*Words of Wisdom From The Elder

Next week is the MVP Summit.  This is one of the events I have looked forward to the most since I was fortunate enough to go last year. 

MVPs from all across the world descend upon Seattle and Redmond during this week to meet with MVP Leads and product teams from Microsoft.  Someone asked me what it is like and I described it as hanging out in the speakers lounge 24/7 at a gigantic conference. 

Sunday evening is Party with Palermo.  Jeff’s parties have become a staple event for everyone to gather and have fun. 

Monday we’ll kick off the summit with a registration, a special key note, and some other break out sessions.

Tuesday we’ll be on the Microsoft campus meeting with product teams viewing the new bits and weighing in our thoughts.  Rinse and repeat for Wednesday and Thursday.

Thursday night is the Geek Lager which is going to be held at Kell’s Irish Pub right off of pike street.  If you aren’t flying out late on Thursday night or will be in the area, stop on by.  You can RSVP for the Geek Lager here as well as get more information.  The Corner Bhoys are playing that night starting around 9:00 PM.  We’ll kick things off around 7:30ish. 

As I mentioned in the title, I am planning on doing some podcasting from the summit.  My goal of the podcast sessions are to capture the real world stories about various technologies.  Thus you won’t hear anything about something that is coming down the road.  If they turn out worthy enough of publication I’ll put them up onto a new domain I have.

After the Launch Event was over on Tuesday it was time to get the preparations started for the Geek Dinner.  I made a quick phone call to PizzaPapalis to place the order and get things rolling.  At this point I still had no idea how many people would show up but I kept checking my email looking for cancellations.  To my surprise there really weren’t any. 

A bunch of us took the People Mover directly from the Renaissance Center to Greek Town.  This worked out really well since it dropped us off a block from the place.  The Launch Event ended early so everyone was ready to get going, several of them had already started!  The extremely cool thing about the Geek Dinner is Microsoft sponsored it for us.  It was an absolute surprise and thanks go to Josh Holmes and Daryll Hogan for helping out.  Also thanks goes to Randy Pagels for doing the official honors of signing the dotted line.  When I found out the event was going to get sponsored I pulled up TinyTwitter on my phone and sent the news out via Twitter since the majority of people attending the event were on Twitter anyway.  Thus I knew the word would spread.  Obviously it did since Alexey took this screen shot on his computer only 6 minutes later.  Pretty funny. You gotta love Twitter!

To say we talked tech is an understatement.  I put together a little geek tag cloud with all the expertise in the room.  For those curious, Brian Prince has “White Board” on him since he’s an architect.  Also the VS in the top right is besides Eric (orange shirt).  Eric is on the Visual Studio team at Microsoft and is originally from Michigan.  He just happened to fly in to visit family and joined us.

When everyone was sitting down eating I counted the room and we had 50 people at the dinner.  That was awesome.  More than I ever expected.  I told someone, if all the brain power in this room was the staff at a software company, there would be no stopping us collectively.  It was the who’s who of Geeks from the Michigan and Ohio area.  The food was great, even noted by TheProKrammer.  Thanks to everyone that came out I hope you enjoyed the food and conversation, it was a blast.

Pictures from the Geek Dinner on Flickr

Ok, so this isn’t a true “Geek Dinner” since we will not be sitting down and eating a dinner but it is something that we did last year at the end of the Summit.  It turned out to be a great time so there is no reason NOT to do it again this year.  MVP Summit Geek Lager 20008 will be held at Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub on Post Alley off of Pike Street in downtown Seattle on Thursday April 17th, 2008 starting around 7:30 PM. 

Last year we had a blast dancing and singing Irish songs with a fantastic Irish band.  The guy playing the fiddle was out of this world and he even broke out the bag pipes at the end.  Who knows if they are having a band again, we’ll take our chances.  What is certain is Guinness and Black and Tans are on tap and cold.

Anyone is welcomed to join us if you are in the area, this is not an official MVP sponsored event and you do not have to be an MVP to attend, you just have to show up.  To RSVP for the Geek Lager RSVP on the Geek Dinners.Com Web Site.

RSVP Here:  http://www.geekdinners.com/DinnerInstance.aspx?id=7

Note:  This is not a sponsored event, you are responsible for your own tab. 

RSVPs (combined)

Keith Elder
Scott Hanselman 
Shawn Wildermuth
Scott Koon
Joe Healy
Jeff Barnes
Dustin Campbell
Jason Follas
Keith Kabza
Scott Dorman
Dave Noderer
Jim Zimmerman
Lori McKinney
Todd Miranda
Marshall Harrison
David Hayden
Keith Kabza
Dave Noderer
Mark Polino
Nikita Polyakov (tentative)
Jonas Stawski
Bruce Thomas
Dave Donaldson
Scott Koon (lazycoder)
Brian Prince
John Kellar
Rob Foster
Drew Robbins
Scott Dockendorf
D’Arcy Lussier
Donald Belcham

Updated:
Ok, stop it with the messages about Guinness not being a lager.   I’m sure they serve lagers there as well, drink whatever you want.  Yes I know Guinness is not a Lager.  So for those of you that love to point out things where you think things are wrong but were in fact chosen for a reason (because it sounded better), stop being technical and let me handle the marketing.  You handle the drinking. 🙂

March 18th is the day of the Heroes Welcomed Launch event in Detroit.  What better way to end a day of festivities around the launch of the new bits than to have a Geek Dinner with a bunch of fellow geeks?  I mentioned this a week or so ago on Twitter and got a good response so as they say, it’s on like a chicken bone!  The plans are now finalized so here are the details.

When

Date: March 18th
Time:  6:00 PM

Where

Greektown, Detroit  

PizzaPapalis®

553 Monroe Street
Detroit, MI   48226
Phone: 313-961-8020

PizzaPapalis is located a few blocks from the Renaissance Center where the launch event is being held.  Those that will park at the RenCen for the launch event can use the People Mover to go from the RenCen to PizzaPapalis.  I think the cost to ride the People Mover is $.50 and it will stop running at midnight (for those that decide to stay downtown). 

Directions from Renaissance Center to PizzaPapalis.

RULES (Updated 3.14.2008)

The rules for large groups at PizzaPapalis is we cannot do individual tabs for food.  Obviously that would take too long anyway for a large group.  So be sure you bring CASH to this event, not credit cards.  For those doing alcohol at the event, you will either pay cash as you order or you can start a tab with a credit card.  These are not my rules but those of PizzaPapalis. 

Who Can Attend?

The short answer is anyone that considers themselves a technologist or a geek.  We also aren’t discriminating based on location either so if you are from Mississippi, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio or nearby states in driving distance of Detroit feel free to join us.

What is a Geek Dinner?

Although there is no official definition a geek dinner is a time for technologist, enthusiasts, developers, architects and others in the community to gather and talk about technology.  That’s it, plain and simple.  It doesn’t mean you are part of a sacred group or cult, it just means you were hungry on a Tuesday night, needed some place to eat and there were a bunch of people that like technology like yourself eating at this one place so you decided to join them.

How Do I RSVP?

Easy.  Just add a comment to this blog entry or send an email using the contact link on the site stating your intentions of attending and I’ll start to gather a head count from that.  Once I get your RSVP I’ll update the site to keep a list of people attending.  Be sure to provide your blog link if you have one so I can link to you.  Also if your plans for one reason or another change and you can’t make it, do let me know.  It is important to organize an accurate head count to help the facility plan accordingly.

Who Pays For Dinner?

Unless we find a sponsor to pickup dinner for everyone you’ll be responsible for your own meal.  You have to eat supper anyway so you might as well eat it with a bunch of geeks!  See the rules for how this works, with this large of a group we cannot do individual tabs.

How Many People Can Attend?

Currently we have room for up to 80 people. 

Can I Attend The Launch Event?

Absolutely but you have to register.  Just follow the link to the site and register.  The event is free.  There are 18 talks scheduled revolving around Visual Studio 2008 (which I’m giving one on), SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008.

Who Is Going To Be There?

The following people have officially responded they would be there.

Jeff McWherter
Richard Perry
Michael Eaton
Brad Lloyd (AKA AtomicInternet)
Jay Wren
Steven Harman (blog)
Michael Letterle
James Bender
Jeff Blankenburg
Chris Woodruff
Brian Burge
Bill Portman
Jonathon Thorndycraft
Tim O’Hara
Chris Risner
Matt Kelley (student WCC)
Scott Creighton
Randy Pagels
John Chapman
Michael Cojocari
Michael Palinski
Dennis Burton
Jay Harris
Joe O’Brien
Jeremy (meaton’s friend)
David Truxall
John Hopkins
Dustin Campbell
Mike Bobiney
Mike Moore
Ralph Menzel
Vivek Joshi
Alfred Green
David Redding
Joe Wirtley
Jason Follas
Jamie Wright
Vijay Jagdale
Scott Zischerk
Joe Kunk
Rich Hamilton
Dan Hibbits
Eric Maino (Microsoft product team)
Amanda Laucher
Corey Haines
Nate Hoellein
Praveen Pereira
Mike Moore
Brian Sherwin