Microsoft SMB Partner Roadshow - Save the Date

I wanted to make sure everyone reading along is aware of the upcoming SMB Partner Roadshows coming to a city near you.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about:

• Microsoft Partner Network Update
• Licensing
• Online Services
• Windows 7 and Windows Server Opportunities for SMB
• Management Opportunities with Hyper V, Virtual Machine Manager and MDOP
• Growing your Business with Partner Marketing Centre and the Customer Insight Tool
• SMB Campaigns & Marketing Opportunities

This is also your opportunity to meet Mark O'Shea, recently appointed SMB Partner Technical Advisor who I'm sure you'll agree is a welcome addition to the Microsoft SMB lineup.

And if that's not enough the roadshow will conclude with networking drinks - a great opportunity to chat with the team from Microsoft and other partners.

Here's the dates:

Brisbane 18 March
Melbourne 19 March
Adelaide 22 March
Perth 24 March
Sydney 30 March

Full details in this month's edition of Spark. You can register here.

If you're in a regional area - don't despair! Brad Clarke and other Partner Territory Managers are planning to get out on the road and see more partners - if you'd like a visit in your area please let me know.

Keira McIntosh is the General Manager at Directions Technology - an Australia owned small business providing managed and reliable IT Support in Brisbane. You can also find her on Twitter and Linked In.

SBS 2008 training opportunities

I know from talking to many Microsoft partners that you found the training provided for SBS 2008 less than acceptable and this feedback was very clearly channelled back to Microsoft via Hilton Travis who was last years PAL for Australia.

A number of training and readiness initiatives are being prepared for the Australian Microsoft Partners and these are going to mean very very good things for SMB partners.

In the meantime, I wanted to make sure that you are aware that you can now download the SBS 2008 Hands On Labs. The download is 12 GB, but the Microsoft Readiness team are working providing physical media to local partners and I'll provide details of that as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, for those partners whose internet connection and download limit is up to it, you can find the details of the SBS 2008 Hands on Labs over on Sean Daniel's blog.

There are four labs available on Microsoft Connect:

• SBS 2008 Administration
• Managing Clients on SBS 2008
• SBS 2008 Installation
• Migration from SBS 2003

I hope to have details of physical media ordering for these Hands On Labs soon.

Keira McIntosh is the General Manager at Directions Technology - an Australia owned small business providing managed and reliable IT Support in Brisbane. You can also find her on Twitter and Linked In.

Awesome Brisbane Event for Microsoft Office Devs and Power Users

UQ will play host to OfficeDevCon a from 31 October - 1 November. This is the third year for the event which will feature Microsoft and industry experts from around the world who will present advanced topics the following products.

• Access
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• InfoPath
• Groove
• SharePoint
  and more....

Find out more about it here.

Keira McIntosh is the General Manager at Directions Technology - an Australia owned small business providing managed and reliable IT Support in Brisbane. You can also find her on Twitter and Linked In.