professional support from Microsoft and get connected to WebsiteSpark Network Partners, Hosting Partners, and other Web developers and designers with complementary technologies or business models—an entire ecosystem that can provide a wide range of technical and business resources for every Web professional need. Benefits include:

2 professional support incidents
Free online training
Managed newsgroups on MSDN (a community of over six million developers) and/or other Microsoft online properties
Access to broad community support through connections with Network Partners, Hosting Partners and peers with complementary services and technologies

Get Software & Solutions: Get fast and easy access to Microsoft's current full-featured development tools and Web server production/hosting licenses for immediate use in designing, developing and bringing to market differentiated, innovative and rich Internet

Technology offering: The WebsiteSpark technology offering for participating Web professional companies currently includes:
For design, development, testing and demonstration of new websites – for a total of up to three users per Web design and development company:

Visual Studio Professional
Expression Studio 2 or 3 (1 user) and Expression Web 2 or 3 (up to 2 users)
Windows Web Server 2008 or R2 (when available)
SQL Server 2008 Web Edition

For production use – that is, to deploy and host new websites developed using Program software – using a total of up to four processors per Web design and development company, of the following (physical or virtual) dedicated servers:

Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (when available)
SQL Server 2008 Web Edition

Deployments may be on 4 servers or VMs of 1processor each, on 2 servers or VMs of 2 processors each, or on 1 server or VM of 4-processors

Professional Advantage take on the Stage & Screen!

ceibner — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:29:17 GMT

I came across these CRM situational videos playing out ‘Life before’ and ‘Life after’ the CRM system.

They were put together with the internal acting skills of one of our larger local Dynamics Partners, Professional Advantage & I believe can be contacted for future Acting jobs here: www.pa.com.au/microsoft

Check out the videos on YouTube here:

Focus on existing customers

Maximise revenue opportunities

Do more with less

Tips From the Inside for Microsoft ISV’s!

ceibner — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:11:53 GMT

If you missed the presentation Carol Bowman & I did at the Australian Partner Conference on the Gold Coast last week, it incorporated a listing of the key resources & tools that Microsoft provides to help ISV’s along their way to ultimately achieving a best of breed solution that can be awarded Certified For Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD) status.

I chose to highlight the tools & resources I wish had existed when I had my own Dynamics Partner Business (prior to starting at Microsoft) or ones that I wish I had known existed! Even trying to collate this list proved once again that Microsoft does so much to help their partner ecosystem – but sometimes in too many ways & on too many different sites so it can be hard to find exactly what you are looking for!

I have included the link to the presentation & notes on slide share below:

Developing Microsoft Dynamics ISV Solutions That Address Customer Challenges

View more presentations from Catherine Eibner.

I want to pull out some of the key sites, tools & resources in this blog post that I mentioned in the presentation because I want to make sure partners know about them.

There are quite a few to check out including the links below – but I want to draw attention to what I believe is the most important one: ISV Destination.

ISV Destination:

This is an APAC specific Site that brings together links & resources from a range of MS Sites to help you build a solid business model around your software & develop your application on the best platform to gain competitive advantage.

What does ISV Destination Offer?
By bringing together resources from a wide range of MS sites, ISV Destination is designed to provide you with the tools you need to develop your application on the best platform and reinforce your business value to grow revenue.

ISV Destination is a feature-rich resource that helps you gain a vital new edge in your business. We'll walk you through the stages of planning, developing, marketing, selling, deploying and maintaining your solutions. You'll also find a wealth of information on building and maintaining a solid customer base.

A Rewarding Partnership
ISV Destination is part of the Microsoft Partner Program, and combines with our local Community Days to offer ISVs a new level of both online and offline support. Our commitment to ISVs has been expanded by incorporating them into our partner program. By joining the 'ISV Competency' you're on a fast track to becoming a Microsoft Certified Partner. In doing so, you're making a wise investment in your company that will expand your product credibility and value in the marketplace.

http://members.microsoft.com/partner/asia/isv/latestnews.aspx

So apart from ISV Destination, the below sites are also worth knowing about. I have broken down into the following sections:

Get the Tools You Need
Get the Skilz
Get Recognition
Stay Ahead of the Competition

1. Get the Tools you need

BizSpark

I see BizSpark as one of the most exciting ways that Microsoft now enables entrepreneurs & start ups to gain access to the Development tools, Support Programs & Communities for minimal upfront cost.

The Microsoft BizSpark program is based on the belief that if Microsoft helps Startups succeed, we will help build a mutually beneficial and valued long-term relationship, and together build a more vibrant global software economy. Microsoft BizSpark helps Startups by
providing Microsoft software inexpensively, when they most need it and can least afford it, and by supporting a global network of support organizations − Startup incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies − that are equally involved and invested in software-fueled
innovation and entrepreneurship. Microsoft is committed to working with these organizations as part of the Microsoft BizSpark Network to ensure that we are supporting the broadest
possible Startup audience, in a way that complements the value those network organizations already provide.

http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark /

http://blogs.msdn.com/ceibner/archive/2009/07/30/so-what-is-bizspark-can-i-get-it.aspx

Empower Pack For ISVs

Microsoft Empower for ISVs is a two-year initiative that gives independent software vendors access to vital software development tools. For just U.S.$375 per year you can take advantage of these great benefits*:
MSDN® (Microsoft Developer Network) Resources
One (1) MSDN Premium Subscription with Five (5) Development and Testing Licenses

Software Licenses
Up to five (5) internal-use software licenses and up to five (5) client access licenses
Technical Support
Up to ten (10) hours of phone-based consulting

As an introductory service for independent software vendors, Empower is not available to existing Microsoft Certified Partners or Gold Certified Partners.

http ://www.empowerforisv.com/pages/about.aspx

Solution Finder

This is a newly released tool that allows you to find partner-built solutions that work with Microsoft Dynamics to meet the unique needs of your business and industry. This is also a very handy tool for identifying opportunities in specific geographic areas, and Industry Verticals.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/solution-finder.aspx

Dynamics ISV Playbook

http://blogs.msdn.com/dynpartnercommunity/archive/2009/08/19/microsoft-dynamics-isv-playbook.aspx

2. Get the Skilz

Innovate On

Microsoft created the Innovate On initiative to help propel leading-edge software solutions from the drawing board to your customer's desktop or device.

The global marketplace for Microsoft based solutions is large and growing rapidly and we want to help you drive your software solutions based on Microsoft technology to market faster. Sign up and use the Innovate On resource information and benefits to build, test, and deploy your products to market quickly. The tools, technologies, testing and support you need are all in one place—sign up today.

http://www.innovateon.com/pageLayout.aspx

Technical Advisory Service

Access Knowledge. Experience. Support. A service I stupidly never took advantage of whilst I had my business. Partners each get minimum hours included in their partner support to access to this Global team of Experienced Partner Technical Consultants.

They have the skills to provide:

Technology talks and customized workshops to help you build deep skills at a fast pace.
Implementation and deployment practices, design reviews, tools, and methodologies to build the right solution.
Technology architecture guidance, application certification, code review and samples, and best practices.
Guidance and demonstrations to help you leverage Microsoft technologies in your application design and development.

Use the hours you have available to you in this great service!!!

https ://partner.microsoft.com/40012316?msp_id=isvadvisoryservices

ISV Zone

This is the primary source of Developer related content. MSDN Developer Centers pull together content and resources around specific products and technologies. They connect you to code samples, community sites, technical articles and documentation, upcoming events, and much more. Each Developer Center gives you a clear road map to understanding and working with your technology of choice.

The Dynamics area of MSDN includes Ramp Up Kits, the SDK and a vibrant community of developers & forums.

http://members.microsoft.com/partner/asia/isv/development/tools/msdn.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/default.aspx

AU Partner Readiness:

Our internal team responsible for scheduling & promoting upcoming local training & readiness events. An INVALUABLE list of resources:

http://twitter.com/MSAUReadiness

http://blogs.technet.com/auspartnertraining/

http://blogs.msdn.com/ceibner/archive/2009/06/23/how-do-i-find-out-about-upcoming-partner-training-great-offers.aspx

3. Get Recognition

Certified For Microsoft Dynamics (CfMD)

Certified for Microsoft Dynamics is a certification that your solution can achieve. This is the ultimate recognition for your company & your product in the Dynamics arena. It proves that not only does your application meet stringent guidelines, integrate completely with the underlying dynamics product and is fully documented, but that your company is established enough to provide consistent support to your end users, and can demonstrate proven examples of successful implementations. This identifies your solution as a best of breed solution!

www.Microsoft.com/Dynamics/CfMD

https://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/partners-certified.aspx

http://www.lionbridge.com/lionbridge/en-US/services/software-product-engineering/testing-veritest/product-certification-services/microsoft/certified-for-dynamics.htm

http://www.lionbridge.com/dynamics/Introduction-to-CfMD.pdf

4. Stay Ahead of the Competition

Metro Early Adopter Program

The Metro program is an exclusive early adoption program designed to help Microsoft Partners and Customers access the resources and support available to you as you build upon and extend the very latest cutting edge Microsoft products and technologies.

http ://www.discovermetro.net/en-US/Pages/DE.aspx

Technical Adoption Program (TAP)

The Technology Adoption Program is designed to provide a consistent experience for Microsoft partners to obtain real-world customer feedback on Microsoft pre-release products.

Participating customers find that some of the most powerful benefits include:

Product team engineering
help in deploying their Microsoft solutions.
Early product education.
An opportunity to influence product through their feedback.
The strategic edge all this can give them in their line of business.

The goal is to improve customer/partner experiences in evaluating and adopting our technologies and improve our ability to track and manage customer/partner relationships across programs. TAP is not an additional program. There are four different types of TAPs:

Product Validation
Product Evaluation
Rapid Deployment
Solutions Implementation

Availability by invitation only; contact your Microsoft account manager about upcoming opportunities.

https://connect.microsoft.com/TAPintoMicrosoft

SlingAlibi – Empowering People with Technology

ceibner — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:15:12 GMT

One of my favorite Women In Technology, Asli Bilgin has just announced a new site: SlingAlibi (can you work out what that’s an anagram for??) http://www.slingalibi.com/. Now of course there’s an associated Twitter account you can follow for good measure: http://twitter.com/slingalibi

The goal of the site is to empower people with technology and is geared to anyone who has a passion for enhancing your personal and professional life with software development. There is content for both the experienced and the newcomer. These audiences include girls and women in technology, non for profits, and start-up entrepreneurial developers who are looking for events, resources and role models to help enhance their personal and professional lives with the power of the Microsoft development platform.

The reason I am so intrigued by this site is that most of the technical content is geared towards answering the question "Why Do I?", as this question is seldom answered in favor of the "How Do I?".

That said, there will be how-to's included, but this site aims to focus more on the rationale behind choosing one technology or technique over another, ideally demonstrating business or personal value in your world.

Kicking off with a bang, there are already multiple series geared towards a variety of audiences:

For the newcomer to .NET both New2.NET (5) and Windows Live Tips (2) will present technology with context. So instead of hearing “How Do I” you will hear “Why Do I”
For the seasoned web developer looking to take advantage of the latest and greatest platform enhancements in Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Windows 7, and ASP.NET 4.0 we have ASP.NET Tips (8)
For girls and women looking for technical resources we have the series WIT - What's What (2) and for those looking for role models, we plan to highlight and surface leaders within the Women in Technology industry through WIT - Who's Who (1)
looking to build a “store” to sell their handmade items online like an etsy.com or ebay.com, we bring you So Long eBay and Thanks for the f.i.s.h. (2) This series will walk through the end to end software development life cycle to build an inventory management and commerce engine to auction items online.
For techie travelers, both the Jetsetters Tech Tip (1) and Windows Live Tips (2) series will provide a host of recommendations to build a Software + Services mesh that follows you wherever you go.
For startups who want to enhance their online web presence we share the stories of hosting, custom blog engines, search engine optimization, social networking optimization Blogging 101 - Behind the Scenes at SlingAlibi (2) and for those entrepreneurial types who would like to learn how to leverage the resources of large enterprises to achieve their goals, we share the story of the LEGO and Microsoft partnership with the story of the program WomenBuild (2).

SlingAlibi Series Subscriptions

About the SlingAlibi Series

Women in IT at Tech ED Australia 09

ceibner — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:33:34 GMT

This year, I got to be involved with organising the Women in IT function for Tech Ed Australia. It was a fantastic opportunity & meant I could work with Asli Bilgin & the other Women Build creators to host a Lego Serious Play Women Build event for the first time at Tech Ed Australia.

The Women build concept was first run at Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) last year. I was fortunate enough to be one of the attendees at the event and loved it so much, I wanted to make sure we got to experience it in Australia. Since PDC, I have attended 3 Women Build events in the US, and been trained as a facilitator. It was just amazing to have the opportunity to host one this year at Tech Ed Australia.

The event was promoted in the key note, it was featured on the Tech Ed Australia Website, in the event brochure and in the end we had over 80 attendees. Denise Meyerson from MCI Consulting did a great job of facilitating the session and keeping us moving quickly in the 1 hour time we had.

We had some amazing table facilitators who represented women in all different areas of technology & stages of their careers in IT. I cannot thank each of them enough for making it a success. Our facilitators included Bronwen Zande, Andrew Parsons, Jodie Miners, Elaine van Bergen, Anna Howarth, Alison Young, Jenny Firth & Linda Birchall.

We had a good mix of males & females in attendance and the topics were not just around the challenges women face in IT, but also around encouraging overall diversity in the workplace.

So what did people think?

Twitter was abuzz with comments & pictures of the Lego creations, comments like “the LEGO Serious Play was excellent. Very good at encouraging participation and collaboration” Twitpics of peoples creations started to appear as the room filled with the sounds of happy chatter & the clicks of Lego Bricks being assembled:

Everyone I spoke to afterwards also really enjoyed it, and so far the feedback via the Evaluation forms has also been really positive. But hey, just don’t take my word for it – read what our attending Press representatives had to say:

In the Press:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/317902

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/27583/53/

So, What now?!

1. Join the Women Build Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=564304866&gv=2#/group.php?gid=47027341816 There is also a discussion group set up just for the Australian Tech Ed event. http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?id=564304866&gv=2#/topic.php?uid=47027341816&topic=10002 Feel free to connect & stay in contact with the women you met via this group.

2. As we did have the reduced timeframe for the session, one of the things we would normally ask participants to do at the end is to commit to one thing they can do in their local community to help solve their discussed challenges. Often this can be around mentoring, encouraging greater attendance at local usergroups & IT conferences, or even helping to identify & promote strong role models. For those who attended, please feel free to use the comments section below to let us know what you plan to do, and how it goes!

Microsoft Dynamics® xRM Partner Readiness Workshops

ceibner — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:09:56 GMT

I received the official notification about this event in in inbox today & thought I would share it as I think its a fantastic event you do not want to miss! Not only because of the great content, but its a chance to meet some of the AWESOME Dynamics CRM team, like

Bryan Nielson, Director of Worldwide Product Marketing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Jon Farmer, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Lead, Asia

Nikhil Hasija, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, U.S.

Of course, I will be there as well so register soon as places are filling fast!!

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Microsoft Dynamics® xRM Partner Readiness Workshops

Demand for solutions built on the xRM platform are accelerating around the world. Customers and partners alike are harnessing the power of xRM to rapidly build relational line-of-business applications. Understanding the capabilities and value of xRM is critical to your success.

Attend a readiness event and learn how xRM can:

Secure the Microsoft application development and packaged application technology stacks

Neutralize competitive threats to core Microsoft technologies from Force.com and Fusion

Be sold into every organization you talk to through multiple selling scenarios

Enable you to expand deeper and broader in every one of your customer accounts

Deliver exceptional business results and compelling ROI to your customers.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

These workshops are geared for any Microsoft partner interested in learning more about the selling and deploying on the xRM platform, including: existing Dynamics partners, Microsoft platform partners and ISVs.

Microsoft partners who are involved in marketing, sales, pre-sales or support of xRM should not miss this training.

Seats are very limited. To avoid disappointment, register today!

DATE:	15 October 2009
TIME:	9:30am – 5pm AEST
LOCATION:	Microsoft Sydney Australia 1 Epping Road North Ryde NSW 2113
COST:	$50 + GST per attendee (no travel discount available) No Charge* if your organisation is sending representative to attend the Technical Sales Track - please use Ticket Code: xRM
TOPICS:	Introduction to xRM Messaging & Marketing Selling & ROI Competition Customers
SPEAKER:	Bryan Nielson, Director of Worldwide Product Marketing, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Jon Farmer, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Lead, Asia
	REGISTER NOW!

* Up to 2 free attendees per paid attendee of the Technical Track

DATE:	15 - 16 October 2009
TIME:	9:30am – 5pm AEST
LOCATION:	Microsoft Sydney Australia 1 Epping Road North Ryde NSW 2113
Cost:	$100 + GST per attendee 50% travel discount for inter-state attendees
TOPICS:	Introduction to xRM Technical audience overview Technical architecture, Microsoft technologies, Building xRM prototypes & demos
SPEAKER:	Nikhil Hasija, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, U.S.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS:	Attendees of the Technical Sales Track are required to bring own laptop with 1.5GB RAM and minimum free space of 22GB (external USB drive is recommended) to run the xRM VPC on Day 2 of the training. You may download Virtual PC 2007 SP1 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=28C97D22-6EB8-4A09-A7F7-F6C7A1F000B5&displaylang=en
	REGISTER NOW!

Did you Know? Registering Workflows for Dynamics CRM 4.0

ceibner — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:50:05 GMT

Just a quick thing I learnt this evening that I thought I would share: If you are writing custom Workflow assemblies for Dynamics CRM, you can use the handy Plugin registration tool (found here or as is now also located in the Tools shipped with the SDK) to register Workflow assemblies as well as Plugins!

Nice! :)

Sara Ford Is COMING to Tech Ed Australia!!!

ceibner — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:51:53 GMT

Tech ED Australia just keeps getting better & better! I have just received confirmation that Sara Ford IS COMING TO TECH ED AUSTRALIA!!!

We had over 500 votes which 434 voted Yes, ABSOLUTELY!

Turns out those that voted no – predominantly thought we were poaching Sara long term – but never fear! Its just for the duration Tech Ed!! :D

Sara will be presenting 2 topics & also be involved in our Women in IT Lego Build Event!

Visual Studio IDE Tips (300lv)

Performance improvements begin by speeding up the simple task you do every minute of every hour of every day you use Visual Studio. Just like a coin jar where you place your spare change, you’ll see the time you save add up into the days, weeks, and into the months. This talk offers the best of the best from the Visual Studio Tip of the Day series that can be used in any programming language. Dive deep into the IDE!

A Tour of CodePlex (200lv)

If you're a software developer interested in running an open source project or just looking around for a particular tool to download, come check out the latest from CodePlex. CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting site. Launched in May 2006, CodePlex host thousands of open source projects. CodePlex users can start open source projects with support for source control, bug tracking, wiki pages, downloads, forums, and project statistics. Additionally, CodePlex supports the widest range of source control clients. This talk explores the top downloaded projects, outlines the CodePlex feature set, and explains how we build the CodePlex software.

Sara is Sooooooo excited – see her thank you video here:

Thank you so very much to everyone that voted! We look forward to welcoming Sara to Australia at Tech Ed!!!