Auckland, done, coming your way soon!

Last night was a bit of an experience.  We jumped on the plane in Wellington to come to Auckland for the first leg of he .Net User Group Summer Road Trip trying to tote 30kg of computer equipment, managed switches and a heap of varying cables along with our laptop bags as carry on luggage on the Air New Zealand flight to Auckland.  That was two large bags for the computer gear, plus our three other bags (not to mention the checked in luggage).  The lesson is, if you can get it past the checkin staff, you can get it on board (in most cases).  Remarkably, Chris also has his mountain bike, and decided to wear his helmet on the plane (!!).  Interesting experience of other people....

Today started at 5:30 when Chris's alarm went off - he was going to the gym, so I decided to go for a run.  Then it was breakfast, some last minute reconfiguring for Jeremy and Chris while I went off to pick up the truck and some goodies (more on that below).

Auckland was not without its dramas.  We had a mix up in the bookings, which mean't the location wasn't booked as we understood it was, but we managed to work it out - the show must go on.  With 300 people registered, we had to make it work.. 

The presentation and most of the demos went well (just one problem) and the feedback was fantastic.

Alex did a great job presenting on Visual Studio 2008 during the event, and Jacqui was also great as MC.  Chris and Jeremy had some good banter going, which the audience enjoyed.  We did go a little over time (actually a lot over time) but most people didn't seem to mind.

We also were privileged to have a couple of extra Microsofties in attendance today (thanks Nigel), as well as Rose - the MVP lead from MS Australia, and even one or two members of the press.

If you are in the other locations, don't forget that registrations are still open, so register today for your town and go into the draw for one of the two grunty demo machines we are using...

Another reason to come along, is that we have loads of spot prizes.  We have copies of Office 2007, Windows Vista Ultimate, Gears of War (for PC - beat the xboxers at their game), Project Gotham Racing 4 (for XBox 360) and a heap of T-Shirts.  We really don't want to be carting all this stuff around, so we are keen to get rid of it - help us by coming along and winning it :-)

Tomorrow we are off to Tauranga... better get some sleep.