MS Exchange Blog

Third Party Webinars

There is a significant market of third party products in support of Microsoft Exchange Server. Some of these offer free webcasts outlining their products or the need for their products. Two such companies are Lucid8 and Mimosa Systems.

Lucid8 has a webinar schedule for marketing their recovery and discovery product line.

Mimosa Systems has an online events schedule page also.  For Mimosa, some events are industry seminars, while others are product webcasts and even Tech Chats.

I don't endorse either of these companies, but for some a good webcast helps to decide whether a company's offerings may fit your business requirements.

William Lefkovics

E14 Ignite Sessions

Last week in Dallas and this week in Orlando, Microsoft is hosting Exchange 14 Ignite training. These are introductory but in depth training for the next version of Exchange Server.

If I wasn't in Interact 2009 in Boston, I would be in Orlando. Thankfully, I am not. Boston is a far better place to have a conference. :) There are E14 sessions in Interact 2009 as well.

William Lefkovics

Attending Interact 2009 in Boston, MA

Interact 2009 will be a microconference this year after a fantastic inaugural effort in San Diego in the Spring of 2008. This year, Interact will be held Tuesday, April 14, 2009, simultaneously in Redmond, WA, Boston, MA, and Reading, UK. I will be attending the conference in Boston.

In addition, the conference will be held online as a virtual conference. I think you have to check out the site to find out Live Meeting logistics, though. You can follow Interact 2009 on Twitter.

William Lefkovics

Another Microsoft MVP Summit over

The MVP Summit is a highlight of the year for me.  This was my 6th summit, I think. The point in the product cycle for Exchange Server made this summit more valuable than most. I look forward to the next release, E14. One thing to take from the summit and that I can share with confidence is that Microsoft listens. They often are criticized for not doing so, but that is not justified. They listen. Oh, they may take what seems like forever to actually act on feedback, they do in fact listen. And I appreciate that.

The MVP Summits add faces, names, and handshakes to the big anonymous behemoth in Redmond at which we otherwise may toss expletives while emphatically shaking fists in the air. Those at Microsoft enlisted to organize the summits do a great job for the swag-o-philic MVPs that descend on Seattle every 12-18 months. And I appreciate that as well.

William Lefkovics

Exchange/UC Connections, Orlando, FL in March 2009

I have always admired those who can communicate well verbally and even inspire with their spoken word.  I am not one of them it seems. At least not yet.

I just finished presenting two sessions at Exchange Connections in Las Vegas. The first one was satisfactory, while the second less than. I am so not a natural. But I am serious about improving.

Aside from learning by observation and reading the thoughts of other speakers, I am investing time and effort into properly learning the art of public speaking... to complement the trial-by-fire method.

I can only hope that they give me another chance at Exchange Connections in Orlando in March 2009. 

William Lefkovics 

PDC 2008 Sessions Available for Viewing

Even if you were unable to attend the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2008 in Los Angeles, CA this past week, you can still watch and even download the sessions from the conference.

There are 210 sessions in the PDC 2008 Agenda list including 3 for Unified Communications as follows:

• BB09 Microsoft Office Communications Server and Exchange: Platform Futures

• BB45 Office Communications Server 2007 R2: Enabling Unified Communications

• BB46 Exchange Web Services Managed API: Unified Communications Development for Exchange

These are fairly large downloads if you choose the WMV-HQ options (around 200MB each). The links above point to the regular WMV files, except for BB45 which seems to only be offered in WMV-HQ. You can also stream the presentations from the agenda list.

William Lefkovics 

Blackberry Developer Conference 2008

The Blackberry Developer Conference 2008 is on this week from October 20 through October 22 in Santa Clara, California. Of course, Blackberries are near and dear to many Exchange Administrator's hearts.

You can follow the event blog for updates on the conference.  They did announce improvements for application developers (imagine if they didn't at a developer conference?) including the release of the BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.1 RTM for our Microsoft Developers.

William Lefkovics