What a nice bunch of people at Bolton! They were very hospitable and gave us a warm welcome (well, it was freezing cold outside but you know what I mean) to the Design Studio in the centre of Bolton. I was easily spotted after the freezing photo of me in the gilet at Coventry :-)

We had a chance to meet and mingle with the attendees which seemed to consist of a good split of SMEs, students and academic staff. There was a lot of good questions coming from the audience which pushed our swag rationing a bit but was well worth it.

(This is the view we have for 2 hours each venue)

A big thanks to all the staff at Bolton and Net Northwest, especially Wilf Gardner for organising. 

We then got on the road to head to our final city of the trip, Noo-cas-el (Newcastle). And fellow DPE-er Dave 'Gristy' Gristwood joined us to talk to one of his customers in Newcastle. The only sad thing about this leg was our late arrival and tiredness which stopped us from hitting the 'toon' (enough of the Geordie slang!)

And then it was done. We all parted company at Northumbria University (I jumped on the road a little early but had a hellish drive down with about 5 major accidents causing delays along the way).

The last sight before 6 odd hours in the car.

Parking up in TVP, next to another MS branded vehicle. The baby Windows Mobile MINI (new Cooper S version too, nice) next to our behemoth Volvo.  

THANKS TO ALL WHO ATTENDED OVER THE 5 DAYS

RoadTrip Team

After a great geek dinner with Phil and co, we thought it was about time we had a rest. Mike went home and we stayed in the hotel (another bargain basement hotel with funny smells) until lunch time. Martin went shopping, Daniel slept in and I went for Starbucks and caught up on email with a double-shot skinny venti latte and a muffin (how very geek chic!).

A quick blip up the M61 to Bolton with Daniel 'The' Moth at the wheel. Now, I know Mr McD is reading this, so all I'll say is that there is a strong possibility we got photographed on the way there and it wasn't the Chorley Times. We had a group decision and Daniel is no longer allowed to drive with us in the passenger seat AGAIN. :-)

We are now sitting in the very fancy Design Studio at the University of Bolton with WiFi and waiting for tonight's crowd. Our photographs have been taken by a proper photographer and we've met some journalists so far.

After tonight, we have a late drive from Bolton all the way up to Newcastle to talk to a large software company and Northumbria

One last thing, I'm absolutely gutted that I haven't seen Peter Kay (like seeing the queen when you visit London I guess:)). I'm a massive fan and I even got excited when I saw the Bolton Albert Hall/town hall.

Today started off with a quick jaunt across York to the offices of IOKO (a well decorated Microsoft partner) to talk to them about the virtues of Vista, Office and Fx3.0.

 The weather has been pretty grim across the UK this week and we have felt it along the way. The car park was icey and we had some snow/sleet falling during the morning.

Thanks to Simon Hudson for hosting on the day.

After IOKO, it was off across Manchester with the craz y Daniel Moth in the driving seat. So, if any motorists in the York/Manchester region saw a bad driver in a Vista branded car we do apologise. But we are just happy that we are alive and arrived in Manchester in one piece!

Next up was the MDDA - Manchester Digital Development Agency. A tight start with a only seconds to spare but a good audience with interesting questions around UAC, WPF (WPF/E) and WCF. They had nice offices with two very funky drawings laying out their plans for the digital future for Manchester.

Thanks to Alan Holding for arranging this event!

We finished up, downloaded mail off the free WIFI at MDDA and then headed to the pub for a pint before our geek dinner with some of the locals: Phil, Dave, Graham, and co. We are now resting up and are having a rest before our Bolton gig tomorrow afternoon and the travel east to Newcastle to finish the week.

(Gratuitous picture of swag)  

 We arrived with plenty of time for our event at the Midland Air Museum with the guys at NxtGenUG. Now, you will have to wait until we get the photos online tomorrow morning first thing but this was the probably the weirdest venue I've heard of for a Vista and Office launch presentation or any other for that matter. We presented in the inside of a 1960s cargo plane....that's right, inside a 1960s cargo plane!

This brought with it a number of logistical and healt issues. The top curators/helpers/engineers that volunteer at the M.A.M museum had been working all week to rig up the flooring and seating insides this plane. And were there on the night to help us get power and projectors set up. All that went smoothly and the cramped nature of the venue was our only last issue.

Apart from the near freezing temperatures which forced us to wear extra layers (or retreat into their gilet, like me).

.....

After an eventful night with Daniel attacking the waiter for bones in his fish, we retired for a pint and planning for today. We got up early (well, 3 of us, Mike decided to sleep in) and headed across to the Chilworth manor hotel next to the science park for our morning with iMeta.

 
(Our accomodation for the night, well, it wasn't much better!) (Hi to Ed, Alfie and Flora from all the team!! We hear you like the photos of your dad)

We were greeted by Joe (a nice fella that gets stick for his Microsoft t-shirts), iMeta Sys Admin, who helped us set-up and get ready for the 10 x 10 minute sessions of Office, Vista and .NET 3.0. with a good 20 minutes for Q&A and general chatter with the devs.

 
(The switcher box which causes all our machines to flicker regardless of what button you press)

The guys and girls of iMeta were very friendly and it was fun talking to them all. After our intense 2 hours (and the videos are all available for attendees to drill down more )

After this we plugged in the Road Angel as the Volvo SAT NAV was just getting us lost and trying to take us to Legoland (I think Kevin must have been playing with it before we got the car)

We are now enroute (literally) to Coventry for our evening with NxtGenUG after a quick stop off on campus in Reading for email downloading and a quick break.

Chat soon!

Mark

(Martin talking about Excel Services)

(MikeT holding up the Whiteboard, and our screen)

(The left hand side of Beazley attendees with Zi and Ian's boss in the front row)

(The other half of the room - all engaged in the content!)

(Laptop overload on our presentation stand thanks to the switch which allows us to move 'seamlessly' (yeah right!) between machines for 10 minute sessions. Mine on the far right does look the best, I think ;-))

It's been a crazy day with an early start for the northerners (Mike and Martin) and the southerner (Daniel) didn't make it to London but came direct to Southampton this evening. I (Mark) was therefore left in charge of getting our transport for the week from Microsoft's campus in Reading to our first venue for the launch roadtrip in Beazleys in London.

Let me just get this off my chest now, I hated driving in central London today! And that was doubly nasty as I was driving a big bus of a car from the west end into the city. I navigated my way through all the tourist attractions from the Ritz, Piccadilly, Park Lane, National Gallery, Whitehall, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster abbey, etc....if you were a passenger it would be one of the best sight seeing trips you could pay for in this country. THANKFULLY, I made it to meet up with Martin and Mike for the start of the presentation! With seconds to spare.

We have opted for a 'hit em hard' approach with 10 x 10 minute demo loaded sessions covering off the main content from the Office 2007, Windows Vista developer features and the .NET Framework 3.0 (WPF, WCF and WF). The running order was:

Office

- Excel Services
- Open XML
- RibbonX

.NET Framework 3.0

- WPF Features Montage
- Windows Communication Foundation
- WPF Visual Studio and Expression
- Windows Workflow

Windows Vista

- UAC
- Presentation features in Vista
- Reliabililty and Restart Manager

TO ALL BEAZLEY ATTENDEES: Big thanks to the 45 or so of you that attended and especially to Ian, Zi, Aleisha, and Ian's boss for organising the event! As with every stage of this journey, we hope that all attendees will take the time to follow up and watch the content online afterwards - UK Developer Vista and Office launch recorded sessions and check out the Vista/Office developer resources.

Getting out of London was Martin's job as driver (he drives a tank normally so can cope with the Volvo). He did a good job as expected, the SAT NAV that came built into the Volvo didn't (we haven't unpacked the superior Win CE based Road Angel as it will be raffled off to the attendees who fill out the evaluation forms). Our goal - get to the Travellodge in Eastleigh. The result - we ended up in a field (literally) by taking its instructions to the turn that looked like it was used for romantic meetings of the anonymous variety!! The hilarity that unfolded with strange looks from a gentlman in a car in the field and the quick getaway from Martin lightened the mood after the drive down the M3.

We picked up The Moth (or Daniel) and had dinner and are now getting ready for Day 2 with the nice people from iMeta. Early start tomorrow, 7.30 for breakfast hunt, 8.30-9.30 set-up and 9.30 kick off.

Photos for Day 1 will follow, I need to grab the camera off Mike T and I don't fancy disturbing him at this time of night

Toodle-pips!

Mark

Straight as an arrow under Building 4 at Microsoft UK's campus.

Coming to a place near you...

On Friday 19th Microsoft UK kicks off the Developer launch for Windows Vista and the Office system 2007 with two days of activity in Reading.

With the unprecedented demand far exceeding the capacity of the venue we are pleased to announce the Developer Launch Roadtrip.

The team, who have created and will present the opening event, are taking to the road to you so that you don’t miss out on the opportunity to see the potential of these new technologies for yourself.

In about 90 minutes they will introduce you to the developer story for:

·         Windows Vista’s new operating system features that your application can use.

·         The .NET Framework version 3.0, including support for application workflow, distributed applications and a rich presentation layer.

·         The new Office 2007 System and how you can access the data in documents; surface your information and create a context aware interface for your users.

Clearly in 90 minutes we can’t do all of that in detail, so we’ll ensure you see demonstrations and that you have links to the stuff that you want to explore.

Look out for venues and hosts in forthcoming posts ... 

Want to know more about the presenters?

Mike Taulty spent the nine years prior to joining Microsoft working as a software developer for a number of different businesses, making use of what used to be called 'middleware'.  Mike is currently looking at technologies in .NET Framework Version 3.0.

Daniel Moth has significant industry experience and he has been working with .NET since the first public beta. Daniel was awarded the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for his community contributions in 2004 and enjoys helping others wherever he can.

Martin Parry has developed commercial software for a number of ISVs on a variety of platforms before joining Microsoft in 1999.
Martin’s  motto is 'It’s only code’ and this reflects his belief that software is simple when you understand how it works!

Mark Johnston is a normal Northern Irish guy - he's got a weird sense of humour, a strange accent and talks too fast! A perfect combination
to talk to developers and designers about the wonders of the Microsoft platform with a focus on web technologies.

In January Microsoft is launching Windows Vista and Office 2007 to developers in a number of ways: 

• You can visit us in Reading on the 19^th and 20^th January
• You can join in online too
• We can come to you!

To visit us or take part online please visit New Dawn for Developing, otherwise if you are interested in having us visit you, then here is how it works:

From Monday 22nd to Friday 26^th January the Microsoft UK developer team will be touring the country to bring the story to many organisations of all types.

In the week we hope to deliver 12-15 sessions of around 90 minutes each – depending on the amount of travelling between each location and your hospitality.

Until the 5^th of January we are attempting to pull the route together so now is your chance to get On the Map by sending us an email with the information requested below, and we'll do our best to get your location on our tour.

If you can:

• Provide a venue with space for an audience of 35 or more
• Get an audience of 35 or more (your colleagues; group members; students etc) or allow us to invite members of the public to attend
• Show us a great or wacky photo opportunity for the team to light up our map (is the venue a work of art, very unusual etc?)

Then, if our route can accommodate you, we will:

• Present for 90 minutes on Windows Vista and Office 2007 for developers 
• Publicise you and your organisation's contribution to the tour
• and of course, throw in some goodies J

So all you have to do to Get on the Map is mailto:msukdpetech@hotmail.co.uk and tell us:

1. Your contact details
2. Where you are (Town/Postcode)
3. How many people can you accommodate
4. How many people will you get in the audience
5. Let us know if we can we invite the public to come too
6. What days of the week can you let us use and is that morning, afternoon or evening
7. If there is something special about your venue or location 

We'll then piece together the route and get you On the Map.

I look forward to hearing from you, 

Pastie McCode

Tour Manager