TheKrewe Meet and Greet 2012

With MS TechEd 2011 in Atlanta being my first time at TechEd and first time at a major tech conference, I wanted to reach out and find a good community to be part of. After checking in, I found my way to "TheKrewe Meet & Greet" on the rooftop of a bar/club near the convention center. I got there as they were setting things up and people were starting to mingle both in the bar and up on the roof. I didn't stay long as my travel in was getting the best of me but I knew these were my folks.

Flash forward to through the months in between TechEds and I have become pretty good friends with members of TheKrewe. With Twitter as the primary tool that we use to keep in touch, I have both lists and search filters that keep me up to date on happenings and when folks come into the Seattle area for conferences or meetings there, trying to setup little gatherings when we can. The community still grows and continues in the "off-season" of the year and TheKrewe helps each other where they can.

June rolls around and MS TechEd gets closer. Michael Bender has been planning a bunch of stuff for the annual kick-off party called the Meet and Greet. Excitement builds and we hear of great plans. From what I understand, we are having the Meet and Greet at the origination point of TheKrewe from a prior MSTechEd here in Orlando. I am so excited to see (and even meet in person) some of the people I call good friends but only talk to online.

The party starts and the place is packed, literally packed. Howl at the Moon is a dueling piano bar which adds a fun time to the event. There is food and a good amount of open bar amenities for those that choose to imbibe. Thanks to great sponsors like Microsoft Springboard Series, X-IO Technologies, Axceler, Vision Solutions, New Horizons, Big Bang LLC, and Data Core Software, a good time with friends turned into a fantastic event! I personally can't thank them all enough for helping TheKrewe kick off this week.

While the event was a blast, I personally want to thank my friends in TheKrewe for bringing me into the fold. I have told some folks that MS TechEd is now my annual vacation unless my employer pays for me to go in the future. I come here to learn, to meet folks and to get together with TheKrewe.

Thanks to:

• Scott Ladewig and Mike McAtee that pulled me in last year in Atlanta and made me welcome.
• Michael Bender for his evangelizing and organization
• Peter Gray for our chats on Twitter and WLM. Feeling like I found my brother.
• Tracy McElroy for helping setup our core team SharePoint and for your new gig. Congrats again man!
• Tiffany, Tia, Claudia, Brandy, Veronica, and LoriJo for being the lovely ladies that I know of TheKrewe
• Simon Davis, Fredrik Nilsson and Bjarne Duelund for connecting TheKrewe outside of the US.
• Meeting folks I have had lots of conversations with like Mike Talon, Tom Kupka, Jeff Gerard, and Aubrey (still jealous that you get to see Rush live this September)
• Matt Griffin for stepping up his game and helping coordinate the volunteers last night.
• Henrik Sorensen and his teammates Travis and Nathan from Canada (eh?!)
• New folks I met like John Flores, Nia Angelina, Brian Bell, Nick Pizzalato, Denny (That's Mr Denny to you), and Cliff Chavis (we need more time together to chat)
• Running into the Microsofties like Stephen Rose (So glad your friend is lining up for his liver transplant. Give to him and his family here), Rick Claus, Joey Snow, Brandy Pepper and Veronica Sopher.
• Some great people like Mary Jo Foley and Darryl Taft in the media.

To find out more about TheKrewe, check out @TheKrewe on twitter or do a search for #TheKrewe. You can also see the website at http://www.thekrewe.org/. If you are going to be attending TechEd 2013 (sure to be in New Orleans), keep your eye out for information on TheKrewe Meet and Greet there!

Tech Conferences - I checked into TechEd 2012

Tech conferences offer IT Professionals a great opportunity to learn new skills and about new products. The other thing that conferences offer IT Professionals is a way to meet and create relationships with other IT Professionals. They can be pricy for companies or individuals to attend them, but the payoff of the information and relationships makes it worth it.

For IT Professionals, taking a week off work can mean even more work when one comes back and makes most consider heavily before taking off the time. I can only say that it is important to get in the mindset to attend and leave work behind. Do what you can to ensure that work does not interrupt your conference experience. I was lucky to be on furlough when I attended TechEd 2011 in Atlanta. Work could not call me without then having to pay me for the week and possibly reimburse some of my expenses as I was attending on my own dime. Work with your peers, employees and boss to ensure all of your duties and systems are covered by someone else so you can focus on the learning and the activities around the conference.

Now, one of the other sides of tech conferences is the parties in the evenings. For instance, the pre-conference "Meet and Greet" hosted by The Krewe is tonight. I am getting myself ready to go to it as I write this. These events are great to build those friendships and spend time together. Many people see the drinking aspects but the great thing is you don't have to drink heavily. Some folks don't drink at all. The key is to be comfortable and have fun. Attend the evening events and build those friendships. If you do end up drinking, make sure to hydrate before going to bed because that will help to make sure you are set for the next day of the conference.

As I have said if you have heard me speaking about Microsoft's TechEd, to say that I have been looking forward to TechEd 2012 in Orlando is an understatement of major proportions. I enjoyed TechEd last year in Atlanta so much and learned many things from the sessions but more so I met some great people. This is the venue that we all get together at, making it a special time for all.

I headed over to the Orange County Convention Center, the venue for this year, and got myself checked in. The process for check-in has been easy in my opinion. I have heard from various people that this was not the case. Check-in consisted of entering in your information on the computer and processing, heading over to get your badge from their desk, then off to get the conference bag and materials. This year, they had 3 different designs but it was clear that 2 of them are clearly the favorites. The third looks like it came from NASA direct.

After getting through my check-in, I got to do something I couldn't do last year … head over to the Alumni Lounge. This is an area that people who have been to multiple conferences over the years. In there, they offer seating with power, food/snacks and drinks for folks looking for a rest stop. It is a great idea for any conference and I highly recommend it. Slipping into the lounge, I ran into several friends from The Krewe and we started getting acquainted in person, either for the first time in real life or again in real life. This networking is a great part of TechEd but as Fredrik Nilsson said it, "I don't want to hand out business cards to network. I want friends." That's it to me! I want people that feel they can call on me and I can call on them too.

In the end, find a conference that meets your background, learning desires and you can afford to attend and go to it. You will not be disappointed.

Jared

Initial Take on “60 days to MCSE”

I started a journey recently. How many times have we said that to ourselves and others? Life is full of many journeys and side trips.

As a bit of a background, I currently do not have any certifications. For many years, I never went out and got certifications for my chosen profession, Information Technology. Most of the time, it was due to lack of finances but later on, it was due to lack of desire. I did not feel their value was a good investment of my time to get them. This was the biggest blunder I could have done. Especially since most of my background is Microsoft systems and I worked there a little over 4.5 years, I never went and got my Microsoft certifications. Needless to say, my outlook on this has changed.

This journey was thanks to some friends in The Krewe of MSTechEd, a large group of IT professionals that attend Microsoft's North America TechEd. My first taste of this great conference was June of 2011 in Atlanta, GA. That is where I met a few members of The Krewe and my friendship with them grew. Over time and thanks to online resources like Twitter and Facebook, I feel akin to all of them and hope they to me. On top of finding a good network of similar minded professionals, I attended many sessions about products, services and how to use them. Many of them spoke of certifications and the tests that were available at TechEd. Again, I did not take advantage of this opportunity.

Fast forward to April of 2012. Microsoft announces changes to their certifications for the new Private Cloud and other solutions. At the same time, Michael Bender (one of the leaders of The Krewe) announced a great idea, have a way for professionals to get their MCSE:PC in 60 days. This was a difficult thing to do but could be attainable. Many other members of The Krewe jumped on board including myself. I started to pull my resources together but ran into time and resource roadblocks. My journey has been delayed … but not stopped.

After starting to work on a plan to take all 5 tests needed for the MCSE:PC, I also started coming up with plans to get MCITP in other technologies I know, understand and support. Some will be tougher than others but I really can start showing my experience and knowledge to other professionals. On top of Microsoft certifications, I am also reviewing a few Cisco and security/auditing certifications. This will show the full capabilities that I am able to offer.

While this is an initial post, I plan to talk about my journey down this path, how I feel about events along the way, and the final outcome of getting these certifications. I would like to thank the following people directly:

• Michael Bender - He came up with the idea for this so I blame him for all of this. *grins*
• Veronica Sopher and MS Learning - They have latched onto this idea and given us a place to share knowledge with others on this journey. This is one of the best resources that could have been made available.
• Gary Eimerman and TrainSignal - They have offered to the "60 days to MCSE" team access to their online learning videos. This is a huge thing and I can't thank them enough.
• Prometric and North America TechEd - They are offering the two new tests for the private cloud portion for free to attendees of both the North American and Europe TechEds.
• The Krewe (Peter Gray, Matt Griffin, Fredrik Nilsson, Claudia Perez, Scott Ladewig, Jeff Guillet) - I know I might be missing folks but these are the people that are my support network through this effort. I know they will celebrate with me on the victories and console me on the setbacks.

Keep checking back on my blog for my progress.

Jared

Looking back on MS TechEd 2011

One of the most interesting things to ever happen to me was being forced to take a furlough by my employer. This was done by all of the management teams to show our staff that we were not below touch of the financial impact of the downturn of the economy. One thing I have always wanted to do was attend a technology conference and I was determined to use this week off without contact as a great opportunity to attend a conference without interruption.

I signed up for the conference back in December of 2010 getting a discount on the conference fees but did not setup for my hotel. That could wait … or so I thought. As the date kept getting closer and closer, I got more and more excited. This was a week I could not wait for.

As the conference drew near, I started to get my arrangements together. Looking through the conference hotels, they were full. Uh oh … Going through all of the hotels, there was no vacancies at all. Damn it! I waited too long. I ended up at a non-conference hotel which was nice but did not have the transportation like the conference hotels. I could kick myself for that and hope to learn my lesson for next year.

As with other conferences, I arrived the day before the conference to register and get my wits about me. The flight to Atlanta was nice as I had enough miles to get first class tickets. I found it funny that this was the first time I had seen more Windows Phones in people's hands than other phones. I could tell most of the folks on the flight were either Microsoft employees or worked for the conference. The Atlanta Conference Center was huge with many halls and locations. I learned where everything was located and started trying to put together my schedule with rooms to understand where I would be spending most of my time. Upon completion of that, I started going through the other social schedules. I heard about a pre-conference party near the center offered by a group called "TheKrewe of MSTechEd".

In finding my way down the street to the venue, I found my way up to the private rooms and felt very welcome. Sitting around and having a drink, it was incredible to get to know and chat with other IT Professionals. This was the main thing I wanted from this week, the networking with other professionals. I met some great folks like Scott Ladewig (@ladewig), Mike McAtee (@filmnomore), and David (aka @gkrew). I felt at home with this group but needed to get back to my hotel so I left very early from the evening. Again, another folly I will learn from.

Through the week, I attended many courses and informational presentations. I spent time with many other professionals like Jaclyn Morris (@jaclynsmorris) and Aaron Wheeler, as well as running into the venerable Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) whom I got the luck of spending a day with in Seattle along with Long Zheng and Michael Gillett showing them around Seattle. I also got time with many vendors including spending some time with HP to learn of their new generation servers, now released this spring.

The week wrapped up at the World of Coke and Atlanta Aquarium with a huge party. Live bands played and both venues offered activities for everyone. Attendees could buy additional tickets/bracelets for their family, which made the numbers swell inside this area. The food was incredible and the entertainment was fun. The one thing I did right was I got a flight the next day so I could spend a good time at the closing party. On top of getting the flight, I got lucky that my preferred airline only flew out of Atlanta around noon.

The flight back seemed a bit bitter as I had not wanted to leave. I learned so much, met so many good folks. I could not wait for the next TechEd. As soon as the sign-up opened, I signed up for MS TechEd in Orlando for 2012.

LinkedIn Security Issues

Unless you have been under a rock today, many news agencies spoke about the LinkedIn loss of user accounts and passwords. Even the local ABC affiliate news website had stories about this issue. So why should you be afraid?

Let's talk first about basic security on the internet. Most everyone uses the same password for all their websites. I even know my own mother does this. I have tried to talk with her about this but there is a problem with most people: they do not want to manage a lot of passwords for all the different sites. I see this with my family and friends and I see this at my job as an IT Professional. While it is easier for people to use one password, it is a danger for security in general to security on the internet. This is what we see in today's announcements. If you have a password that is being used by Internet service A and service B, not matter what they are (banking, e-mail, social networking, etc.), if company A gets hacked, your account at company B could be compromised fairly easy.

You might be asking me "Jared, what can I do?" Well, there are a few things you can do.

1. Use a password management tool. - This is what I do. I utilize a service called LastPass to manage my passwords. I highly recommend it to anyone from the basic users to the most advanced. It has browser plugins and mobile applications to allow easy access to your information but it is very secure. The company has cloud (or online) storage of your information but they cannot decrypt it. Only you can decrypt the data on your client, be it a browser or mobile device. They offer free accounts for browsers only but cost $12/year to offer mobile system support too. Systems, programs and services like this allow a user to have a very complex password for each site.
2. Use different passwords for specific types of sites. - Many people use this system to separate their account types to have 3 or 4 passwords. Each password is used for a certain level of access. For instance, one password could be used for only a few critical site types like banking and very private information, one password could be used for social networking only, one for e-mails accounts and one for other systems. Problem is that if any of the sites in that "security level" loses your data, you have to reset your password on all the sites of that level.
3. Use password haystacks. - Originally brought up to me by Steve Gibson, of Gibson Research Corporation, the thought of adding atrophy to a password makes it more difficult to "crack". Going from a password of 6 characters to one of 12 characters can increase the complexity by factors of large numbers.

There are a lot more I could speak about on passwords and will probably write about again. Take the following action items:

• Change your LinkedIn password if you use that site.
• Change your passwords on other sites if it was the same as the LinkedIn site.
• Start to determine how many of your passwords are exactly the same.
• Own your security online and make sure to use some basic understanding of what is important.

Stay safe online.

Jared