TechEd China 2008 Starts!
While a number of people on the team have gone out of office enjoying the fall of Boston at ESC East, I have, as Andy said, "made it cross the pond" and arrived at TechEd China's 1st stop Guangzhou City late last night.
This is my 3rd year presenting in TechEd China, but first time to cities other than Beijing – the major venue. It is also the first year that the whole Windows Embedded Business officially participated in TechEd China and managed to have its own track EMB. Yeah! We are in a full swing mode. For both Windows Embedded Standard (or WES) and Compact (or CE), we got a few breakout sessions and hands-on labs (HOL) arranged. There is also a booth set up by the local marketing team with product demos from local parnters. And more excitingly, we may get a chance to demo WES in the keynote. My task here in Guangzhou includes a breakout session of WES intro, and an HOL of customizing your shell with a Silverlight application and helping Q/As at the booth tomorrow.
TechEd China|Guangzhou is taking place in the Guangzhou Baiyun International Conference Center which is about 40 minutes away from the new Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Guangzhou is one of the cities that are located on the southeast coast of China and are leading in economy and culture development in China. Take a look at the Speaker Room of the conference to have a feel. I picked up my name tag and shirt one hour ago thereJ
The fun will continue this Saturday after the Guangzhou conference finishes, as I will take a train or a ride from a local coworker to a nearby city Shenzhen (right across Hongkong, where you can actually see the skyscrapers of Hongkong from skyscrapers in Shenzhen) for an eMVP event at Microsoft China Shenzhen office. Myself and local coworkers will present the latest product updates and mingle with the MVPs there. A dinner together afterwards, as a Chinese tration, is definitely a must-haveJ.
Both Guangzhou and Shenzhen belong to Guangdong Province. Have you heard the language “Cantonese”? That’s what people in Guangdong speak. So do people in Hongkong. “Guangdong” is pronounced like “Canton” in Cantonese. "Neh Haw Mah?" ("How are you?")
Then, Sunday will see me fly to Shanghai the second stop of TechEd China. I have Monday open for now, working with local sales/marketing team to see if I can meet some local customers and get their voices/needs heard. The official conference will be Nov. 4-5. I will present one WES intro session and help out at the booth. It's always good to be in Shanghai as it's like my second hometown where I finished my undergraduate study.
Then Nov.6-No.8 will be TechEd China Beijing conference! The local Embedded team here is still working hard to get a slot for the keynote demo on WES. If we are lucky to get it, I will be the “demo-monkey” J. This will be my second keynote demo. The first one I had was in MEDC China 2007 (sigh, no more MEDCs ….) where I managed to get a portion from Derek Snyder on the Windows Mobile side to demo XPe tools.
In Beijing, I will have 2 breakout sessions: one on WES intro and the other on devices developed on WES, especially in Thin Client space. The adoption of WES (or XPe) in China is relatively smaller than in US or Europe, but has been gaining great momentums lately. I am really excited that I am pushing it and hopefully making another big waveJ. Other than the regular sessions, I will also co-present a Community Session with a local embedded Account Technical Manager Ning. We plan to talk about the Windows Embedded product family, different programs such as the partner program, the hobbyist program (yeah, the SPARK You Imagination program - join the "SPARKS will Fly" Contest now!), and the team/the people. And I also volunteered to be interviewed by the local Channel 9 to help generate more buzz. And …….ah, a lot ahead of me already...... One more thing, I'll definitely want to stop by at the Bird Nest where the Opening Ceremony of the past Olympic Games was held.
Stay tuned for more updates here , or come to TechEd China next year! A big market with lots of opportunities and a fascinating place to tour withJ