Meetings after the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009

If you are going to spend a day and a half getting somewhere and a day and a half going home, you want to spend more than two or three days at your destination.

My trip to Fargo included the days for the conference, but also one day before and two days afterward in the Microsoft office.  The additional days were spent filled up with meetings relating to my role as Escalation Engineer on the Asia Pacific (APAC) support team for Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Yes, I do actually have a job to do beyond responding on forums and newsgroups and writing blog articles.

I won't bore you with details, but I will say that all the meetings went really well.  A couple of the meetings were related to my pet projects of the Support Debugging Tool and Menus for Visual Studio Tools.  At these two meetings I outlined my plans for the releases of these tools and got approval for those plans.  You will see these releases as soon as I can complete the development, testing and documentation work needed.  I will post the details when they are released.

One of the saddest parts of the day was saying goodbye to Mariano when the time came for him to head out to the airport and start his journey to Atlanta, Georgia. It has been a wonderful experience working with him over the last 18 months online and now in person.  I look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with him. Hopefully, you will see us presenting again soon.

Saying goodbye to Mariano

After the meetings on Thursday, I went to Granite City bar and grill for dinner with some of Scott Stephenson's team (Developer Support and Escalation Engineers) and brought out the Arnott's Tim Tams chocolate biscuits again.  A number of the team tried the Tim Tam Slam (see previous post for details) and enjoyed the very yummy but potentially messy experience.

Scott Stephenson being a great sport and doing the Tim Tam Slam

On Friday, I demonstrated the Support Debugging Tool twice to some of the internal support teams with the aim of driving adoption and use of the tool by the Microsoft Dynamics GP support teams.

For dinner on Friday, I caught up with ex-Microsoftie, Sheila Ochoa and her family.  She invited her friend Debbie Larson, who works at Microsoft and originally comes from the UK.  We spent some time re-living the past and comparing notes and listening to English music from the 1980's. Believe it or not, she comes from the same part of London that I lived in before I came to Australia and knew the school that I went to as a child.  Sometimes it is amazing how small the world can be.

David

18-Nov-2009: See the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009 Wrap Up for more posts.