I never did get around to properly blogging about the Microsoft MVP Asia Regional Summit. The week I took off to get to it meant I got so far behind with my work I lost the plot for the following 6 weeks.
However the event was very enjoyable and I can recommend attendance for any MVPs in the future. You get to meet a lot of interesting people, get access to some inside news on Microsoft, get to see some great presentations and also get to see something of Singapore!
Day One
This was mainly devoted to welcome speeches, generic overviews etc. The highlight was probably Shaun O'Driscoll's speech. Shaun is an excellent speaker and his presentation was clear, flowing and witty.
The afternoon session split the MVPs up into two groups, Developers & IT Pros. I attended the Developer track. The Tool Roadmap presentation by Nigel Burton was very good, although the Developer forum afterwards was less so.
In the evening we were taken to Singapore Zoo for an evening meal and a tour on a tram around the zoo.
Day Two
There were four tracks to choose from and I went to all four presentations in the Developer track. The Visual Studio 2005 Overview and Demonstration by Brian Keller, Visual Studio Tricks And Tips By James Lau and the Migrate Your Skills And Code to Visual Basic .NET by Sean Draine presentations were all excellent. The only disappointing one was New Features In CLR 2.0 (Widbey) by Bin Lu.
In the evening transport was provided around the shops at Orchard Road. I elected to spend the evening with my wife and we got some Sushi from a local Sushi Bar to eat.
Day Three
There were again four tracks to choose from and I attended Microsoft Real Time Collaboration - connecting people and information by Joe Poon and Presenting effectively with Powerpoint by Glen Millar from the Application track and Managing windows via WMI scripting by Chung-Wei Foong from the Windows Client track. Joe's presentation was OK, Glen's presentation was excellent and Chung-Wei's was poor.
In the evening transport was provided to a bar where beer and food was provided by Microsoft along with some entertainment by street entertainers and also some photographs on a projector from the last few days.
And Today, 6 weeks later
Today I got reembursed for my air fare today and the reimbursement from Microsoft was very generous, practically covering my entire air fare. A big thank you goes to Microsoft for setting up the event and for contributing towards the costs of getting there and the accommodation costs once there.