Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch (IV)

Continued from Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch (III)



But the nightmare continued after Walter Wong presented about Windows and SL4 Development. Walter Wong knows his stuff but wasn't able gain my attention at least (result of heave lunch?). But his great knowledge of Visual Studio 2010 is a plus point. After Walter Wong, there was short speech from someone in Dell Group something something, after him , someone which I can't remember the name talked a bit and passed the floor to a Lai Hoong Fai from Microsoft Malaysia.


I can't remember him passing the floor to this Hoong Fai.For a short while, we saw a few person from the event management company fiddling around with some PCs on stage for around 10 minutes. The guests wasn't informed about what was going while the people on stage trying to work their magic. Some thought this would a good opportunity to go to the washroom. Finally,when everything was almost done, the guests were informed to stay put because the event was about to start. When the "Web and Cloud Development" talk started, we were informed by Hoong Fai that they were trying to get the Internet up 10 minutes and FAILED.So, he had to present with some limited features and what not.  Since the Wireless Internet was provided by P1/ Packetone, I'm not sure if it's same to assume the Internet used by Microsoft is provided by the same party as well?  PREPARATION FAILED x 2 . (which also proves that products that depend on Internet access will not sell well here thanks the instability of the Internet connection.)

Then came MIMOS to talk about Team Foudation Server, which was still okay. There is also some products demo by MIMOS , what MIMOS does and all that.

Then the final blow was, during the SharePoint and Office Development talk, Foo Shen (correct spelling??) kept making mistakes about his program. Finally, after 2 failed attempts of making his code work, he chose to present with some other sample code in his PC. I'm very upset about this talk as well, because it seems to me that even Microsoft own staff has poor understanding of Visual Studio 2010, are we supposed we are getting good support from this product in the future? PREPARATION FAILED x 3 .

Before I forget, Microsoft indeed had some "door gift". There are actually 2 ways to get them:
a) Buy them  - There's actually a booth selling Microsoft brand products, eg.T-shirts, Jackets, Ball-pen (4 for price of RM10), Water tumbler, Name card holder, cap and etc.

b) Get them (free?) - After submitting the survey form, every guests is entitled to 1 x Windows 2008 R2 DVD with a 180 days limit and  Visual Studio 2010 Trainking Kit. This just seemed like some cheap-ass trick to reward those submitted the form and cheapskate of giving our door gifts. COURTESY FAILED x 2.

Overall, I'm very upset about how the event went. It's either Microsoft had insufficient budget for this event? or the event management company did a plain bad job. Then again, it could be both. If sufficient budget was provided and the event still turn out like shit; I, as Microsoft would fire the events company and make sure it never makes any presence in that industry. I think Microsoft's reputation was seriously screwed on this event.

Microsoft , you either buck up or prepare to go bust.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch (III)

Continued from Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch (II)..

So, off we went to have some tea / coffee (and some cupcakes?) WHAT?!!@# just tea adn coffee. Man, is there something wrong with my eyes? I scanned through tables the whole serving area, no finger food, nothing , just tea and coffee.Probably Microsoft was trying to promote healthy living, so they skip the cakes / finger food, or they were just plain CHEAPSKATE.  Well, a person's loss is another person's gain. As we sat down for early breakfast in Starbucks Sunway Pyramid (since it's the only place that we saw opened so early, around 8am.), we saw quite a number of customers who are also holding the same Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 booklet as us.Anyway, Micrsoft's Courtesy. FAILED.

We finished breakfast and head back to Convention Centre around 9am.Event started on time and the first person who delivered the speech was Azli Jamil (General Manager, Local Software Innovation at Microsoft).(Click here for Azli Jamil.) If you need some pointers on how NOT to give a speech, Azli Jamil is definitely the RIGHT person to go to. Normally, one would say something like this "Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to have you , our business partners, our customers to attend this launch today." But, Azli had to delivered this way, "Ladies and gentlemen, *looks at screen* we are proud *looks at screen* to have  *looks at screen* you, our business *looks at screen* .............." Well, you get the drift. He was pausing so often to look at the screen on what to say, his speech constantly interrupted. That my friend is. PREPARATION. failed.

eenThe nightmare seemed to have ended once Dave Mendlen (Senior Director of Developer Marketing at Microsoft Corp) , and David Salomon (I forgot what's his post in Microsoft) started talking about the features of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Both Davids were able to project an energetic feel and presentation. Although hearing numerous "awesome"  remarks about Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 , can still be a bit annoying. Anyhow, PRESENTATION. YAY

To be continued....

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch (II)

4 days ago, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 was launched in Malaysia. The launching was held in Sunway Convention Centre.

Compared to Lotusphere event which I attended in 2007, this event was a far cry compared to this event.
Firstly, lack of signage. There were hardly any signs pointing us to the Sunway Convention Center from the car park. Well, to be fair, Lotusphere was held in Sheraton Subang , which at that time still has a small car park located quite near to the Lotusphere event venue. So, it was relatively quite easy to find the (with minimal effort by with some signage).

For Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch, there were hardly any signage pointing us to Sunway Convention Centre except the one signage  near the escalator heading up to the Convention Center. I know there are signboard by Sunway Pyramid shopping centre pointing us to the Convention Centre but I won't mind if there were more signs pointing us to the venue. No signage of where is the washroom either. It seems either Microsoft or the event management assumes that the guests know their way around or expects them to check out the hall themselves.Proper signage. FAILED.

So, we (my superior and myself) somehow managed to find our way to the venue via the Fire Exit lift. Anyhow , we arrived and gave our name cards was provided with these (insert photo).

No pen, no notepad, or at least a key-chain, but we were given some brochures. They probably figured most of us just "write" on smartphones, so there's no need for paper. Yea man. way to go Microsoft.  There wasn't even an agenda provided. Well, we can see the programmes lists from the survey form (more on that later). I was very surprised, did last year's failing economy hit Microsoft so bad, that they can't even afford to provide each guest an agenda? I later found out that agenda was provided on 2 black cardboard stand which guests have to gather around to check out.Information.FAILED.
 
To be continued...

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 launch

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 has been launched in Malaysia yesterday (12/04/2010) . The launching in Sunway Pyramid sucks. PERIOD.

why does it suck?. more news coming soon.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not fan boy of Linux or whatsoever. But, seriously it sucks.