Microsoft IT Pro Camp, Newcastle, 27th March

Over the coming months, Microsoft are running events for IT professionals across the length and breadth of the UK, including a return to the North East. I went to the Microsoft Campus last week and had a taste of the new format, which is unlike the TechNet presentations of the past. These events are smaller and very interactive – there’s a real opportunity for attendees to shape the topics covered throughout the day.

As I said, these are smaller events, so you need to get registered fast! Here are all the details from Microsoft:

Event: Consumerisation of IT/ Manage consumer devices on a corporate network
Date: 27th March 2012
Location: Novotel Newcastle Airport, Ponteland Road, Kenton, Newcastle upon Tyne
Register: https://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-GB&EventID=1032505034&IO=88vhg0ori7Fgb3FFMm3Ftw%3d%3d

This year the UK Tech.Days team have changed the format of our traditional Tech.Days theatre events into a series of ‘Boot Camp’ style seminars. The aim of these is to allow IT Professionals to have more discussion time with evangelists like Andrew Fryer, and each other to share common problems and solutions – and we’re looking for your help to share these with your users.

The Newcastle Event will host approx. 70 people with a mixture of discussions and practical demonstration. Although there will be a loose agenda, it will be PowerPoint-free event, allowing the hosts to focus on the questions that our guests ask.

For the event in Newcastle, we will be focusing on the Consumerisation of IT:
– How key Microsoft technologies such as System Center 2012, SharePoint 2010, Windows Server 2008R2, Exchange 2010 or Office 365 and Windows 7 come together to help you deliver flexibility and support for devices and desktops.
– How to use the latest tools to manage your estate, deliver applications flexibly, manage devices such as iOS and Android as well as Windows, implement IP Sec, reduce anti-malware costs, implement Direct Access and secure remote access.
– We’ll also help you think about what you need to build into a “Bring your own device” or BYOD policy.

Registrations are now open and can be found here

Imagine Cup North East

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been helping behind the scenes with Imagine Cup North East. If you’ve never heard of the Imagine Cup it’s an annual student competition run by Microsoft to build technology solutions to address real-world problems, and this year two great local organisations promoting digital industries, Codeworks and Sunderland Software City, have teamed up to run a regional heat.

This week students from Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Durham and Teesside universities and local colleges will be attending taster and information events (in Newcastle and Middlesbrough), where Microsoft’s Ben Nunney will be on hand to discuss the finer points of the competiton.

The competition is a great opportunity for students to work on a project outside of their studies (looks good on the CV, etc) and it should be good fun too, with a 36 hour hack event later in the month. Of course there’s also the possibility of a trip to the global finals in Australia to aim for too!

If you’re a current student (or graduated in the last year) there’s still time to get involved, and if you aren’t eligible to take part, you should still be able to support the teams at a future NEBytes event. Head to the Imagine Cup North East site, the Facebook page, and follow @ImagineCupNE on Twitter to keep up with all the goings-on.