Does anyone know where I can get more info on the Microsoft SOA and BPM conference scheduled for Jan 2009 in Redmond?
I know there are a few Canadian day-events, but I've also heard there's one in Redmond as well...
D
I made a comment about this in a prior post, but it was really long and wordy so unless you read right to the end you would have missed the announcement. So I figured I’d post a little ‘update’ to fill everyone in on what’s been going down.
Over the last seven years I’ve worked for numerous small companies here in Winnipeg. I’ve been part of some interesting projects, had some successes, some failures, and a lot of lessons learned. I’ve tested the waters of independent consulting and had great success with it. But now I’m at a point where I need to look at the next 5 to 10 years of my life and where my career fits in: what environment do I want, what technologies excite me, knowing my skills where do I best fit.
So tomorrow I make a few big changes. The first big change is in technology. Although I’ll still be diving into Silverlight as my key web technology moving forward, I’m jumping into backend system processing and SOA in a big way. BizTalk will become my technology of choice and you’ll see my blog start to focus more and more on topics related to it.
The second biggest change is in employment. I’m really pumped that tomorrow I’ll be starting at EDS on their Winnipeg BizTalk team. Independent consulting over the last year has been great, and its not that there wasn’t a lack of work out there. This is a conscious decision to move back into a wage-based role…but one that I’ll be able to learn and grow in my new skills with a fantastic team.
What won’t be changing is my involvement in the community. My involvement with INETA and Canadian user groups is still intact and as strong as ever, as is my support for code camps and conferences like Dev Teach.
Tomorrow is a fresh start, with a clean slate and new focus. I haven’t been this excited about my career in a long time.
D
For those of you wondering when you’ll be able to register for the TechDays events, I heard through the grapevine that the site (which you can reach here) will be open on Monday morning next week.
D
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In the first part of my Ignite Your Life series of posts there were a few key ideas that I tried to get across.
Envision
Choose your illusion…don’t focus on what you aren’t or who you are now, but focus on what you want to become, where you want to be, what you want to do. Create a detailed vision of the you that you want and set that as your goal.
Declare
Once you’ve created your vision, you need to declare yourself as that vision. You need to cement in your psyche that you will be the fulfillment of that vision and that its not just a nice idea but a reality that you own and that you will see through to realization. In our lives, the boat never truly leaves the harbor. We always have ways to abandon plans or cave to our fears and perceived deficiencies. Declaring protects you from that. Declaring forces you to live as if there is no turning back on the vision you’ve set.
Invoke
And now we come to the invocation phase, where we put to work all the pieces that need to happen to make our vision a reality. Realizing your vision is not easy…its hard work to go from envisioning to declaring yourself to invoking all that needs to happen to reach your ultimate goal.
Case Study
Now I’ve been talking a lot about this Ignite Your Life stuff, and I’ve had a few barbs from friends saying that I’m sounding like a new-age self help guru or something (all in good fun of course). So I wanted to take this opportunity to share some exciting news and to bring it back to the content in the series.
Envisioning
I had an epiphany this past summer, something that forced me into envisioning a different life for myself: I can’t stand web applications. For the last 7 years I’ve been developing for the web. Over those years I've learned and relearned as the technologies have changed and as new tools and frameworks have emerged. But the web hasn't turned into what I thought it would be...what I thought ASP.NET would eventually give us. Instead of it becoming a standard for us to work from, the web space has become clouded with so much chatter, so many options, so little standards. I find myself frustrated that most of my time is spent in religious type discussions. Committing to one path of "best practice" is only valid if you're in the community that perceives the path as a "best practice". It's never a discussion about how you fix a problem with x-technology, its a discussion about why you're using x-technology in the first place. Nevermind the fact that I'm clearly not a UI guy...
Out of this realization came another though: I still enjoy technology, I still enjoy being challenged, and I still want to continue in this industry. So what did I do? I changed my illusion...I envisioned myself working with backend systems, managing information transfers, orchestrating the pathways that data would need to travel. This ultimately led me to focus on BizTalk and to promote it to my core competency moving forward.
Declaring
With my acknowledgement that something needed changing, and my realization that continuing down the web dev path wasn't going to be the right decision, I had to attune myself to a new realization: I was no longer a web developer. Aside from research and writing for a book I'm working on with some colleagues, my focus had to be on my new core competencies and not on the ones I was leaving behind. Realize the step this was: as an independent consultant who built his resume on web development, I was turning my back on the key selling feature I had to clients. But re-envisioning yourself isn't easy...and it shouldn't be. You sacrifice your former self for the promise of the new. Once I had my vision and I had committed myself to seeing it come to reality, I started walking and never looked back.
Invoking
With the vision altered and the course set, it was time to make my illusion a reality. I ordered a bunch of books on BizTalk and started searching out BizTalk bloggers. I chose BizTalk as my topic for the Twin Cities Code Camp happening in a few weeks time. I reached out to the community to see if anyone was interested in starting a BizTalk User Group (our first meeting is in October). I began sending out resumes to company's that I knew used BizTalk, specifying that I was looking for BizTalk work even though I had no professional use of the product but did have a deep passion for it and the surrounding technologies. I even took a try at the Technology Specialist BizTalk exam and missed passing by a very narrow margin.
Conclusion
This was meant to give you an idea of how I used the principles I've been blogging about to turn my career on its heels and re-focus my future to one that I'm now excited and passionate about. You might be feeling that you're in the same boat with your career: frustrated, annoyed, or having a lack of satisfaction. Find what it is you truly are passionate about and then make that part of your new vision. Declare yourself as that vision, then invoke whatever you need to for it to become reality. This is a key part of igniting your life.
Oh, and by the way...I'm happy to report that as of October 6th, I'll be an official member of the EDS BizTalk team here in Winnipeg. ;)
D
If you’re wondering what the schedule and sessions for the upcoming Microsoft Tech Days 2008 events are, you can get all the info here.
D
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TechDays_CA
Post on Channel 9 talks about attendees to PDC getting 160 GB external hard drive which will include all the bits from the conference!
Check out the associated video that talks about the topics covered at the link below:
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Dan/Countdown-to-PDC-2008-This-is-the-Software--Services-PDC-Plus-a-Hard-Drive-Chock-Full-oBits-is-a-PDC/
It’s a question that Benjamin Reece asked 50 people in New Orleans. He recorded what they replied with and posted it as a digital short documentary-style video online (view it here).
The people in the film had varying responses:
A pregnant woman wanted ice cream.
A young lady wanted a million dollars.
Another young lady wanted a loved one in jail to be released.
A gentleman wanted to meet an attractive lady in a cigar store and share a smoke.
Some mentioned housework to be magically done.
One man wanted his son back.
Now some of the things mentioned in the videos are truly wishes. Having someone replace McCain in the presidential race or ending violence in New Orleans isn’t something that can be solved in a day.
But let’s change the words around a bit…
By the end of today, what do you want to happen? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to have occur?
Many of us have issues with the idea of goal setting. We can’t seem to fathom being able to tackle things we set out to do…we feel like we’re fighting a losing battle, or that the goal we set in front of us is too big. So I propose this:
Every morning, determine one thing that you want to happen by the end of the day. Then make sure that it happens. This could be anything from doing a half hour of exercise, finishing a small project at work, contacting that person you’ve been meaning to. It’s a gateway to building success in our lives so that we have confidence to tackle larger and more challenging goals.
This is something I’m going to start doing. Think about whether its something that can help your day to day as well.
D
This post is part of a series called Ignite Your Life. For background info on the series, please refer to previous posts on introducing the series and The 5 R's (where you can find links to the other posts in this series).
Ok, so we’ve established that we need relationships. But how do we go about fostering them…creating them even? For some of us making connections with people isn’t a big deal, but for many the idea of meeting people, interacting with people, and just making small talk is scary…foreign…bizarre.
The key is discovering and finding your tribe. A tribe is not simply a group of people…its a group of people that share common interests and experiences while showing genuine interest and care for the members of the tribe. Tribe members are as quick to return an email response to a technical question as they are to sending one checking in after hearing you’re under the weather. It’s not just about having the most friends on Facebook, or the longest MSN list. It’s about quality relationships in orchestration.
Note also that I didn’t say you have to create your tribe, but that you have to discover or find it. It exists. It’s out there. There is a community of people that are waiting for you to join them…you just have to take the appropriate steps to make the tribe visible and obvious. So what can you do to aid in finding your tribe?
Get In Touch
The first step in any relationship is saying “hello”. In our world of online social networks, blogs, and instant messaging, there’s no excuse for us not to reach out and try and connect with someone. Services like Twitter and Facebook are excellent ways to find people who share the same interests and areas of knowledge that you have.
Reading blogs and leaving comments are another great way to connect. I emphasize leaving comments because some great conversations with people I’ve had started with either them commenting on my blog or me on theirs. Comments are a way to connect.
Get Out And In Person
Although making connections via online tools and communities are great, nothing can beat having face-to-face interactions with people. So how do you make those happen? Luckily there are many opportunities. In the technical realm, user groups have been a great way to bring people with shared skills and interests. In Winnipeg alone, we have a .NET user group, an IT Pro user group, a PC user group, etc. Realize that I’m not suggesting that these groups are your “tribe”. Rather, these are places where you can *find* your tribe....to connect with those that will become your tribesmen and tribeswomen.
And what if there isn't a venue for your area of expertise or interest? Start a community! Start your own user group or similar organization and create your own environment to build your tribe from.
For those that aren't in the technical realm, this idea of community still works...I'm actually surprised that there isn't more of this type of community being fostered. Maybe the IT world is just different in that although there's competition between technology companies, the employees of those companies (and the companies themselves in some cases) see the benefit in fostering relationships with each other.
Understand Your Role
Your tribe is your clan...your network...your family. And as a member, you have responsibilities as well. This isn't something you become part of just to serve yourself. You need to give back, to offer support, and to provide value back to the group as they support you. Know that your role is more than attendee or passive member within a tribe...its as active member.
So now that we've covered some ways to connect with your tribe, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start planning how you'll start searching for your tribe: what upcoming community events are happening, what are some prominent blogs for your key interest/knowledge area, and will you take up the mantle and create opportunities for community to foster if there aren't any available?
Find your tribe. Of course, creating relationships and finding your tribe means that you'll need to deal with people. That's how we'll conclude this area of the Ignite Your Life series: a discussion on learning to deal with people.
First Winnipeg BizTalk User Group Event!
Agenda
"Getting Started with BizTalk" - Darryll Sum
"Unit Testing with BizUnit" - Shona Helstrom
Rountable Discussion
Location
1700 Richardson Building
17th Floor, One Lombard Place
If you arrive after 6pm, you must speak with the front desk guard to obtain access.
Date / Time
Thursday, October 9, 2008 - 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Food and Refreshments will be provided.
For more information and to register for the event, check out our WBTUG website at
http://www.btug.biz/Home/Winnipeg/tabid/104/Default.aspx
That’s right friends! Coming to a city near you* this October to December, its the Microsoft Tech Days 08! And the reigning members of Microsoft’s in-house wrestling team, The Nation of Domination**, are EXPECTING you to come out and LEARN, INTERACT, GET FREE STUFF, and LEARN EVEN MORE! Don’t be caught in the cross hairs of Sasha “The Rock” Krsmanovic’s eyebrow raise, ‘cause you know the MVP Elbow is just around the corner!
Ok, so seriously though…Microsoft is going to be coming through Canada between October and December bringing Microsoft Tech Days ‘08. Previously, Microsoft held an event called Energize IT in Toronto every year. But instead of doing that this time around, they decided to take it on the road! So how does this differ from regular Microsoft events that we’ve all seen in the past?
1. All Thriller, No Filler
This is *NOT* a marketing tour! It’s a one to two day conference (depending on your city) that focusses on learning and using Microsoft technologies. Think of it as a Microsoft focussed code camp of sorts. Below is a sample of what you can expect schedule wise:
2. It’s For Everyone
Ok, so there have been Microsoft events that included both IT Pro and Developer groups, but I wanted to point out that this is indeed a dual-competency event. There are sessions and tracks for both IT Pros and Developers.
3. It’s NOT FREE
Say what? Oh, you heard me the first time! This is *NOT* a free event. Keep in mind what I said earlier though: this is *NOT* a marketing event either! This is intended to give you opportunities to learn and experience Microsoft technologies, not just hear marketing talk and see “I didn’t write a single line of code”*** demos.
Ok so here are the details on this puppy:
Dates
Toronto: Oct 29th and 30th
Montreal: Nov 6th and 7th
Vancouver: Jan 21st and 22nd
Calgary Dec 10th and 11th
Ottawa: Nov 27th
Winnipeg: Dec 4th
Halifax: Dec 17th
Note that some cities have two day events, while others have one day events.
Cost
2 Day Conference:
Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver
Early Bird Price: $ 249.99 (By Oct 15th)
Regular Price: $ 499.99 (After Oct 15th)
1 Day Conference:
Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa
Early Bird Price: $ 124.99 (By Oct 15th)
Regular Price: $ 249.99 (After Oct 15th)
Space is limited to: 5,000 IT Pros. & Developers
Benefits
I can tell you about all the benefits of networking with your peers, having great deep-dive sessions on various technologies, and having the speakers be available in between sessions. But you really want to know what the swag kit looks like, don’t you? All right…
6-month TechNet Plus Subscription
Visual Studio 2008 Professional – Full Package Product
Expression Web – Full Package Product
Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite – Evaluation Software
Expression Studio – Evaluation Software
Virtualization Resource Kit
30% off certification voucher – Applicable to All MS Certification Exams
TechEd 2008 DVD Set
$100 Discount Coupon for DevTeach/SQLTeach
I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH how the cost of attending this is infinitely recouped by getting the TechEd 2008 DVD Set! I attended TechEd and let me tell you…CRAZY amount of content and information on those DVD’s. You normally would have to attend Tech Ed to get that, so that’s worth the price of admission right there.
Also, that might account for why there’s a limit of 5000 people who can register.
Where Do I Sign Up?!
So you’ve decided that you want to check this out, get more info to convince your boss, or you’re just really scared that John Bristowe and Jean-Luc David are going to lay the smackdown on you. Here’s where you can register and get more info:
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/msdn/techdays/default.aspx
Keep in mind that right now there’s nothing there but the schedule. That’s because this is *just* off the presses and public knowledge as of today, but check back on that site often and I’ll also put a blog post up when registration is open.
Hope to see you out!
D
*A city near you unless you’re Regina or Saskatoon…sorry guys!
**Nation of Domination was a stable in the WWF (now WWE) and featured The Rock before he was…well, The Rock.
***Shout out to Johnny Bristowe!
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TechDays_CAWell I was on the mark for the most part…only had a few games overall that threw me:
Titans over Jaguars
Chicago over Colts
GB over Vikings
Denver over Raiders
Chicago over the Colts was probably the upset of the week, with the GB/Vikings game a close second. Vikings looked very green for a team that’s supposed to threaten the NFC North. Raiders was my emotional pick for the week…they’re like the Tiger Cats of the NFL: you just can’t not root for them.
Falcons are starting the next dynasty! Bring on the Bucs!
Winnipeg has had a successful .NET User Group for many years, and building on that we’ll be providing a new offering starting this fall: The Winnipg BizTalk User Group!
When and Where
October 9th at 5:30
17th floor Richardson Building (where we currently hold the .NET User Group meetings)
What will be discussed?
Introduction to the group, introduce who’s involved, etc.
Shona Helstrom from EDS will be presenting on using BizUnit for unit testing BizTalk
We’ll conclude with a roundtable discussion on thoughts for presentation topics, discussion of issues/successes that members have encountered recently, and general networking with each other.
More information about registration and our website will be available in the next few weeks. Keep watching my blog as well as the Winnipeg .NET User Group site for more information!
D
The Redskins/Giants game aside, we’re now less than 30 minutes away from the beginning of the NFL season! Of course, its really just an exercise to see who will lose the Superbowl to the Atlanta Falcons, but still…we have so many storylines and drama that this will be an excellent season of “As The NFL Turns”. So week one…what are we going to see…
Falcons over Lions
The Falcons put the past behind them and start with their new look…well, everything. Lions, still the same look.
Jaguars over Titans
Jaguars are going to be the dark horse this year. The Titans are just going to be filler for other team’s highlight reels.
Patriots over Chiefs
Patriots aren’t going to be the same as last year, and they’ll struggle against the Chiefs but will come up with the W.
Eagles over Rams
Even with their WR corps injured, Eagles are heads above the Rams.
Ravens over Bengals
Bengals might have Ocho Cinco on the field, but they’re an organization in dissaray, and that will translate to the field. Ravens D will win this low scoring game.
Bills over Seahawks
Upset of the week. Seahawks glory days are over.
Jets over Dolphins
Dolphins will keep this close, but Jets will win…Brett Favre will be on fire while Pennington and Williams will need to prove themselves…as does the Dolphins in general.
Tampa Bay over Saints
Tampa Bay is the second most dangerous team in the NFC South (Falcons being #1). Saints are overrated and will be fighting it out with Carolina to stay out of the NFC South basement.
Steelers over Texans
Texans will be a dark horse this year, but the Steelers are just too powerful for them.
Dallas over Cleveland
Dallas Dallas Dallas!
Carolina over the Chargers
San Diego is in the same boat as Seattle: glory days are well behind them. LT is on the same path as Shaun Alexander, and Carolina has alot to prove this year; they’ll want it more.
Colts over Chicago
Seriously…is there any doubt that the Colts won’t win this one?
Arizona over San Francisco
I can’t believe I’m picking the Cardinals (worst name for a football team), but I think Bolden and Warner will light it up against the 49’ers.
Enjoy the games!
This post is part of a series called Ignite Your Life. For background info on the series, please refer to previous posts on introducing the series and The 5 R's (where you can find links to the other posts in this series).
I’ve been fighting with how to start this post…some witty anecdote, some deep insight, some metaphor that drives the point home. But none of those are formalizing so let me just be blunt:
You need relationships in your life for it to be successful.
Out of all the ideas and concepts that I’ll post in this series, I’m probably the most passionate about relationships because I’ve seen the power that they hold.
I became an independent consultant for many reasons, but one of them was a lack of trust for company ownership that I built up over my 7 years in the industry. I had a choice to jump ship to another company, possibly facing the same frustrations and issues that I’d experienced throughout all of my career, or try to strike out on my own. I did the latter. The interesting thing though is that although my first year of being independent was definitely what I’d call a success and a great learning time, it wouldn’t have been if I hadn’t embraced the idea of building relationships. Going out of my way to meet people, looking for opportunities to connect with people, re-connecting with people I’d worked with in the past…all of these things were crucial to my first year and onward. More importantly, the discipline of doing those things will be invaluable to my life going forward.
I want to make it clear though: despite the business context, building relationships is so much more than just adding to your rolodex. In Rules for Renegades, Christine uses an equation often and its one that I’ve made doctrine in all areas of my life:
Life = The people you meet + What you create together
Notice that the equation doesn’t start with “Work” or “Career” or “Status”, etc. It starts with Life. Life is about getting people together and seeing what happens. It’s an activity…its an exercise…its ongoing. But I firmly believe that life is not meant to be experienced in isolation. Life is a contact sport, but its also a team sport. We need others, and others need us. And not in the “what can you do for me/I do for you” type of leeching agreement. Relationships are about showing interest and care in someone else’s life. You don’t have to be best friends with everyone you meet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be empathetic and reach out to people. The more you reach out, the more you realize others are willing to reach out to you too.
This all sounds great, but let’s tackle the elephant in the room: there are those of us that avoid relationships or fostering the ones we already have for a number of reasons. Some claim they don’t have the personality for it, some don’t want to spend the energy, some feel that its a waste of time. I’m going to suggest that we don’t engage in relationships because of a few key fears.
Fear of Rejection
None of us want to be rejected. The feeling that we weren’t <fill in the blank> enough for someone…that we were somehow a failure. Personal rejection is always the worst, and it cuts the deepest into our psyche and self worth. Many of us have experienced this type of rejection at some point in our lives, and it can be a hurdle that seems too large to overcome in building new relationships.
One of the key lies that we buy into and which fuels this fear is the idea that we’re somehow lesser than the people we fear will reject us. We see it as a top-down system where we’re always looking up for approval.
In one of the earlier posts where we talked about Realization, we brought up the ideas of ‘Being Comfortable As You’ and ‘Declaring Yourself’. These concepts are crucial to overcoming the fear of rejection. Despite all the talk of blue/white collars, rich/poor, upper class/middle class, <insert your own status comparison here>, the reality is that none of us has any greater worth than anyone else. Not only does realizing that free us from the fear of rejection, but it frees us to make connections we normally wouldn’t have made. Stop giving others power over you. If you allow yourself to see others as greater value than you, then rejection has power. If you see others as equals, then as Christine says in her book: “When someone says ‘no’, I say ‘next’!”
Fear of Trust
All of us have had someone betray a trust, act against us instead of for us, have their actions be different then their words. When opportunities for relationships arise in the areas where trust is broken, we tend to paint everyone with a broad stroke. Friendships, romantic relationships, business partners, co-workers, bosses…
For me it was bosses. Over my years in the IT industry, I met some incredibly unscrupulous people that soured me on placing any trust in a business owner. In my mind, an owner cared only about money and not about people, either employees or customers. It was one of the catalysts for me to strike out on my own and become my own boss; the ultimate defensive barrier – nobody was truly my ‘boss’, just my ‘customer’. I could rationalize the difference.
I still struggle with this. I still struggle with believing that there are those in the business world that value people above profit, or at least realize that the former directly impacts the latter. I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic people and companies that have given me opportunities to put away my trust issues and open myself up more, and I’m starting to realize that not everyone in the business world is the same.
Be cautious, realize that your wounds and scars are also your education, but don’t let those keep you from experiencing the potential good that is out in the world. Try trusting people again and you’ll find, like I have, that for every bad apple there’s a basket full of good fruit.
Fear of Expectations
Do you remember when talking about ‘Stop Leaking Power’ what we said about expectations?
Don’t place expectations on people. Expectations are simply a way of letting others decide whether you’re happy. You can’t expect people to act in a certain way when you don’t have any say over their lives or their actions. It can also lead to leaked power because expectations also mean that we’re relying on someone else to act in a certain way for us to feel happy, loved, accepted, etc.
Relationships ebb and flow…people will be closer to you at different times of your life. The way you interact with them has more to do with environment, situation, and circumstance than anything else.
I recently realized the danger of placing expectations on relationships. I’ve got this friend, and for many years we worked together on various activities at our church, hung out and watched football, met for lunch pretty regularly to talk about life, etc. Over the last year and a half though, things changed. He moved up to a different position in the church and I started working with a new guy in the youth ministry. He also started doing things more with people who had children the same age as his own…we drifted into different circles of friends and different places in life.
I got angry. I still held an expectation on our friendship. I had let him know we were thinking of leaving our church, that we had gone through some family health issues over the past year, that we were making some big decisions in the next little while. I got an email reply and then…silence. From both sides though: I heard nothing really from him, and I didn’t put out any effort because HE should be contacting ME, like all the other times I had touched base to see how life was treating him! Nevermind the fact that he was also dealing with some pretty intense issues, in my mind it was no excuse.
Now, what I *should* have done is realized this and accepted it for what it was: the ebb and flow of relationships.
There are, of course, certain expectations that you can put on relationships: I expect that my wife isn’t going to have any boyfriends on the side, I expect that my friends won’t steal from me, etc. But beyond the common sense pieces, you can’t place expectations on people or relationships because at some point they won’t be met. We need to appreciate and accept people for who they are and what they can and do offer.
And of course the golden rule still applies: do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Sometimes we need to be that model to show others what it means to foster relationships.
In Closing…
You cannot ignite your life without relationships, period. We talked about being your own CEO and how that means you have to ensure all areas of You Inc. are well managed and well run. That means your social/relational department needs to be running at peak efficiency too. Don’t shy away from relationships…don’t allow fears of rejection, trust, or expectations get in the way of experiencing all the positives relationships hold.
D
Interesting article up on CodePlex about how Microsoft organizes “Feature Crews” to organize development (also has to do with how they structure their branching). If you’re familiare with FDD (Feature Driven Development), then there’s alot here that will seem familiar. Interesting to see how Microsoft has formalized the concepts though.
D