Microsoft Convergence 2011 Atlanta - Preparation

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David Meego - Click for blog homepage

The days leading up to the conference have become a little blurred.  I am not sure if that is because Mariano and I have been working hard, or just because I am tired.

After arriving on Wednesday, I have been primarily alternating between four activities:

  • Sleeping
  • Eating
  • Working on development of some new features in the Support Debugging Tool.
  • Preparation of materials and other planning for the 4 sessions Mariano and I are presenting.

The changes made so far to the SDT build 15 beta are great and I can't wait to demonstrate some of them at our Administering Microsoft Dynamics GP Like a Pro with the Support Debugging Tool (CSGP14)  session.

On a side note: Mariano has a relatively new toy that he has taken great pleasure in demonstrating its capabilities to me.  His pride and joy is a 2008 BMW 550i with a V8 4.6l engine.

On Thursday, We dropped into the BMW performance specialist that services (and upgrades) Mariano's car.  As I have a 2009 BMW 125i coupe (6cyl 3.0l), we asked what upgrades were available for my car. However, as my model is still quite new, there is not much available yet. I suppose this is a good thing as it avoids the possibility of me wanting to spend money.

Here is my car, it is as white as Mariano's is black.  Post a comment if you can work out what the number plate means. (Hints: Keep it as initials. My old car for which the plates were first created was green. Think of an English children's TV show from the mid 1960s.).

If you have ever wondered what a car would look like with the engine, transmission, wheels and front removed..... wonder no more.  The car below was getting its engine rebuilt after it was damaged.


Note the drive shaft tied off to the left and the large ventilated discs for the front brakes.

On Saturday morning (the last day before the conference) Mariano and I caught up with Leslie Vail and Sheila Jefferson-Ross for breakfast.


Sheila, David & Leslie

After breakfast, Mariano and I sat down in the Omni Hotel's lobby lounge with Leslie and did some final preparation of the Support Debugging Tool sessions for the conference.  This time we are trying an entirely new approach to our presentation and I think that it will be more exciting and a much better demonstration of the benefits of the tool. 


Mariano & David hard at work

We will be showing off the latest build 15 beta code that will be made available for download in the near future. The build 15 beta code has 40 significant changes/fixes/improvements documented in the change log so far and it is not complete yet.  Come to one of our two sessions to see the latest build being put to great use.

We finished the day by attending the Partner Reception and relaxing with members of the partner community. We caught up with David Eichner (who help me out with my technical difficulties prior to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference in Fargo recently) as well as fellow blogger and MVP, Mark Polino.


Mariano Gomez, David Eichner & Mark Polino

 I also found my great friends from Rockton Software (Mark and Kelli) and Mekorma (Ora).  It is also great to catch up with long time friends at conferences.


Kelli Sexton, Mark Rockwell, David Musgrave & Ora Shamayim-V'aretz

I am off to get some sleep now as it is already 12:30am Atlanta time and I need to be awake for the GPUG - Day One event tomorrow (or is that later today).

David