Microsoft Vista Lab 2 - Day One

It was on a mild June thursday afternoon that 27 “community leaders” from 79 European, Middle East and African countries (EMEA for short!) gathered in Amsterdam to spend an information packed couple of days at Microsoft Netherlands. This two day technology experience was titled Microsoft Windows Vista Lab 2 and identical “Labs” had already taken place in Seattle and Singapore.

Many present had already attended the Microsoft Windows Vista Lab 1 the previous July, held in Seattle, and so expectations were high for another quality experience.

A quick glance at the schedule for the two days revealed that “Lab 2” was trying to meet the following objectives:

• To Provide Attendees With An Inside View of the Windows Vista Experience
• Windows Vista Product Development (Software Versions and Markets)
• Technological Advances in Windows Vista Beta 2
• Provide an Overview of the Advances in Microsoft Office 2007

Since many attendees were able to arrive on the evening before the event Microsoft arranged for an informal get together in the hotel bar and this proved to be an ideal opportunity to reacquaint with old friends and meet new ones!

Looking around the room, Microsoft had provided name badges complete with country of origin, it was immediately clear that this was a truly international gathering.

In the room there were technologists, authors, webmasters, developers and Microsoft staff from counties such as Italy, Cyprus, France, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Netherlands, US, Poland, Czech Republic and many more…

Microsoft HQ - Netherlands

DAY ONE

Day one was started by a welcome from Nick White – Windows Client Product Manager (Microsoft US) and Cigdem Akin – Community & Microsoft EMEA MVP Lead (Microsoft Turkey)

Cigdem Akin and Nick White
 

...we then moved into a presentation entitled Vista Demo Mania – by Tony Krijnen – IT Pro Technology Advisor (Microsoft Netherlands).

This was a 90 min tour of many of the main Windows Vista features - You can see a video of Tony Krijnen doing some of this presentation whilst at TechEd Israel here. If you are wondering, much of the presentation content can be found at the main Windows Vista feature page.

We then moved onto a presentation on Internet Explorer 7 & 7+ – by Olivier van Noort – Windows Client Specialist (Microsoft Netherlands).

This presentation was a deeper delve into the security aspects of the new web browser from Microsoft. In particular the differences between IE for Windows Vista - now called IE7+ and Internet explorer for Windows XP Service Pack 2, called IE7. You can read about the ongoing work on IE7 and IE7+ over at the product team's Blog.

After lunch it was time to hear the presentation: Windows Vista Design & User Interface – by Tjeerd Hoek – Design Director (Microsoft US).

This is the 3rd time I have seen Tjeerd talk about the many design aspects of Windows Vista and each time I am "glued" to my seat. Microsoft have spent MILLIONS of dollars on research on the design and function of Windows Vista. A point that is truly lost on those who simply say Windows Vista is a copy of the Mac OS!

You can read more about the design of Windows Vista here.

View a short video here from 2003 when Microsoft where looking at the design of Vista.

 ...after a short coffee break.

It was time for the Windows Live Presentation - by Phil Holden – Windows Live Director (Microsoft US).

Due to a signed non-disclosure agreement with Microsoft I can not talk about this presentation except to say that there are some BIG changes coming in the way Microsoft delivers it's online services!

You can checkout the publicly available information On Windows Live and it's many services at the Windows Live website and see an interview from June 06 with Phil Holden talking about live services here.

 

We were all then taken out for dinner to a lovely Dutch floating restaurant called Odessa where we carried on talking about the presentations we had seen that day.

"Odessa" The Floating Dutch Restaurant
 

DAY TWO

 ...continue to DAY TWO
 

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Kind Regards

 

Marc Liron
Microsoft MVP
Digital Media Evangelist
www.updatexp.com
www.instantvista.com