Small & Mighty

Anyone who knows me knows that I am an Office Geek. I have had the opportunity to work on some cool custom applications built on top of the office system. I think Office its a great platform and since Office 2003, a first class citizen in the .Net world. (In 2007 it gets even better)

I have done a few talks on office development that have being very well received. One question that I always seem to get though is "Why would I want to go backwards? I don't want to be known as a VBScript developer". Its seem like some people fear losing their skill set by developing office applications. The truth is that I have learned a lot of .Net tricks and gain valuable skills while working on Office applications. In fact, in one of the talks I did at the Philly .Net UG I showed off .Net Serialization, .Net Reflection and other cool .Net features. All within the context of an Office application.

Ok, I got a littler off topic but I just can't help but to get excited about all the new things we are doing around VSTO and OBAs.

So when I saw that we announced the Microsoft Office System Developer Conference 2008 I was thrilled. Here are some of the conference details:

Conference highlights:

1. Special Keynote address by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
2. Keynotes by other senior Microsoft Executives
3. A tech fest of innovative sessions and labs delivered by Microsoft and industry experts
4. Microsoft and partner Expo hall
5. Networking, entertainment, participation opportunities – and much more!

When:  Feb 10-13 2008
Where:San Jose Convention Center San Jose, California

More information here

What a blast last night was. About 200 people gathered at the Microsoft office in New York City to celebrate one of the biggest video game releases ever. For me, the best part was seeing the folks from PA that were able to make it. In fact not to BRAG, but PA took first and third place in the tournament.  Here is a picture Mark M took of the winners.

(Left: Ryan Keiser, Rob Keiser, Bill Wolff and Mathew Wolff)

We owe a lot to guys like Rob and Bill. They spend countless hours spreading the good word about Microsoft technologies in the Philadelphia Metro area. They have built a great community in Philadelphia.

I was thrilled for Ryan and Mathew, but also extremely honored to have Rob and Bill on my team.

If you live in or near the Philadelphia area and are interested in New Media, make sure you stop by Drexel University this weekend. If you need more reasons, Microsoft is giving away a free XBOX 360. Should be a great event.

More info here