Tag Career Express

What do you get when you have a bus load of SME’s, technology people, education zealots and Certified Professionals and coop them up?  You let them roam free in Santa Fe!   One thing, you may notice that these photos are much better than previous photos.. reason being: I had to use my camera (which only works in well lit areas) because my iPhone was bricked when I woke up in the morning and it took me several hours to recover ;)

We started our day in Santa Fe with lunch at The Shed where we ate some of the most interesting and amazing food in our journey.  And considering we are in New Mexico, the authenticity was not to be questioned!   

We went on a walk around Santa Fe, the gnarly trees above were found in the Shed’s sitting area, but we carried out into the streets!  Came across this cool Designs by Alex sign :)

We came across this weird and interesting mailbox… for some reason, it was worth taking a photo of… Infact, multiple photos, but that is neither here nor there :)  After this point, we got on the road to Bandelier National Monument!

Welcome to Bandelier National Monument…! Be careful for Mountain Lions! Got an amazing shot of the bus here with that beautiful background! It was a cloudless sky, and a day filled with not a whole lot of wind (So, can I say hot? yea I think so :))

Another random shot of me (Look ma! no eyes!) That beautiful shot down below is of an ancient day office-block.   This is where people went to work, as you can see those are open air cubicles for the people to work and attend to daily business.  I think that’s actually a call center!

Yea, this is my classic dating photo, right? It shows how adventurous I am, and look I’m a property owner! I have a hole and a ladder to climb in to! Oh, and do not handle the bats!

This is one of the first flat screen televisions – It’s obviously Organic LED (OLED :))

Watch quietly as the MSLearning team treads softly into the dark.. softly.. softly…

It was a great day, beautiful sights, decent food!  We finished with Dinner at Atomic Grill! On a side note, it appears that Atomic Grill supports Windows Live ID on their website – Wow, quite an updated Website and Restaurant! :)

To sum up dinner, it was a great dinner with a lot of variety.  We were cared for by an amazing waitress who was working –every- table in the place, constantly on the run and she did a spectacular job!  They had some amazing artwork on the inside and have a menu leaving you with options, options and options!    After a quick rush back to the bus we proceeded on to Phoenix AZ where we are now as I publish this! 

You ever try to take pictures in a dark theatre with an iphone? Well, if you do, you end up with photos which look like these!   For what it is worth, here it is in its form :)

Here is the best I could get in a low-light condition shot of all of us as we sat there in the theatre waiting for TrekWars to start!   Liberty didn’t come out at all, the sinister Psychometrician that she is, but I did get decent shots of the team who attended the  movie, and an obvious “I need a haircut” shot of myself!   The movie was good, was attended by many in the theatre and all around just another portion of our adventure we headed out from there to sleep before driving down to Santa Fe!

Welcome to beautiful Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood Colorado!   What a campus and what a crowd!    We were greeted at the bus by the fine folks of RRCC and swag in hand (on cart) we headed off to set up!   This community college has a series of programs unknown in academia which are quite cool, including their 3d graphical/video program!

I was outside trying to get a cell signal when I found this mark in the landscape! Fairly cool, it seems to have some honor association with regards to RRCC – Definitely something cool to check out! Joey Snow is

Elise Eckel talks about the value of certification to an interested crowd.   These students got a considerable amount of depth on everything they’d ever wanted to know about how Certification will impact their life and what else will be going forward.   Never before have they been given quite the level of insight into every aspect of Microsoft and Certification

We did something different at the end of the presentations that we hadn’t done before, and that was a group Q/A with the whole team put up in front of the students and faculty.   While there were a lot of questions regarding Windows 7, there were also questions covering certification and our own perspective on things.  

Following up the event, we were taken on a tour of Red Rock Community College, and shown the 3d Graphical room, where you don a pair of glasses and sit back to enjoy a visual journey of interactive learning and education.    The whole experience was a great one to appreciate and enjoy, and look forward to interacting with the great folks from Red Rock Community College again in the future!

Welcome to Johnson County Community College, Microsoft’s newest Microsoft IT Academy!

We were welcomed heartily and had the attendance of students, faculty, community, IT Professionals, and those looking forward to a career in IT.    We visited them in the morning and in the evening, for another series of stops on our whirlwind adventure!   This provided an excellent opportunity to reach multiple audiences over these periods of times and the interaction was exciting.    We even were honored to deliver their ITA Plaque in person!

While being given a tour of this absolutely beautiful facility we came across The Center for Entrepreneurship which offers assistance with Small Business and Start-ups.   Due to the Small Business and Start-up nature of this center, Brian Prince discussed with them the opportunities Microsoft can assist in that market with the BizSpark program which is designed to accelerate success by providing fast affordable access to current, full-featured Microsoft tools and technologies, plus production licensing for hosted solutions.    I’m familiar with the BizSpark program and quite honestly, it is quite cool and if you’re a startup you should check it out!

I had the opportunity to talk with IT Professional Reed Porter who has quite a diverse and expertise background in the technology industry with heavy focus on Microsoft.   His investment in Microsoft and the community is one to be honored, including contributions to SpringBoard in the form of content and community!   He’s a great asset to the community and an amazing resource to business, in fact I believe he is looking for a new direction in his career so if you’re interested in leveraging his expertise I’d suggest getting in touch with him! Turns out he’s also on Twitter! @reedracer

So, I don’t know about you, but I love community and I love to meet the people in the community even more.   Your stories are inspirational and make this this community exactly what it is, a hotbed of opportunity, growth and wonder.    I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in our remaining 5 days before we get to TechEd, and especially while at TechEd in Los Angeles!   See you in Denver, Colorado in the morning!

What a day, what a day!   This event was particularly Wow!   Our good friends at New Horizons in Kansas City, KS really know how to throw a party!   Well, not a party per se, more of a comprehensive training event which turned out a considerable amount of people, over 400!

Here the New Horizons Kansas City folks introduce the MSLearning team as they kick off the events of the afternoon!

Joanne delivers a presentation on Certification 101, all the details you need to know about the Microsoft Certification tracks and what to expect.   The halls were overflowing with people as they watched attentively to the presentation being delivered.   After Joanne was finished, Liberty delivered an indepth overview of what actually goes on in the creation and delivery of the certification exams which we eventually end up taking.

Attentions were rife, and seats were filled, not to mention the really cool mirrored ceiling which looked good enough for this Flag photo I was able to get here!

The organization which appeared to go into this event definitely paid off as the numbers of people in attendance was absolutely awe inspiring.   Tjeerd delivered what is quite possibly not only the best presentation on Windows 7, but also one of the most fun and exciting deliveries of it to be seen, the likes of which would have Steve Balmer jealous as he really got the audience engaged and excited about Windows 7!

Thanks New Horizons Kansas City for allowing us to partake in your wonderful event and being such great hosts while we visited here in Kansas City!  Be sure to follow them on twitter @nhkc

We’re on the road again with an all night trip out to Denver, CO now – So, see you in the morning and more details as the wheels on the bus go a-rolling!