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March 29 Breaking it downAnother Convergence is behind us... was really a pretty amazing event this year. I will post some follow up thoughts and memories once I get the chance to collect my thoughts and reassemble my life! In the meantime here is a another time-lapse of the break down of the key note hall. Enjoy http://www.kiwisrus.net/Convergence/breakdown.wmv March 27 Day 2 Begins - Billg is in the houseSitting down in the crew pit right now and Billg has just kicked off his day 2 talk. This year there is a very cool performance art style kick off performed by a group called Mass Ensemble. They build these funky instruments like a giant crazy drums and one shaped like an umbrella. You can check out their web site here http://www.massensemble.com/index2.html
They are actually webcasting this talk so you can either tune in live or watch it on demand at your leisure from this link http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx. Kick back...grab a beer and enjoy the future if business applications... March 25 Behind the scenes at the major keynote hallStrolled down to Hall F today and took another time-lapse of some of the setup in Hall F where the big keynotes will happen. It always amazes me to see the transformation of an empty room to an immersive environment seating 7000. It involves tons of rigging and techie gear like lights and stuff. A large variety of machinery like forklifts and other exciting wheeled contraptions. There is also a highly skilled team of dedicated professionals (and Brian First I will try and get some more footage tomorrow if I get the chance... (and if anyone is actually interested!) Leave me a comment if you thought this was fun. Behind the scenes 1 at ConvergenceWell we kicked off the pre day at Convergence yesterday and it was a resounding success. We had about 1200 partners at the opening keynote which was delivered by Jeff Young, Tami Reller, Satya Nadella and Craig McCollum. I had the pleasure of helping to pull the content together (once a speech writer always a speechwriter I guess!)
Over the years as I have often been asked what it takes to pull off these kind of events backstage... while this was not as big as the major keynotes later in the week there were still many backstage heros that helped bring the event to life and make the "talent" on stage a success. I took a little timelapse video of what went on across the 2 hours of the show. Seems you can't actually post a video to MSN spaces though (bit lame IMHO but whatever). I have instead posted it to my SBS server at home... it is over my personal DSL connection so I hope it still works ok for you... check it out here http://www.kiwisrus.net/Convergence/partner-keynote.wmv
I will be taking a few more of these sneak peek behind the scenes time lapses over the next few days do if you liked this one check back for more March 16 Convergence Community CelebrationAs you may know this is the 10th annual Convergence conference. I myself have only been involved for 3 years but what fun it has been. I find myself humbled when I look back across the history of the whole 10 years... the fact this has gone from ~100 people to nearly 7,000 is amazing to me. Heather Kulla who I have the privilege to work with has been running the show for all those 10 years. Boy has she seen some changes... and boy has she done a fantastic job helping shape the event into the community it is today. Anyhoo I just finished reviewing a display we will have as part of the community lounge this year to celebrate the 10 years. it was put together by the stellar Jenny Davis from our friends at Spider and co and she did a great job. It will be a very cool space that showcases the evolution of the event over time through the lens of you the attendees. I encourage you to stop by the community lounge and check it out while in Dallas. Thanks to Jenny and Heather for their great work... people like them and theor passion for the event are a big part of what makes it so great.
Share your thougts in the form of comments below. Convergence Time-LapseI bought me a Nikon Coolpix P2 digital camera today....it is a pretty sweet gadget... 5+ megapixels, wifi photo transfer etc. The really cool thing though is the fact is has a time lapse mode. I plan to set it to take a picture every 30 seconds and record time lapse of cool things at convergence. things like building the stages for the keynotes...things like backstage when Billg speaks... things like the crowd streaming into see jeffr... things like the reaction of the community when dburgum keynotes.... things like the ebb and flow of the lunch room... things like the community lounge... anyway you get the idea... I will have cool time lapse video on my blog of cool convergence goings on. Hope you ge the chance to watch them. March 14 Attendance Breaks 6,500This morning in the wee dark hours sometime just before dawn Redmond time an earth shattering Convergence event took place. The number of attendees this year ticked from 6,499 tp 6,500 which was our original goal for the event. With 10 days still remaining we could even start closing in on 7,000. If you are one of the attendees thanks for your investment in time and money we think it is going to be the best yet! March 07 Wanted Dead or AliveYeeeehawwwww.... As tradition dictates it looks like people will be throwing some pretty dang fun parties in Dallas... perhaps you will see me there
March 05 Numbers are boomingWith 3 weeks to go we already have more customer and partner attendees registered than attended last year! Looks like it will be a pretty full house in Dallas. Not to mention the fact that 10 of the official hotels are sold out. If you plan on coming but haven't booked yet time to make your move March 02 I'll be thereJust signed up for the convergencebloggers.net website.... made the top 10 list for first to sign up (number 8) you can feel the excitment building ...
 February 27 Convergence T-4 weeksWhew! We are now less than 4 weeks from Convergence 06 down in Dallas. Should be a huge event! I know the team working on it is very excited about what we have in store for customers and partners this year.
Community is going to be a huge theme this year as we celebrate the 10th year of the event and also bring it online into the new Web 2.0 world. The iniative to host a virtual blog under convergenceblogger.net is a start of this and I hope you all take the time to both read and participate by posting your thoughts and experiences.
I am working on lots of different parts of the show and intend posting some of the "backstage" going's on both in the leadup to the event and also onsite
watch this space... |
) I left my wee camera running in time-lapse mode while some of the construction was done... you can view the results here 
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