TechEd New Zealand

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I leave Seattle this Friday and after approximately 214 hours of flying, I will land in Auckland for TechEd New Zealand.

I’m talking on Tuesday afternoon, want to come? Last year half the audience was new to certification, it seemed like—so we thought we’d do Cert 101 for the session, this time. I thought I’d throw in a lot of examples (WS2008, Vista, VS and SQL 2008… to show how it all works). What do you think?

Getting Started with Microsoft Certification: 30 minutes. If you have never taken an exam before—or if it’s been a while—you might not know where to begin in planning a certification path to validate and show off your skills on the latest technologies from Microsoft. No matter what your technology focus, you will leave this session with an understanding of certifications available to you today, a good idea of the certification you’ll pursue and your next steps, and an understanding of what to expect when you take your first exam.

  • Audience: IT professionals and developers who aren’t sure where to start, or who have grown rusty, in the world of certification.
  • Tuesday, September 2 from 1:40 – 2:10

This is not what the abstract on the session site says, so I’d love it if you can spread the word so no one is very mad when they show up for the session.

Many other things will be happening!

  • We have some excellent Certified Partners for Learning Solutions (CPLS) in attendance—ACE, Auldhouse and EXCOM Education---you can find them in their booths in the Exhibitor Market Place. They are experts on coming up with a training and certification plan for you—so be sure to block off time to talk to them.
  • You can go home with a 25% discount voucher for MCP exams that can be used with Second Shot! These vouchers are good after the event, but you can only pick them up from our CPLSs partners at TechEd. Another good reason to visit their booths…
  • I hear that you’ll find a flyer in your bag for a 25% discount on Measure Up Practice Exams, too.
  • I was so glad to hear that many of our teams around the world made some of our ridiculous Certified ___ hats, so the first 800 people to show an MCP ID at one of our CPLS booths in Auckland will get one to take home, that's fun.
  • Something I’ll be doing is visiting the ACE, Auldhouse, and EXCOM booths, trying to learn things from them, like what new courses are good, and, um, the Haka. So come visit and say hi.

Something else I will do is try to look unselfconscious at a visitors’ dinner on Sunday where I won’t know anyone. You are supposed to look confident, I think, at these things, eating canapés and pretending you have tons of people you could talk to if you wanted to.

Oh, that’s right. I could talk to heaps of people. But instead, I’ll just stand here alone, looking confident. With bit of canapé on face.