Many people think that Small Business Server is a small neglegted product in the Microsoft Line up of Server Products, when actually it plays quite a large part, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Exchange, Sharepoint – wow what a line up!

Wayne Small took some time out with Rosemary Stark, the Small Business Server Product Manager in the Expo hall.

0815 – Keynote started. Good work to the GCECC staff for getting everyone in quickly.
0817 – Welcome by Colin Tim
0819 – 2500 Delegates, 400 people could not make it on the waiting list, lots of Tech.Ed virgins this year (50% New), Increase in # of women (over 200), 27 Delegated from Overseas (only 1/2 are Kiwis)
Favourite Names… 57 John’s, 62 Peters, 63 Pauls, 99 Davids, 13 Colins
0821 – Colin speaks about GFC and current conditions.

From the Twitter feed…

Business business business blah blah blah nothing about community at the keynote of teched…. Not impressed < #auteched

Noting the warm glowing warming glow of many Netbooks, handsets & iPhones in the audience…

Massive screen at #auteched. Impressed!

#auteched Keynote – Next Speaker Please!

Colin Timm content good, jokes bad. Moral = sales guys are not comedians. > *Nods*

0833 – Welcome Paul Lamb from HP
Plugs the Netbook, Talk about GFC (more…)

Well what a great start to Microsoft Tech.Ed 2009. They have re-arranged the expo hall from the usual layout here at the Gold Coast Convention & Expo Centre and spaced it out to give exhibitors more space.

4 Microsoft Quadrants in the expo hall with a large Microsoft Stand in the middle with the exhibitors around and the dining hall at the North end.

Whilst walking around I bumped in to this strange looking fellow….

With all the issues with trying to get the SBS PAL, Keira Mcintosh, in to Microsoft Tech.Ed (The fort knox of the Gold Coast) the TechEdLive.com team (AKA Greg & Wayne) have decided to book a restaurant and host a dinner for all SMBiT Professionals tomorrow night.

Come and meet other SMBiT Professionals from all over Australia, as well as your SBS PAL Keira Mcintosh and Microsoft Staff.

Where: Sage Restaurant – 5/20 Queensland Ave, Broadbeach QLD (Map)
When: 6.30pm, Wednesday 9th September 2009
RSVP: Comment to this post with your name and mobile number. If you don’t want to list your mobile please email it to tech.greg@techedlive.com
What: Pay your own way for dinner and drinks. Sage has reasonably priced meals and drink. (menu)

Spaces are restricted to 20 so please ensure that you RSVP ASAP!

This is a great opportunity for all SMBiT Professionals to get together in a casual environment and voice your opinion, views, thought and have any questions, queries, moans, groans, complaints or comment heard and answered.

So the TechEd opening party is just beginning. I’m seeing many people with their HP Mininote 2140s around the place.  Unfortunately I’ve not got one just yet due to an administrative error…

Microsoft have put in some MASSIVE infrastructure for this event, they’ve investigated and resolved some amazing issues with the wireless network that was here and I hear that there was new fibre laid to the Convention Centre just to take the load of all the geeks.  I hear that the attendees wireless internet access will be via an unlimited 100MB/s network connection to the net… I can see it now… who will be the first to bring it to it’s knees downloading the latest pirate copy of some linux variant, Snow Leopard or something else

Who will be the first to try to exploit the network for their own nefarious ways? And what will happen to them WHEN they are caught

My session is on in Room 7 on Thursday morning at 8:15am – be there or miss out on some cool stuff.  The printed schedule says it’s SBS 2008 – up and running in an hour – unfortunately it’s wrong – it’s actually SBS 2008 – Beyond the wizards.

See you at the opening event tonight!

Well Twitter has certainly gone bonkers with #auteched posts from people traveling to, coming to and already at Microsoft Tech.Ed 2009 on the Gold Coast.

Keep up to date with all the latest on Twitter and of course we’ll be posting right here on TechEdLive.com

If you have a scoop, you can tag me, @glipschitz or email tech.greg@techedlive.com.

There’s a few ways to get from the Coolangatta Airport to the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

• Taxi – A taxi from the airport to the convention centre will set you back just shy of $50.00 and takes about 30 minutes depending on traffic. Taxi’s can be booked on 131 008.
• Shuttle Bus – There is a few shuttle bus services that run up towards the GCCEC. Landmarks they will refer to in close proximity is Conrad Jupiters Casino and Pacific Fair Shopping Centre. These range from free to $15ish dollars depending on the company running them.
• Public Transport – There are 2 services from that run from the Coolangatta Airport as far as Pacific Fair. Route 700 & 760 Check signs for more information. Download Gold Goast Route Planner
• Car Hire – You can hire cars from most of the leading companies, Hertz, Budget, Thrifty, Europcar and also there are a few smaller companies such as Tiki Car Hire that you can sometimes get a good bargain from. Car Parking at the GCCEC is $5 per day, and the first 30 mins is free (if you want to run out and move your car every 30 mins )

I Hope this helps people traveling to and from Tech.Ed 2009.

Tech.Greg

Well – after last years effort by Greg to stir up a storm with Steve Riley and myself getting our own posse, I figure that I’d try a different tack.  Given that Steve is not here this year, I’ve already won!

Seriously though – I figure I’ll see if I can help out and get the SMB community some focus here with some fun stuff over TechEd.

I’m presenting one session here about SBS 2008 Beyond the wizards, so be sure to come along to see me.

Oh – a brief plug for me – www.sbsfaq.com has just relaunched so check it out.  I’ll keep the majority of TechEd AU relating blogging over here though

Thanks Greg

So, after waltzing through a line of…. no one, I picked up my cheap crappy bag (poor effort!) and my HP 2410 Mini.

Drumroll….. the unboxing….

2410 Box

Today the HP mini is sporting the attractive brown cardboard box, with the black stripe and the small logo. Very Classy.

2410 Specs

What's in the box?

2410 Left Hand Side

2410 Right Hand Side

HP 2410

First Boot

I stopped the first boot at this point and took an Acronis True Image backup so that I can roll the machine back to basics should the need arise.

Time to boot her up and see how the beast performs.

More Later… Tech.Greg

For those of you coming up to the Gold Coast for Tech.Ed this week, if I offer one word of advice for the whole week, BRING SHORTS!

We have had a few warm days up here over the last few days, and after 1 day up here, I was off to the shops to grab myself a pair of shorts. (Us Melbourneites haven’t seen 24 degree days in at least 6 months!)

Pre-teched, and what is going to be hot at this years event? Windows 7 will be Huge and Server 2008 R2 also a big topic. With the loss of Steve Riley at Microsoft, It’s a bit disappointing to see the security stream with a few holes in it, but alas, it will be a pretty jam packed week over all.

Being the Mac user that I am (yes, here comes the comment flaming!) I was challenged by a colleague who shall remain nameless, to get OS X running on the HP Mini that we’ll all be getting. So I have come well prepared with my external HDD, Acronis Drive Image (to capture all of Jeff’s hard work) and my Hackintosh reading guides to see if I can pull this off before day 1.

I think I might be dreaming, but hey, it’s worth a shot.

If you’d like to do some blogging up on techedlive.com this week feel free to shoot me an email, tech.greg@techedlive.com or catch up with me during the event.

Cheers,

Tech.Greg