Guess what is the biggest event we’re doing in Qatar this year? It’s the Microsoft Open Door 2012!

This is one event you don’t want to miss. Make sure you save the date now!

What is Open Door, anyway?

Open Door is Microsoft’s premier technical education event aimed at offering technology professionals and decision makers the chance to explore and connect with a broad set of current and soon-to-be-released Microsoft technologies, tools, platforms and services.

An all-encompassing 2-day event, Open Door is the perfect venue for customers and partners to engage and interact, while learning about Microsoft’s breadth of solutions, technologies and innovations.

Who is coming to Open Door?

Open Door will be attended by a wide range of Microsoft customers including IT professionals, developers and IT decision makers from small and medium-sized businesses, government institutions and large enterprises.

When and Where is it being held?

It’s going to be held at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) on February 7-8, 2012.

How do I register? What sessions/topics are covered? How much does it cost?

Go to www.opendoor-gulf.com for more information and registration. Registration is FREE.

Coffee and Pins: What’s common between the two?
Here’s a hint: Internet Explorer 9

Still don’t get it? Find the answer by visiting me at Starbucks Coffee, near Hamad Hospital on Saturday, 26th November at 10:00 AM.

I will show you how you can retain visitors on your website and increase the number of returning visitors by adding simple browser capabilities to your website. The session is free to attend for all web developers.

What’s more? Coffee and pastry is on me

If you’re a web developer and you want to register, send me a private message or write a comment below.

Qatar is one of the 23 countries in the world where Microsoft Surface 2.0 is available for pre-order as of November 17, 2011. The product is available through Samsung resellers via the Samsung Electronics website.

The Samsung SUR40 with PixelSense technology makes it possible for people to share, collaborate and explore together using a large, thin display. Recognizing up to 50 points of simultaneous touch, including fingers, hands and other objects placed on the screen, it has been well-received by new and existing Surface customers as companies such as Dassault Aviation, Fujifilm Corp. and Royal Bank of Canada prepare to deploy units around the globe in early 2012.

Announced earlier this week, the next-generation device was named a 2011 “Best of What’s New” award winner by Popular Science magazine.

Partners and Software developers interested in creating solutions for the Samsung SUR40 can visit the Surface Developer Center to get started with the Surface 2.0 software developer kit, featuring the Input Simulator, which enables developers to write Surface applications on any Windows 7 machine, as well as other helpful developer-related resources. There are already hundreds of highly skilled Surface software development partners that can be found at http://www.surface.com.

The 23 countries where Samsung SUR40 is available for pre-order are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Microsoft PinPoint website is now available in Qatar.

You can now locate Microsot partners that can fulfill your specific technology needs by using the Microsoft Pinpoint portal – our comprehensive online partner directory. To identify a list of partners, please visit the Qatar Pinpoint site and click on the relevant ‘Competency’ or ‘Business Need’ from the left navigation bar. Please let me know if I can assist with anything further.

You can also read reviews about the partners and leave your own comments about partners you have tried.

We are happy to inform you that the Office 365 trial is now available for Qatar customers. To access Office 365 in Qatar, visit www.office365.com.qa

Wajahat Abbas, Service Manager at Qatar Datamation Systems (QDS) has been awarded the Microsoft Community recognition award.

“Community Recognition Award” is an award rewarded to those who are contributing to Microsoft development community within the region as a speaker, trainer and mentor.
 
Wajahat received this award from Microsoft Pakistan on his continues service to Microsoft development communities. He is also a Judge for Microsoft Image Cup Pakistan since 2007. He was also Microsoft Official trainer for SharePoint 2010 Ignite and a founder member of INETA Pakistan committee.
 
He was the SharePoint Speaker for Microsoft Open Door Pakistan 2010.
 
Wajahat is currently working as a Service Manager at QDS. He is an experienced SharePoint consultant and through his consulting and training, he helps clients in Middle East, Pakistan & East African region. He has closely worked with Microsoft consulting services as a contingent consultant. He was also Microsoft MVP for 3 consecutive years. He has around 10 years of IT industry experience.

Interesting picture on Bing today!

Microsoft has come to an agreement with Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, to provide its students and community members with heavily discounted software. The initiative, named "Student Select", was set up to further Microsoft and Qatar Foundation’s dedication to delivering quality education in the country. By enabling students to utilize the latest Microsoft products at academic prices, the initiative aids students and teachers alike to reach their full potential.

All students have to do to access the most up to date Microsoft software is to log on to the web portal and order their digital copy downloads of the latest Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office Professional 2010. The cost is significantly cheaper, with a copy of Office costing just 255.5QAR instead of 1,821.35QAR.

Mohammed Hammoudi, Country Manager Microsoft Qatar said: "The potential of students and teachers is something that is there to be unlocked, and by providing them with the latest IT tools in their homes, they have the opportunity to make the most of their talents. In offering the most up-to-date products to the Qatar Foundation community at significantly discounted academic prices, we ensure students and educators are working towards a knowledge-based society built on technology – building an even more robust future for Qatar." [Read more]

The service is being provided through a web portal http://qataredu.onthehub.com supported by Microsoft partner Mannai, giving students access anytime, anywhere.

Microsoft Partners only

Microsoft Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, helping to save time and money and to free valuable resources.

Join our Online Webcast with our Partner Technical Consultant Khaled Yehia on  Thursday 2 June, 2011 at 11:00 AM. Khaled Yehia was recently in Qatar for the Microsoft University delivery.

For registration please send your Partner ID to Khaled Yehia.

It’s time for updating the Partner Competency Leaderboard for Qatar! This time we’ve added more partners to the list. Some of the partners have made good progress compared to the March 2011 leaderboard.

A partner’s competency level depends on a number of factors including the number of successful customer references, number of certified and qualified technical personnel, the number of qualified sales and marketing staff. In most cases, Gold competencies are only provided when a partner commits a minimum of 4 techical resources dedicated to that competency. More info.

If your organization operates in Qatar and want to be enlisted above, please contact me or leave a comment.

• This list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of partners in Qatar. There is no significance in the order of listing.
• The above table reflects the information being provided to customers upon request.
• The competency information is subject to change as partners obtain new competencies. The changes will be reflected the next monthly refresh of the leaderboard.
• Abbreviations:
  • SAM = Software Asset Management
  • Mgmt = Management
  • Dev = Development
  • Collab = Collaboration
  • BI = Business Intelligence