Now especially with Convergence coming up, XRM is really taking off.  We've been XRM-ing around here for close to 2 years now (wow, really, TWO YEARS).  And if I think about it, we've been XRM-ing longer than people have been thinking XRM even existed.  We integrated CRM 3.0 with a cool internal app for commercial real estate eons ago, had maps in CRM 3.0 before Balmer showed that one off, then someone coined "XRM" and a movement was born.

All of that to get to this, a chapter from our XRM book is on MSDN for download.  (thanks Jim Glass).  Go have a read, it's a great chapter on Developer and Team workspace.  There's a link to buy the book from Amazon, it will also be at the Convergence bookstore.

Happy reading.

XRM as a Rapid Development Platform

So directly or indirectly we have all been hit by our "economic downturn" (I hate that phrase!).  Maybe you got a cut in hours, lost your job altogether or had your credit card company suddenly reduce your credit limit.  Right?

So with all that mess going on around us we need to seek out community opportunities to help build our skills and our business.  These events are of such great value, you would pay for them, but they're free!  Yup, FREE.

So, my buddy Sanjay had such a great success with the first CRM Incubation week, that he is doing another one.  This one in Boston, week of April 20.  Only cost you need to cover is your travel to/in Boston.  Rest is free.  Training.  Industry experts.  Angel investors hanging around.

Pretty cool stuff going on here.  More details below on Sanjay's blog.  Tell him Julie sent you :)

Microsoft Dynamics ISV Architect Evangelism : Startups: Announcing 2nd Microsoft Dynamics CRM Incubation Week

Thanks to my friend Joe Shirey for taking this picture and letting me use it.

Below we see rock stars David Yack, Beth Massi and Scott Hanselman praying to the demo God for a good day before the keynote.  See Mr Huckaby, this is why you blue screened and they didn't.

So I asked for photos from Saturday's event and the best one I've found is the one below that I took.  This is the incomplete mountain of pizza boxes that we emptied.

You have pictures, let me know, I'd love to see/post them.

So, some important (ish) numbers for the day...read on after that for more details about what a day we had...

1 fifteen car pileup on an icy highway that prevented many attendees from arriving on time, if at all

1 speaker stuck in Milwaukee

1 speaker that presented on a white board because his projector died mid session

1 guy that corrected the grammar on the event eval form

2 light sabers

3 attendees named Michael Jackson

4 speakers named Mr Jones

5 number of stress balls thrown by Scott Hanselman

6 slices of pizza left at the end of the day

9 states from which attendees came

18 guys named Dave

936 slices of pizza eaten

2,550 minutes of technical knowledge shared

4,000 Curious George fruit snack pieces consumed

5,670 oz of soda that was consumed

After all is said and done, it was a fantastic day.  We had just under 400 people there and all the evals were very positive.   The volunteers were so awesome and helped me have a much less stressful day than I had expected.  Corey Eberly and your team from Modis are all heroes and their help was much (MUCH) appreciated. The number one complaint (drum roll please)........  GIVE US MORE.  It is a delicate balance between number of sessions and length of sessions.  I'm not sure if anyone ever gets it dead-on, but we try.  And we listen and try to to better next time.

People wanted more Windows sessions.  I would have loved to have more Windows sessions, get your Windows buddies to sign up next time, so we have the numbers to justify more sessions.

Other concerns were around difficulty finding the location, having to pay for parking, wanting MORE free stuff (shame on you, you know who you are, there was LOADS of free stuff ALL.DAY.LONG).  Some people also asked to have like sessions/tracks in the same rooms all day.  To that I say nope, we did that on purpose to get you up and walking around, mingling with others, etc.

Some people asked for things like abstracts in advance (they were posted on the home page of the website and the schedule page) and at least a 10 minute break between sessions (we had a scheduled 10 minute break, but the speakers typically ran over, see above).

Someone asked for sessions on mobile...watch for next year's call for speakers and give us a session on mobile.

Some quotes from the evals....

"Ely Lucas did a great job in Intro to Game Programming"

"Love Diet Dr Pepper served at lunch"

"Have these events more often"

"Great job by all presenters"

"Rob Bagby was a fantastic speaker"

"I wouldn't change anything"

"Steve Milroy Great!"

"I'd say this was the best MS event that I have ever attended in Denver"

"Jerry Nixon was fantastic"

"Glenn Berry is a good speaker!"

"You need more people like Beth Massi presenting"

"Too many good sessions running at the same time, impossible to decide"

"Hanselman was hilarious and REAL"

"Don Jones rocked!"

Call me skeptical, but 500 new jobs?  Really?

I'd like to think I know a little about this topic.  I really just don't see EA growing this line to 500 people.  I guess I could say I want to hire up-to 500 people too in the next 5 years.

Would it be great if there were 500 new nerd jobs here?  Heck yea.  But I just don't want people to bank on it.  Ya' know?

Springs tech start-up to hire up to 500 workers in five years

Yes, I used the word stupid.  Totally not professional, I know.  BUT, there is no other word that fits.  The deal here, some big law firm decided to bully a little guy (law firm over 2k lawyers, little guy is a startup of about 15) and the law firm won.  Just plain stupid.

The law firm did not like that public details were public about some of their lawyers.  So instead of fighting the source of the info, they go after this little guy that posted links back to the law firm.  WTH?

So, I guess I can't blame the law firm for trying (no, wait yes I can, it's an abuse of our legal system to push this crap thru).  But the judge that sided with them?  Why is there a problem displaying publicly available information, publicly?  It's not like it was a secure site, no one posted passwords, etc.  It was LINKS.  Links people.

This one bugs the hell out of me.

Shame on you federal district court Judge John Darrah.  Shame on you Jones Day law firm and Jacob Tiedt (we know you make loads of money and expect you to have an expensive house, it's not rocket science).

(at the risk of being sued, I have posted a link to the full story so you can see it for yourself)

BlockShopper v. Jones Day: The right of Web sites to link. - By Wendy Davis - Slate Magazine

So, yes, we are looking at a HUGE event next weekend.  When I was approached last fall with a "hey, wanna do a code camp?" I said sure, let's do it, do it big and have 500 people.  Well, looks like we'll meet that goal.  Who knew?  I guess that goes to the plan for success instead of failure school of thought.

(www.rmtechtrifecta.com if you need to register) 

Some fun has been had along the way, event bags have actually turned out to be a bit of fun.

Here's some pictures of the work we've got going on for last minute prep...this is some of the bag contents....

We've got flyers, event maps and schedules, etc.  Tech magazines in each bag.  Water bottle.  Event stuff.

Here's some of the finished bags, just less than half of them here.

So after my two stays there, I probably won't be back.  Second wasn't awful like the first.  It certainly was not good enough to finish with an acceptable average.  So I won't be back.

I finally did figure out my biggest issue with them.  Their inflated sense of quality.  They THINK they are as great as other "resorts" on the strip.  They are far from it.  But since they THINK they are, they act that way.  I understand the whole "fake it til you make it" mentality, but sooner or later you have to grow up and make it or pick a new dance.

Go have a look at this list, I am beyond honored to be on it.  Not sure who may have gotten my name to be on this list, but, thanks.

I challenge anyone that reads this to go click on a few of the names and read about the things that make each of these women great.

Pass it on, inspire someone, maybe even yourself!

101 Women Bloggers to Watch for 2009 | WE magazine for women