Destination Kuwait

The Kuwait towers (as seen from Kuwait MVP Tarek’s car!)

with Gulf MVPs

Ready for a great day ahead

The Liberation Tower, Kuwait

receiving appreciation from Sureen Aslavi (Kuwait MVP)

User group event vs. Vendor event

Hmmm… I was feeling real sleepy when I suddenly thought of writing this. So please excuse me if you see something here that doesn’t make sense.

I’ve always wondered why do more people turn up at an event conducted by a vendor like Microsoft or Cisco, but very few people turn up at events that are conducted by a user group. I guess the reasons could be many – ranging from quality of the venue to meeting expectations.

Let’s take a closer look:

Why do more people prefer to attend an event conducted by a vendor compared to an event conducted by a user group?

1. More publicity: Vendor events come with a big bang and more dollars are spend marketing the event itself. A lot of excitement is incited is done through mailers, etc and registrations start pouring in.

2. Direct interaction with vendor: Vendors, no doubt, are the most accurate and up-to-date source of information of their own products. Events conducted by the vendor rarely fail to meet expectations and are very informative and this attracts more attendees.

3. Building relationships with vendor: Sometimes customers attend vendor events to get closer with the vendor so that they can build a better relationship and receive better support for their running systems.

4. Decision makers: Business decision makers and other individuals who have an interest in the money aspects of things (RoI, slides filled with Gartner facts, charts & figures, product features, licensing) find the kind of information they need at vendor events. IT Managers and others who are not ‘hands-on’ on technology will also find a genuine interest in these events.

5. Because everybody’s there: ‘Tom, Dick and Harry are going, so I guess I should be there too.’ It is a sort of misguided perception of professional networking. This is not common, but it nevertheless could be a reason why some people prefer to ‘be there’.

6. Better venue, free give-aways and a great lunch

Now for the other side of the coin: How can a user group event be better than a vendor event?

1. Money doesn’t talk: Speakers in user group events are usually community members. Most of the time, these are ordinary people/volunteers who are end customers of the product being discussed. The presenter talks about the technology *only*. The oft-annoying ‘sales pitch’ is absent in a user group presentation and it suddenly becomes a techie’s delight!

2. Speaker’s job not at stake: A user group speaker does not work for the company that made the product, nor is he paid by them. This makes him neutral in his views and opinions. In light of their experiences with the product, user group speakers may also speak about the weaker points of a well-established product that the vendor’s representative may try to avoid or shy away.

3. More interaction: User group meetings are usually small, informal gatherings and a higher level of interaction between attendees is achieved. Experiences, views and ideas are often shared. Real world expertise is one of the key things to look out for in a user group meeting.

4. Professional networking: User groups meetings are usually held regularly and group convenes at an agreed location each time. By attending regular events, you get to know other people in the same profession and this builds your professional network. You are no longer an “island” and you can call fellow member Harry anytime to ask about that wierd problem on your Exchange cluster and in the process, you might give Harry a tip on his recipient policies!

New articles for Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB)

Two of my articles written for the Microsoft Knowledge Base have been published today:

• KB556073: Outlook Web Access users are unable to save appointments or respond to meeting requests
• KB556074: Users are unable to receive meeting requests and meeting updates in Exchange Server 2007

Hope you can solve more of your problems at support.microsoft.com!

Microsoft Technology Day: Kuwait

Microsoft Technology Day is being conducted by the Microsoft Experts Community (MSExperts.net) at Kuwait on March 30, 2008.

The event will consist of a total of 42 sessions by 20 speakers. Keynote speakers from Microsoft Gulf will be Vimal Sethi, Group Manager – Developer & Platform and Amr El Garhy, Developer Evangelist & MVP TechLead.

Exchange Server Workshop

Today, we conducted a technical workshop on Exchange Server 2007 at HCT Central Services in Abu Dhabi. The closed event was exclusively for HCT system administrators from various colleges throughout the United Arab Emirates.

I gave an insight on the new, de-emphasized and discountinued features in Exchange Server, explained the various server roles, explained how mail transport and client access works and also explained on how to do capacity planning for Exchange installation at the remote sites.

Two of my other colleagues also did presentations on gateway security and SAN configuration.

The event was followed by lunch and an open discussion.

:: Slide deck download ::

USEFUL INFORMATION
Many webmaster pages are created on cheap web hosting. An example is bluehost. If you work at home, you should also launch your website on a cheap web host, like anhosting.

In the news: Windows Server 2008 Server Core in production

• ITP: HCT takes the plunge with Windows Server 2008
• Zawya.com: Higher Colleges of Technology Runs Pilot Programme of Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• AMEinfo.com: Higher Colleges of Technology runs pilot programme of Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• ArabianBusiness.com: HCT takes the plunge with Windows Server 2008
• EyeOfDubai.com: Higher Colleges of Technology Runs Pilot Programme of Microsoft Windows Server 2008

TechDays 2007, Dubai

TechNet Roadshow

It’s that time of the year again – the MSDN and TechNet roadshows are coming soon to your city!

The event will focus a first look on technologies like Windows Server 2008, System Center Configuration Manager (new version of SMS), System Center Data Protection Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and SQL Server.

You will also be among the first to see us unveil the new Unified Communications technologies from Microsoft – a solution that will revolutionize the way people communicate and collaborate in the workplace.

If you’re an IT Professional or a Developer looking to gain insight and an edge over others, then you’ve got no excuse to miss out on this event! You may even walk away as the lucky winner of the new X-box 360 Elite!

Microsoft has announced that the event will be held on November 19th at The Sheraton in Bahrain, Dec 4th & 5th at Habtoor Grand Hotel, Dubai and the 9th of December at the Intercontinental Doha.

To register for the event, click here.

MVP again!

I was delighted when I received an email from my MVP lead, Amr El Garhy, mentioning to me that I have been selected for the MVP Award 2008 again this year. This will be my second consecutive year of receiving the prestigious MVP Award.

Dear Shijaz Abdulla,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2008 Microsoft® MVP Award! The MVP Award is our way of saying thank you for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success every day. Your extraordinary efforts in Windows Server System – ISA Server technical communities during the past year are greatly appreciated.
…
On behalf of everyone at Microsoft, thank you for your ongoing contributions to technical communities.

Sincerely,
Amr El Garhy, your MVP Lead

I am so happy and proud of my accomplishment, and I thank God for giving me the strength to do what I do and to do it better. This wouldn’t have been possible without the recognition I receive from my online and offline community, and the encouragement that I receive from my parents, my friends, my MVP lead, and readers like you. Thank you.

How to run a command as SYSTEM

The SYSTEM account is an internal account used by the Windows operating system that is similar to the administrator account, and has access to all resources, but cannot be fully managed by the user. The SYSTEM account is used internally by the OS for tasks like starting services and running processes.

There is, however, a way by which a normal user can execute commands or start processes in the context of the SYSTEM account. I’ve written an article about it on my website: “How to run a command in the context of the SYSTEM account“