UK Windows Vista And Office 2007 Launch Tour

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