SBS 2008 Launch Event in Bristol

I mentioned in a recent post that I wouldn’t be attending the SBS launch event at the AMITPRO meeting so I’d be going to the Bristol event instead

That was last Thursday and I’m pleased I made the journey down

It was the first time I’ve attended an SBS user group that isn’t AMITPRO so it good to see how it’s done elsewhere

The event was held at Thornbury Golf Course, which looked very impressive as I was making my way up the huge driveway but I’m not really a golf person so what do I know!

I was greeted by the group leader Andy Watkins and I then bumped into SBS MVP Tim Long who made the trip from Wales. Tim is in the process of getting the South Wales user group running again so if your in that part of the world get in touch with him!

There were three people from Microsoft running the event

Emily Lambert – Channel Community Development Manager – Our “go to” for anything SBSC related

Gareth Hall – Windows Server Product Manager – The guy in charge of SBS and EBS in the UK

Jamie Burgess – Partner Technical Specialist – Tech guy focusing on SBS/EBS. He’s your technical “sounding board”

The team did a really good job and tried to answer all questions as openly and honestly as possible

They went over various topics including new features, licensing, the SBSC programme

I’m not going to go into the content of event as you should go and find out yourself!

Sandwiched in-between all the SBS stuff was a “marketing 101” by Julie Simpson from ResourceIT who specialise in Sales and Marketing for Microsoft partners

This session was put on as Emily had received a lot of feedback from partners who wanted help on this side of things

Julie also provided everyone with Microsoft Abbreviation Dictionary (MAD!) which is exactly what it sounds like and is something she’s been putting together to help wade through the jargon and made it available to everyone that attended

Another reason for taking the launch event “on the road” was to help foster more interest from small business specialists who don’t normally attend user groups. I spoke to a couple of people who weren’t regulars to the Bristol group and talked about some of the benefits I’ve had with AMITPRO and they also seemed positive about the event so hopefully there will some new faces in the near feature

All in all I pleased I made the trip down. Emily is taking feedback on every event so it should get better and better as it continues on it’s tour.

Thanks to everyone who made the event a success!