It's 8AM PST and I'm watching Steve Ballmer's webcast for the business launch of Vista and Office 2007.
Evidently the launch webcast is being broadcast in New York. It's funny. When there's clapping it sounds like there are three people in the audience. During one pan of the audience it looks more like 100 or so. Mostly international press.
If you want to attend a local Vista/Office launch event click here. At the lower-right side of the page is a section called "Come to a local launch event." Click on "Sign up now."
There are two sets of events: "Read for a New Day" and "Microsoft Across America."
The two events have different agendas and intended audiences. Here's the agenda for the Microsoft Across America events and the agenda for Read for a New Day.
The Ready for a New Day Events appear to have a more extensive agenda. I noticed though that when you go through the two-drop-list "questionnaire" that helps you pick an appropriate event, the Ready for a New Day Events won't show up in your region unless you indicate that you have more than 50 computers (at least if you say you're a developer). I guess if you have fewer computers than this that you fall into the small business category and Microsoft would like you to attend a Microsoft Across America Event. There's probably only limited seating at the Ready for a New Day Events so it makes sense that Microsoft would like to reserve this space for its larger customers. The downside with this approach is that it doesn't take into account the more vocal bloggers out there who might belong to a small business but have a rather large audience. I didn't try, but maybe some other job types will always lead to a Ready for a New Day Event. I tried a few and seemed to always get the same result. I guess you can always indicate that you influence more than 50 computers if you belong to a small business and are a developer and really want to go to a Ready for a New Day Event. In my region (Phoenix), this is the only choice for an event anyway. Otherwise I have to travel to California, Nevada, Colorado, or New Mexico to get to a Microsoft Across America Event. Anyway, I suggest trying a few options in the questionnaire drop list to see if you're missing anything.
I started breaking down a list of the events listed on the website, but decided that I might be missing something. I don't see any overall list. Maybe I'll put one together later today.


Incremental Blogger