Archive for the ‘ Life ’ Category

CodeCamp and ITSpark autumn events

Even though this comes with a slight delay, I’m just writing to say I’m very excited about our recent tour of events covered by the ITSpark and CodeCamp communities. :)

To keep things short, the end of November had both our communities covering events in 5 cities – Timișoara, Oradea, Cluj, Iași and Bucharest – and speaking to a total of about 400 attendees.

Among the speakers, we’ve had 6 Microsoft MVPs, and we’ve covered topics ranging from new technologies coming out in 2012 (Windows 8, SQL Server “Denali”, .NET Framework 4.5, the System Center 2012 suite and Hyper-V 3.0), to technologies already in use today (HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, EF, Unit Testing, MVC, WCF streaming and Office 365).

The feedback we’ve got was extremely positive, so we’ll definitely do this again in the future. Until then, I’ll leave you with a few other links (impressions, photos and some session slides):

If you want more resources on Windows 8, I definitely recommend you check out the Build conference website, where you’ll find 275 recorded sessions on technologies coming in W8.

Also, for those of you who haven’t had a chance to get to the events, I just wanted to point out a thing we also mentioned to the attendees, which is that we’ve published all the video recordings from the ITCamp conference earlier this year. If you weren’t there or just wish to view some of the sessions again, head on to our ITCamp channel on Vimeo. ;)

I don’t want to end this without sending our thanks to all our sponsors and partners for these events: Microsoft Romania, Yonder, Ullink, Small Footprint, Endava, Pras Consulting, OradeaDevs, Avaelgo and Transcent. :D

A huge thank you to all the speakers and attendees as well – we couldn’t have done all this without you!

2011
12/09
CATEGORY
Events
ITCamp
ITSpark
Life
Microsoft
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I’m now a member of STEP!

After my MVP title renewal earlier this month, I’ve just received news that I’ve also been selected to become a member of the Springboard Technical Expert Program (STEP). What is STEP? Well, here’s a short overview:

The STEP program was launched in 2009 as an effort to not only drive global awareness and value of Windows products, but to help influencers build community and advocacy around these key technologies. The goal has always been to make our launch efforts a true, “for the community, by the community” effort. Since that time, the program has expanded to support Windows, Office, MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), Desktop Virtualization, Windows Intune and Internet Explorer to help support the growing needs of the IT-Pros.

This program helps to expand reach beyond typically-attended Microsoft events like TechEd to more local efforts. The nexus of the program lies in the IT pro-ready content on The Springboard Series on TechNet. This “how-to” content helps IT pros to Discover and Explore, Pilot and Deploy, and Manage Windows, MDOP, Office, and IE. Content is currently available in 10 languages and the site receives over 3.5 million visitors each month.

Some benefits of the STEP program include:

  • Since 2010 STEP members presented 350 events to over 130,000 IT Pros in 39 countries on 15 languages.
  • STEP members were invite to participate at MMS, TechEd US, TechEd EMEA, on Talking About Windows, the Springboard Series Tours (US and EMEA) tour,  as well as on the Springboard Series Virtual Roundtables.
  • STEP members are regularly featured on the Springboard Series on TechNet, the TechNet homepage and community pages and in the Springboard Series Insider Newsletter.
  • STEP members are sought after for many speaking opportunities.
  • STEP members have access to members of the Windows product team for troubleshooting and questions.
  • STEP members have regular opportunities to participate in product panels and focus groups.
  • STEP members presented at MVP summit alongside Microsoft SMEs.

I’d like to publicly thank everyone at Microsoft who had a say in this for the amazing opportunity I’ve received, and of course to everyone who has ever attended my events/seminars – this wouldn’t have been possible without the people out there who I got to share my knowledge with over the years! I’m sure the STEP membership will empower me to keep doing what I was doing up to now anyway, but this time on a whole new level.

You can check out the Springboard page on TechNet, the Springboard Series blog and the official Springboard twitter feed for more information. ;)

2011
10/12
CATEGORY
Life
Microsoft
Windows
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Balkan Olympiad in Informatics – 2011

This year, the 19th edition of the Balkan Olympiad in Informatics, along with the 5th edition of the Junior Balkan Olympiad in Informatics, were both held in my home town – Bistrița, Romania. On behalf of Microsoft Romania, I was asked to talk about some of the new technology trends (the Cloud, Windows Azure and the Microsoft Web Platform) to the students and teachers present there. We had the session this Friday and along with Răzvan Rusu, who is a Microsoft Student Partner and he talked about the MSP program, Imagine Cup and DreamSpark - the session was held in the very highschool where I graduated 8 years ago, so it was a great opportunity for me to be able to visit it again.

The discussion was a very interesting one, and the audience was very excited about opportunities they didn’t even know existed until then. I also promised all the students I’ll publish the slides – so, without further ado:

2011
07/09
CATEGORY
Events
Imagine Cup
Life
Microsoft
MVP
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ITCamp 2011

I haven’t written anything on my blog lately, mostly because I’ve been busy organizing what seems to be one of the largest IT community events in the country: ITCamp 2011

We’ve received an amazing response from both the speakers we’ve invited, the sponsors we’ve contacted, and from all of you out there who have registered for the event (we’re way past the 200 people mark).

Quoting from the event website:

ITCamp 2011 in numbers:

  • 2 conference days, with 2 parallel tracks each day (Dev and ITPro)
  • 19 speakers (among whom we have 10 Microsoft MVPs and 4 international speakers)
  • 21 technical sessions and over 5 hours of networking/discussion breaks

Don’t miss ITCamp if:

  • You want to be up to date with the latest IT technologies
  • You appreciate the chance to interact with highly skilled professionals in your area of expertise
  • You are an IT manager, team lead, programmer, database or systems administrator and you work with the Microsoft Application Platform
  • You want to find out more about useful stuff meant to improve your existing skillset
  • You enjoy presentations held by experienced speakers, who are well known across the country or even across the world
  • You wish to attend trainings that are both cost-efficient and packed with useful infoYou intend to expand your customer or collaborator/partner portfolio

The event starts tomorrow, and will take 2 whole days. You can follow what’s happening there on Twitter  (@itcampro or #itcampro) and Facebook (facebook.com/ITCamp.ro).

2011
05/25
CATEGORY
Events
ITCamp
ITSpark
Life
Microsoft
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ITSpark – a new Romanian ITPro community

With the help of an amazing team, we’ve recently launched a new Romanian entry/mid-level ITPro community, called ITSpark. Under the tagline “Your IT adventure!“, the community wants to become one of the top resources for the IT professionals in the country (both beginners and experts alike).

Even if the community is still at the beginning, I can assure you that the people behind it aren’t. It did take us a little while, but with the help we got from our partners, we’ve managed to get to where we are now.

So, what next? Well, for one, we’ll be hosting our first offline community event on November 27th, in Cluj-Napoca. And until then, I’m going to hold a security awareness / White Hat Hacking course starting this Saturday.

Beyond that, we’ll also be expanding the content on the website via webcasts, podcasts, screencasts, articles and the like. So stay tuned, good things are coming! ;)

2010
11/03
CATEGORY
Events
ITSpark
Life
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Future Hosting conference 2010

I attended #FHC10 in Cluj this Friday as a guest speaker, with a talk on how to host your virtual private cloud (more info on FHC on the conference web page). The slides are below:

First of all, I’d like to thank the organizers (@wbfro and @lorandm) for this opportunity – it was an interesting day, with quite a few of the players in the local hosting industry attending the event. The conference ended with a very heated discussion panel, with @todipruteanu from Microsoft, @manac from Appnor, and @horiavasiliu from WebFactor.

All in all, the conference has definitely grown as compared to last year’s event, and my view is that it’s going the right way.

2010
10/24
CATEGORY
Events
Life
Microsoft
Virtualization
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Windows Live Essentials 2011 is out

Yesterday marked the release of the 2011 version of the Windows Live Essentials suite. This release includes:

It also brings several other additions, like the Outlook Connector Pack, the Bing Bar or the Messenger Companion. When it comes to the Windows Live Essentials suite, I personally use Mesh and Movie Maker and (starting with this release) Live Writer and Live Messenger – they’re all great pieces of software that come to fill in the gaps in the software that comes included with Windows automatically.

All in all, it’s worth the download. :)

P.S. On a side note, I’ve also got my second year renewal as a Microsoft Virtual Machine MVP today. Yay! :D

2010
10/01
CATEGORY
Downloads
Free stuff
Life
Microsoft
MVP
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