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Recap: TechEd 2010 in New Orleans – We’re Jazzed Ya’ll Were Here!

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TechEd New Orleans banner

Wow! What a week! I remember the first time I saw a TechEd backpack was back in 2003, where the words “New Orleans” caught my eye. And after 7 years of waiting, my career-long dream came true of attending a Microsoft conference back home.

Earlier this month, TechEd returned to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, bringing 10,500 attendees to the area. And now considering the oil disaster in the gulf (I must admit I agree with The Daily Show that something is trying to kill N.O.), there was no better time for an economic boost for the city. TechEd even caught the attention of the major local newspaper (The Times-Picayune), describing cloud computing and the technical in-depth training TechEd provided. But Visual Studio 201? Opps! =D

The best part of TechEd for me was being a local among the locals. I’ve said for years that “Community is walking among the people”, but having this sense of Community^2 was incredible. I felt like I’ve known local attendees all my life, and for non-locals, I found myself with every conversation playing tour guide, making sure they had the most enjoyable TechEd experience possible. Fortunately, a local told me about http://www.nomenu.com/ which was a lifesaver in giving people French Quarter restaurant recommendations.

Highlights

Lowlights

  • N.O. was under a heat wave advisory for that week. Heat index was between 110-115(!) most days.
  • On Tuesday, there was a city-wide Internet outage for nearly 30 minutes. I never heard what caused outage.
  • The convention center food wasn’t quite Cajun. “Cajun meatloaf” just isn’t right. But, I said it was to encourage folks to support local merchants by eating at local shops across the street. =D
  • The effects of the Oil Spill were readily apparent. Just a few blocks away from TechEd was the annual Oyster Festival, where locals held a jazz funeral. Additionally, on that Thursday, a 134-year old Oyster bar closed .

GeekGive.org Habitat build

Last year at TechEd, MVP Steve Andrews, MVP Mark Rosenberg, INETA members and I chatted about what we could do to help New Orleans. We came up with a concept similar to GiveCamp, but instead of donating code, we’ll donate volunteer hours. Driven by Steve Andrews, he created GeekGive.org for conference attendees to volunteer their time at a local charity before the conference starts.

GeekGive.org volunteers

Takeaways

  • At the first GeekGive event, we had 18 Microsoft MVPs and several Microsoft employees donate 126 labor hours, saving Habitat for Humanity up to $4,000
  • This first GeekGive event received press coverage, including a worldwide press release by Microsoft:

Nestor Portillo, director of community and online service at Microsoft, was one of the volunteers. "When Steve asked us to be involved, it was an automatic yes," Portillo says. "For us, it’s a privilege to be able to contribute."

I’ve always wanted to help on one of those type projects but never really figured out how to.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity, and also, since some of my friends from around the country would be there also, I thought it would be a great time to catch up.  What a great time and a great feeling to help.

me and peter kellner

  • Special thanks to DEs Dani Diaz, Jennifer Marsman, and Zain Naboulsi for finding a sponsor from within Microsoft to help with the event. And the water bottles from Paulette Suddarth from the MVP Award Program were a huge hit, if not a lifesaver.
  • GeekGive.org is confirmed for more projects, so stay tuned!

Bytes by MSDN interview

I did an interview with Zain Naboulsi for the Bytes by MSDN discussing what’s new in Visual Studio 2010. I’ll let everyone know when it goes live.

Bytes by MSDN sign

Women in Technology Luncheon

I nominated my undergraduate advisor Dr. Donna Reese, Associated Dean of Engineering from Mississippi State, to speak on a panel on how to retain Women in Computer Science.

Dr. Donna Reese presenting

Takeaways

  • It was great to watch my advisor speak about her passions. It also made me realize how much she’s inspired me to be outspoken about my own passions as well.
  • One interesting statistic she shared is that less than 40% of women who enrolled in a CS program do not finish their degrees
  • There were 400+ women at the event.

Women in Tech luncheon

GNO.NUG evening event

Local .NET UG leader George Mauer threw together an ad-hoc meeting on Tuesday night during TechEd.

Takeaways

  • 2 MVPs and I presented short sessions to about 10 attendees.
  • My biggest takeaway was Alan Stevens’ session Does Your Code Tell a Story comparing writing code to writing books. He quoted one author who said, “Write a terrible first draft.”  I thought this was great advice on how to get started. Also relates directly to the agile methodology as well.

Booth duty each day at the MSDN Booth

My “actual” job at TechEd was to work the MSDN booth, which ironically is my former team, so I took the liberty of doing CodePlex demos as well. Hey, old habits die hard.

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Takeaways

  • We had nice business cards for quick references for all the MSDN links we were demo’ing. We also gave away Mardi Gras beads, which definitely attracted a lot of people to the booth who wanted to bring some home for their kids, etc. I also made some “Mardi Gras dogs” by twisting the beads together as if they were an animal balloon. Made for nice decorations at the booth.
  • I wore my Vibriam Five Fingers shoes one day (I was trying something creative to attract folks to the booth, and it worked). Although I hate the pink color – will blog about that tomorrow.
  • Anyone wearing anything from the local area I invited over to the booth to introduce myself as a native, and chat about whatever was on their minds, how teched was, etc. That’s how I found nomenu.com. again, what a lifesaver that site was for me!

What we demo’ed:

Our primary focus was on the following tools and sites:

We also made sure people were aware of 

Habitat for Humanity Build with DevExpress

Instead of purchasing a center-stage booth, DevExpress decided to purchase the smallest booth possible and donate the rest to a Habitat for Humanity build. It was the same house as the first Habitat build, so we got to watch the process first hand.

As the primary sponsors for the house, DevExpress and Habitat did a wall-raising ceremony to kick off the day.

wall raising ceremony w dev express

By end of the day, the concrete slab we first started with during GeekGive now had exterior walls up and all interior walls built.

house with externior walls built

You can see more photos on the DevExpress Community Blog post about the build.

Attendee Party

Attendees were treated to *the* Zydeco band Rockin’ Dopsie, Jr, and the Zydeco Twisters. New Orleans locals and I flocked immediately to the front of the stage to enjoy the absolute best Zydeco performing band.

Rockin' Dopsie, Jr

And maybe we got a little too close. Thanks to my LSU shirt, Beth Massi and I were invited to dance on stage.

Thanks for reading and Geaux TechEd!!!

Happy Lombardi Gras!!

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“It’s like waiting 43 years for someone to tell you ‘I love you’ back.” – Superbowl Pregame Show.

What a week.

I flew down Saturday morning to join family in the French Quarter. A cousin booked a hotel room with a balcony on Bourbon Street for Superbowl weekend way back in October. What an incredible experience to be right there in that number when the Saints went marching in.

This photo was taken by me, hence the poor quality, which may not be a bad thing. =D

Bourbon Street right after Saints winning Superbowl

All around New Orleans folks were honking horns, shooting fireworks, hugging one another. Everywhere you went in the city that night was a sea of black and gold.

My cousin sent the New Orleans TV crew WWL “Pigs are flying” mardi gras beads. The news anchors were so thrilled by them that they showed them on the news, twice (once in Miami and once in New Orleans). We were beyond thrilled.

Flying Pig beads

Maybe it was the Saints or maybe it was the City of New Orleans, but whoever it was, someone had great insight to plan a Saints parade (win or lose) on Tuesday after the Superbowl. We called that day Lombardi Gras.

Parade organizers estimate 800,000 were in attendance. To put that number into perspective, approximately 250k-300k live in New Orleans. And it was cold. Very cold for New Orleans standards. So cold in fact, it started to snow today, but that’s what happens when the Saints win the superbowl and pigs fly.

Just as if we couldn’t adore Drew Brees any more (we’ve already turned his home into a shrine), after the Saints parade, he unexpectedly dropped by a local bar in New Orleans right off parade route to hang out and teach the crowd the pre-game chant.

Who Dat? We Dat! “New Orleans is back” – Tom Benson, owner of the Saints.

CodePlex banner does WhoDat Chant at Greater New Orleans .NET User Group

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On Wednesday night, I spoke at the Greater New Orleans .NET User Group http://www.gnonug.org/. Thanks to George Mauer for organizing and to our sponsor Antares Technology Solutions for organizing dinner.

I was very happy with the turnout, considering the construction, the Krewe of Thor parade, a fatality accident on I-10 East, and the Saints parade being the night before. I talked for 2 hours on CodePlex and Visual Studio. A glass of Purple Haze Abita Beer (a New Orleans classic brew) never tasted so good afterwards.

In keeping with my tradition of taking the CodePlex banner with me wherever I go, a few of us Who Dats got together afterwards to do a Saints chat.

WhoDat Nation Invades Microsoft’s Channel 9

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I’m sitting here in the Memphis airport at the terminal gate for New Orleans. Having gone 17 weeks without seeing a single Saints fan, you’d think each person wearing a Fleur de Lis football jersey was a long lost family member of mine, as I run up to them hugging them screaming Who Dat as if it were some Cajun form of “Hello, I wish you well.” In fact, it is precisely that.

To discuss my last day on CodePlex, I chatted with Dan Fernandez on Channel 9 and introduced him to the Who Dat Nation. Dan has known me for years, so he wasn’t surprised when he saw me putting on my Mardi Gras gear in the parking lot.

URL: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/This+Week+On+Channel+9/TWC9-Sara-Ford-recognize-touch-gestures-make-Windows-7-into-a-hotspot/

WhoDat!

And Happy Mardi Gras!

Dear Seattle, Please Support New Orleans by Eating at Marcela’s Cookery

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As a New Orleans native, it is my god given birthright to expose any so-called “New Orleans” restaurant that exists outside the state of Louisiana to be a complete fraud. Today, for the first time ever, I am using my birthright to declare Marcela’s Creole Cookery worthy of calling itself home.

For my birthday last month, friends and I went down to Pioneer Square in Seattle to eat at the New Orleans Restaurant thinking it would cheer up this N’awlins native. Nope, not in the least bit. Lame food, slow service, and no other new orleans people. But the worst part is that no one cared I was from new orleans or it was my birthday. Major fail.

On the way back to the car, we walked by Marcella’s Cookery. I was stunned. Here in Seattle, just blocks from each other are two “new orleans” restaurants. It was a mini birthday gift to try to expose yet another so-called “new orleans” restaurant unworthy of using our great city’s name.

Today, finally, I was able to get out to Marcella’s to put them through the trials.

The First Test – Love for the Native: I walked in and declared my place of birth. Mais Oui, je suis nee a nouvelle orleans. Within 2 minutes, the entire staff and I know each other on a first name bases. Within 5 minutes, we can visualize where we all grew up and know exactly from which parishes (what we call counties in LA) we’re from based on our n’awlins accents. Within 10 minutes, they are offering me samples of food. Free food = major love = major win.

The Second Test – Coffee: Any restaurant that dares call itself New Orleans cuisine had better serve either Cafe Du Monde coffee or Community coffee. New Orleans coffees uses chicory, so it has a unique taste that is only New Orleans. (If a “new orleans” restaurant serves Starbucks, it immediately fails the trials, and i must leave before I throw a fit.)

The Third Test – Food: The New Orleans’ culture consists of 3 things: Love of Community, Love of Mardi Gras, and the Love of Food. When the owner told me he has his seafood shipped up here, I about fell out of my chair. Why? Because people out here think prawns can be used as shrimp. Please someone explain “Prawns” to me. PRAWNS ARE NOT SHRIMP. PRAWNS ARE NOT JUMBO SHRIMP. ONLY SHRIMP IS SHRIMP!!

There are a few things a restaurant must do right to pass the food test (this is before i’ll even consider eating the food):

  • Spell “po-boys” correctly on the menu. Either “Poboy” or “Po-boy” is acceptable. “Poor boy” is a fail.
  • The server states that you eat their Jambalaya with a fork. Jambalaya is not a soup! Again, i must walk out at this point if they tell me it comes in a soup bowl.
  • Know what a roux is.

This is the first restaurant that passed the trials with flying colors, so I actually allowed myself to be excited when my “New Orleans Sampler” was served. Jambalaya, Crawfish pie (OMG so good), and Shrimp Gumbo.

When asked how the food was, I gave them the highest quality praise possible of saying, “Tastes like home.”

Crawfish Boils

The owner mentioned that he wants to do crawfish boils on a regular basis. Again, I wanted to fall out of my chair. Me, crawfish boils, Seattle. I never saw that one coming.

I’m toying with the idea of doing a second book signing party that’s a crawfish boil open to the public to support this restaurant and to share the love of New Orleans. I would love to hear people’s thoughts about this. Then I can txt a certain MVP that I’m at a crawfish boil and rub it in for a change.

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Tips Inspiring Tips

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I’ve been inspired by the Silverlight Tip of the Day series (which was originally inspired by this VS Tip of the Day series) to include the tip # in the titles.  Isn’t community cool?!  Here’s the first Silverlight tip to check out.

When the New Orleans Saints play tonight (provided they don’t attempt another double-reverse game-losing fumble again), i’ll begin updating these tips to reflect their tip #, as I truly have no clue what tip # we’re on.  So in case you see updates in your RSS feed, this is what is going on.

Enjoy!

10 year high school reunion at Mardi Gras 2007 – Laissez les bons temps rouler encore a Nouvelle Orleans!

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Only 3 months behind on my blogging…

What a crazy, crazy week.  Wish i could share more, but not really.  You’ll just have to trust me on this one =)

high school reunion photos

pass christian parade, aka Kinski’s photos

Mardi Gras Day photos – all work safe  =)

High School Reunion

OLA Class of 1996

OLA Class of 1996

I took a red-eye out Thursday night to be there, ready to go, to kick-off the reunion tour of Our Lady Academy.  The school had grown quite large after we graduated, but thanks to Katrina, well, um, yeah.  I think the most touching moment was hearing the story how they combined both SSC (the boys’ high school across the street) and OLA just for that year after katrina.  They had all the kids in a large auditorium somewhere, and they asked how many of them had lost everything.  almost 80% of hands went up of 100 or so kids.  Life always goes on.  life always goes on.  always.

We had a pre-party Friday night at a parent’s house.  It was so great to see people not only after 11 years, but after something like Katrina, just knowing everyone was okay.  And, the stories, my god.  We all wholeheartedly thank god we had just missed the Internet; otherwise, omg the stuff we did could be archived for all time.  Although i wish i could recall how i dressed up as a California Raisin doing the "walk like an Egyptian" dance.  Apparently it was funny.

Saturday was the reunion.  We had the restaurant reserved from 3-6pm, but we stayed until 1:30am, going through 3 bands.  To my surprise, i found someone there i could actually explain what i do at work.  Our congressman was there having dinner.  His daughter and i used to sail together.  anyways, i was saying hi asking how Sarah (w/ the ‘h’) was doing, and i realized in mid-sentence, "you know what intellectual property is!!"  And of course he nodded his head, and i said, "I do open source at Microsoft.  I do open source at Microsoft," in this "you can appreciate what i do…"  I did a little dance (pre mardi gras parade warm up routine) in my excitement.  We all just laughed.

Karleen and I went to the Waffle House to debrief about the events of the past 24 hours.  She then gave me the greatest gift i’ve ever been given with this story:

Karleen:  "Yeah, i was in the bathroom when Jill <made up name> asked me how much you made.  So, i said, ‘you know sara, how she is about that stuff, how humble she is and how embarrass she gets.  she doesn’t want anyone to know.’"

Jill:   "Is it 100,000 thousand dollars?"

Karleen:  "Oh please" waving her hand across her face.

Jill:  "Is it 200,000 thousand dollars?"

Karleen:  "Oh please" waving her hand across her face in disgust. 

Jill:  "OMG, how much does she make?!"

Karleen:  "Sara would kill me for telling, but it is around 4"

I about had an asthma attack from laughter in the waffle house.  I should note that i’ve never told Karleen what my salary is, but it isn’t 400k.  As a thank you (additionally, karleen was my personal handler for the trip – i really like to party), i sent her and her family one of the "boats" from Made in Washington, to experience a typical meal on a 400k salary – not like i would know or have any idea, but it was a good guess.  And they *loved* the boat it came in.  =)

Then the band from the reunion had the same Waffle House idea that we had, and joined us at our table.  We went to high school with one of the guys, and the other was a local cop.  It doesn’t take long for a conversation to quickly turn into sharing Katrina stories.  The cop told us how he accompanied a SWAT team into the court house right after Katrina hit.  They didn’t who or what they would find going through records, court cases, etc.  It was incredible.

Pass Christian Parade

Just a quick Mardi Gras 101:  There is no universal theme for Mardi Gras.  And actually, Mardi Gras starts Jan 14 until Tuesday at midnight, just before Lent begins in the catholic church.  The parties just get more and more intense as Mardi Gras week approaches, as more parades roll.  Each parade is run by an organization, so you pay to be a member of that org.  For example, Kinski is the organization that runs the pass christian parade, but we would just call it Kinski’s.  The organization decides what the theme will be.  So, Kinski came up with "an international affair."  Then within the org, you’re broken out into krewes (just like crews), that map to a float.  Each krewe or float comes up with their own theme that relates to the overall theme.  My relatives’ krewe theme was "The Bay of Pigs."

Then came the local Pass Christian Parade.  I was starting to hurt from the non-stop action, but I was managing.  And it was COLD.  Like 40 degrees cold right along the beach.  But alas, it was good times.  An aunt and uncle are long time members of the parade, so they dressed up as pigs for their "Bay of Pigs" theme. 

It was just a great time.  In outlook at work, i had blocked out my vacation time with the Mardi Gras Mambo as the subject "Down in New Orleans where the blues were born, it takes a cool cat to blow a horn…"  And to my delight, there came a float blasting out the Mardi Gras Mambo.  I was in heaven. 

Mardi Gras Day

After hanging out with cousins i haven’t seen in years until 4:30am (anyone keeping track of my lack of sleep), I’m up, again, at 7:30am in my old bedroom.   I run on solar batteries, so I’m up whenever the sun is up.  It’s Lundi Gras (Fat Monday), and i’m taking the day off.  I hang out with my mom going to the local shops and such, trying to support what i can of the local area merchants.

Then comes Mardi Gras day… the crew of family members get together at 6am to head into the city.  we wanted good parking.  and yes, my family represented their Krewe by wearing their pig outfits.

It was incredible.  It was about as crowded as Christmas or Turkey day, no where near as crowded as Mardi Gras, but it was 90% locals.  A local will always dress up for Mardi gras.  it is like Halloween on steroids for us.  Very few people were in typical tourist attire.

My favorite moment was calling a coworker Dylan back in Redmond to logon to the Bourbon Cam, and take a pic of me.  I wonder if he went deaf from our screams.  It was 9am on Mardi Gras Day, but by 4pm, you couldn’t find a square inch of street available to stand on. 

We got home around 5pm, and i was out cold by 8pm.  I was partied out.  done.  no more.  Flew back home on Wednesday, as Mardi Gras 2007 and my 10 year high school reunion was officially over.

Anyways, that’s my report from New Orleans, 3 months late.  As i said in a previous post, life always goes on.  always.  Thanks for allowing me to share with you.

Seattle Seahawks’s lost yesterday may have saved the city of New Orleans

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Could you imagine if the Saints had played Chicago for a chance at the superbowl in the Superdome?  New Orleans may have (barely) survived Katrina, but it wouldn’t have survived that football game.

Had the Seahawks won, i would have changed my flight back to seattle for next monday, just so i could say i was in New Orleans when hell froze over. 

Who dat say they are goin’ to beat them saints.  who dat? who dat?

Good luck Saints.  Keep warm in Chicago.

Turkey Day Katrina Style

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Yeah, way behind on blogging….

Not much to report in terms of progress in Waveland’s recovery since this summer.  Running out of propane in one’s FEMA trailer was not fun, bringing the temp inside the winterized trailer to 41 degrees.  The temps back home right now swing wildly from 80 degrees to 40 degrees in 24 hours, so it isn’t uncommon to have the heater on during the night and the A/C  on in the afternoon.  Believe me, i was not thrilled to return to snow and ice in Seattle.

I got about 90% of the cabinets installed in my mom’s kitchen in time for Thanksgiving, although i claim no responsibility for those who installed the kitchen sink that had been sitting outside since katrina (no, it didn’t come in with the storm surge – i had to ask that question too). 

oh, and the Kmart opened up while i was there, just in time for the biggest shopping day of the year.

Cold Yoga for a Dollar

I find non-sequitur things to be the most humorous, so seeing a sign "Yoga for a Dollar" where City Hall used to be (the tent is now used for a weekly market) ranked quite up there.  Obviously, i have to check this out…Yoga for a Dollar

Tent where City Hall used to be

The three of us who showed up got to do "cold" yoga.  They couldn’t get the heater going, so it was 53 degrees in the tent.  But the experience of doing cold yoga at the former location of City Hall was definitely worth the dollar. 

Yes, homesick n’awlins natives take pictures of their food

Food this good, wouldn’t you take photos back with you?  This is at Ricky’s on the Hwy (like everything else is), if any locals read the stuff i write.

mmmm, seafood

Downtown Bay St. Louis

I was surprised to see downtown BSL on the local news having shops opened for business.  About 4 shops were opened, and there was even a Real coffee shop for my Seattle weather-induced vanilla soy latte addiction.

old downtown bay st. louis, Miss

Coming up next…

And that’s this quater’s report on Waveland’s recovery… but i’ll be back for my 10 year high school reunion during Mardi Gras.  You have *no idea* how excited i am about being back for Mardi Gras + getting the gang back together.