Microsoft hosted an event for the leaders of Small Business Specialist Groups around the British Isles and Grace and I attended as representatives of SWSBSG. We took photos of the people involved and they are now online in my photo gallery:
http://community.tigranetworks.co.uk/photos/tim/category1060.aspx
I thought it might be useful to post these photos so that you know who the other group leaders are and also who the Microsoft people are who are driving the SBS Community.
--Tim
The main item on this month's agenda were our guest speakers Charlotte Godsmark and Phil Bridge from Ontrack Data Recovery. They talked to us about recognising when data recovery is needed, what their services are and how they go about recovering the data. They also explained their partner programme and told us how we, the IT Pros, can get a slice of the pie. The presentation was fairly informal and discussion-led and I personally found it quite useful even though I'd already seen a similar presentation at another group,
Each member who attended received a free copy of Ontrack's basic data recovery software and we asked them to provide a special deal for group members. They came up with the idea of a prize draw for their software product EasyRecovery DataRecovery 6.10 - the winner was Mostyn Thomas of Astrix Integrated Systems. Congratulations Mostyn, I hope you'll report back to the group and let us know if the prize was worth winning.
Thanks to Charlotte and Phil for travelling up from Devon to speak with us.
The remainder of the meeting was taken up with announcements of upcoming events and general free-format discussion over coffee.
Upcoming noteworthy events:
- SBSC Community Day with Harry Brelsford, Microsoft Campus Reading, 1st March
- Microsoft Ignite Sales Tour 2006, Cardiff, 7th March
- SMB Nation Amsterdam, April 6th-7th
Free Exam Opportunities
This month there have been several oppotunities to qualify as a Small Business Specialist free of charge, which as SWSBSG group members and members of the Small Business Specialist community, you have benefitted from. Please let me know if you take up any of these offers and when you pass the exam!
Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 beta opportunity
The Microsoft small business team were able to offere group members a chance to participate in the SBS2003 R2 beta with only 100 places available. At least three group members have elected to apply so I look forward to hearing back from them if they eventually participate in the beta.