Opatija is a beautiful city and touristic destination on the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. It is also a place where IT Pros and Developers get together attending annual Microsoft Conference called WinDays. This year is 8th conference in a row, and even it is organized in a Croatia, a lot of attendees from South Eastern Europe also enjoy, sun, sea, and of course, great technical content.

 

The conference is schedlued from 22nd to 25th of April (21st Pre-Conference Day).

 

I have never attended WinDays, but everyone who did says it is a great experience.

 

Here is some information from the WinDays web site:

 

"Microsoft WinDays is the largest business and technology conference in Croatia, bringing this year once again knowledge and information on the latest Microsoft technologies. For the eighth time, the leading individuals from the worlds of technology and business will gather in Opatija."

 

And also:

 

"Over 160 lectures in 4 days will be held by the best domestic and foreign professionals, who will present an overview of products we can expect in the future. Along with the main content of the conference, we have prepared various technology workshops and demonstrations of the latest Microsoft and partner products."

 

You can find more information and register on following link: https://www.microsoft.com/croatia/windays/english/default.mspx

 

Have a great conference:)

 

 

So you are interested what Exchange Server 2007 SP1 brings. Or even more excited, you heard that it can be installed on Windows Server 2008?

 

That's great, so why don't you give it a try?

 

Visit following link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb499043.aspx, where you can experience a lot more of Exchange Server 2007 scenarios about:

 

- security;

- disaster recovery;

- unified messaging;

- PowerShell;

 

 

Enjoy;)

 

As you may already know, one of the coolest new features of Exchange Server 2007 SP1 is SCR (Standby Continuous Replication). So If you are still wondering how it works, or you want to learn more, you can watch (and download) this great 5-part blogcast about enabling SCR, monitoring SCR, and activating an SCR storage group copy using the Exchange Management Shell. The blogcast is located on following link http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/09/13/447006.aspx, and is presenter by Scott Schnoll, a Principal Technical Writer on the Exchange Server product team.

 

The link I mentioned above - http://msexchangeteam.com/ is The Microsoft Exchange Team blog, and it is a great resource of information about Exchange Server.

 

Enjoy it;)

 

On Thursday, 28th of February, Macedonian Exchange User Group members had their fifth meeting. You can notice by the date that it is the same date the Launch events were going on. So after I completed my sessions on Virtual Launch events, the new excitments were following.

 

This meeting we had a special guest - Dejan Foro, Exchange MVP from Croatia, working for Swisscom in Zurich, Switcerland.

 

Here is Dejan's CV:

 

Dejan Foro

Exchange MVP

MCP, MCP+I, MCSE NT40, MCSE+I, MCSE 2000, MCSE 2000:Messaging, MCSA 2003, MCSA 2003:Messaging, MCSE 2003, MCT

 

15 years of experience with Microsoft technologies and 4 Exchange generations (5.5, 2000, 2003, 2007). Involved with Exchange 2007 since it was a design idea with a codename Titanium. One of cofounders of Exchange User Group Croatia and fouder of Exchange User Group Europe which currently gathers nearly 1000 Exchange professionals from all over the world. He is often a speaker at Microsoft Conferences and events, and also runs his own small web site on topic of Exchange server at www.exchangemaster.net Member of MCP Hall of Fame (1 of 6 worldwide) and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in area of Exchange (1 of 103 worldwide). Lives in Zurich and works at Swisscom as System Specialist Messaging.

 

Dejan Foro presented a session about Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Communications. A great presentation with a lot of interesting topics and demos. And I almost forgot to say, the session was presented via Live Meeting, so Dejan was not actually in our conference room;)

 

A lot of interesting questions followed after the session, overall it was a great experience and thanks very much to Dejan for having him on our meeting. We hope that soon we will have him in person here, too, so we can have a beer and pizza somewhere after the event;)

 

 

 

 

 

These two days, 27th and 28th finally the Official Launch is beginning. Great new technologies are presented worldwide with live and virtual events.

 

It is a great feeling that I am a part of the Launch events, speaking about Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Official Distance Learning - MODL, on a 24-hour Live Webcast. Together 24 MCTs from different parts of the world are presenting sessions about Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and MODL. My sessions were scheduled from 2:00am an 4:00am PST. Don't worry:) I am located in Europe, so it's just 11:00am and 1:00pm CET:)

 

I am also very happy that the sessions were followed by a lot of attendees, including from my country, too.

 

Thanks very much to Microsoft Macedonia for being my host for the sessions I presented.

 

You can find a lot of information and watch recorded sessions and Launch events following this link: http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/events/default.mspx

 

On the first picture, you can see me after finishing my session at the virtual event. On the second one, me and Dimitar Grozdanov from Microsoft, talking about the Launch Events and the Live Webcast sessions.

 

    

 

 

 

 

Registration for the biggest Microsoft events in North America is open. This year, for the first time, TechEd US is following the concept of TechEd Europe and it is divided in two separated events: Microsoft TechEd North America Developers (June 3-6 2008) and Microsoft TechEd North America IT Professionals (June 10-13 2008).

 

I suggest everyone who has never been to TechEd US to attend, it is an amazing experience, a lot of sessions, Hands on Labs, networking with peers, an opportunity to meet Microsoft Experts of different products, and of course, don't forget there are a lot of great parties and a lot of fun!!!

 

The only thing I am going to miss is networking with my colleagues developers. Since the European TechEd events are divided, TechEd US was the only place where all IT people were brought together in one place. Being an IT Pro, I should attend the second event, but I am planning to arrive several days earlier in order to meet with some great people attending the first one;)

 

Find more information on following links:

 

TechEd Developers - http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2008/developer/default.mspx - Keynote Speaker -  Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman

 

TechEd IT Professionals - http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2008/itpro/default.mspx - Keynote Speaker - Bob Muglia, Microsoft Senior VP, Server & Tools Business

 

Have a great time in Orlando:)

 

What a great holiday. Feeling like a brand new after this amazing week.

 

These days (from 3rd to 8th of Favruary) I am in Tirana, Albania teaching about Windows Server 2003. A great opportunity to meet some new friends, and of course, to visit my old friends, too. I can feel the excitement of the students about new generation of the operating systems, Vista, and especially Windows Server 2008. Only less than 20 days until the World Launch Events of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. So, we are discussing every single feature of Windows Server 2003, and how it is changed or improved in the new version.

 

After every day of teaching, together with my colleagues Angel, Jana and Goran, we are having a great time in the city. On this picture I am in my Ask the Experts T-shirt from the latest TechEd IT Forum 2007 in Barcelona, but this time in a role as an Expert for Bowling:)

 

    

 

After a number successful months, we are finally on a holiday. This week - beginning from 27th of January I will spend in a magnificent village of Oraovec, near Veles - Central Macedonia. Maybe more than twenty houses, no internet, only mobile phone - of course in silent mode, fresh air, a lot of walking through the mountains, rivers with clear water, natural springs, and of course my family - son and wife. What a paradise for a geek.