From: Anthony Tsim Atsim Microsoft
From: Anthony Tsim" <>
Hi Everyone,
TechEd 2003 has concluded successfully last week. This means it is also time for me to thank everyone who helped make this year's Hand-On Lab possible and so successful.
This year we had excellent attendance for the hands-on labs (on Wednesday we had over 2000 delegates visited the lab room, just under 2000 on Thurs, resulting a total of 807 evals returned for the lab!!). The proctors were very knowledgeable and very attentive to customer needs. This is especially the case this year as we introduced the MCTs (Microsoft Certified Trainers) to proctor with the labs. The event staff (both PCI:Live and F1) were very patient and helpful. Overall, this has been very successful and it has definitely reached many developers, IT professionals, and TDMs, allowing them to try out our latest offerings and also provided an opportunity to ask technical questions.
Here is a summary for the highlights:
Proctoring assistance from MCTs and RDs is definitely a proven proctoring success. Many customers praised the help received and said it added value to their overall experience.
9 tracks and 70 lab modules in total (compared to TechEd 2002 US’s record breaking of 40 labs).
Over 90% of our labs were using virtual pc technology and attendees are excited with this new form of hands-on experience.
Having the ATE staff (or sharing MCTs for both ATE and HOL if you prefer) was very effective and provide great synergy for Microsoft and MCT’s credibility (thank you to Ronald and Paul on this one).
Great attendee participation (on Wednesday we had over 2000 delegates visited the lab room, just under 2000 on Thurs, resulting a total of 807 evals returned for the lab).
A total average score of 7 (out of 9) for all 70 labs (average of 807 returned evals).
All lab manuals and slides were published on CommNet for customer download
Longer lab opening hours to cater customer needs (proctoring hours from 8am to 8pm Tue to Thurs, 8am to 5pm Fri)
275 machines were allocated in 4 different rooms, proudly sponsored by HP.
A map/legend and signage with row number clearly labeled really helped delegates to locate their desired lab.
CommNet machines were made available right outside the lab room, to provide great access for delegates to do the evals.
Advertising specific labs in the presentations – We had a number of reminders sent to the presenters, asking them to include a reference to specific labs supporting their presentation.
So what didn’t work well?
Electronic evals from CommNet was difficult to find. One problems I encountered throughout the event was that the evals only display the lab ID but not the title. Delegates were having a hard time to remember the lab ID. It was easier for them to refer by title than the actual lab ID. This is especially the case when delegates complete more than 1 lab at a time.
We didn’t have track attendance on the first day (and only had so the ticket counter available from 2nd day onwards, thanks to Myra!)Nonetheless, this Hands-On Lab was a true team effort, as no one person could have accomplished this task alone. So, let me call out who helped out where (names not in any particular order)...
HOL Proctors (Janet Sheperdigian, Ronald Beekelaar; Zoran Markovic; Zachary Niemann; Wolfgang Pleus; William Matthey; Tor Haugen; Tim Kaufmann; Tim Cunningham; Thomas Lee; Slavko Kukrika; Roland Taschler; Robert Zondervan; Philippe Jan; Paul Hale; Paolo Porcarelli; Nikolay Penev; Mohammed Nawab Sarwar; Michael Skorka; Martha Murray; Mark Delaney; Marian Henc; Marco Timmermans; Luigi Crispo; Lorenzo Barbieri; Lennart Wahlberg; Kresimir Radosevic; Kent Nordstrom; Joe Liptrot; Ivan Vukojevic; Inigo Bosque; Hisham Ziad; Henri Kluijtmans; Hartmut Fiebiger; Goga Kukrika; Gert Kiewiet; George Raicu; Fredrik Palerud; Fredrik Korner; Erwin Zinser; Duncan Rijnenberg; Denis Martinidesz; David Anthony; Christian Kuntz; Chris Brown; Adrian Stoian; Fritz Ohman):
Many thanks to Janet and Ronald to organize the proctors!! They did a fabulous job by supporting the labs. The MCT professional attitude was absolutely outstanding. They went the extra mile by providing assistance to customer beyond the content of the lab to ensure great customer experience. As the result, their knowledge and experience on the product has truly added values to our customer's overall experience at TechEd. You all rock!!!
Support Staff (Mike Jorden, Howard Beck, Allan Campbell, Roy Davidson, Buffy van Hengel, Myra Collingridge):
Their timely and efficient support is much appreciated. All jobs were executed quickly and flawlessly (this is especially the case when we had to update the images for corrections on Sunday and Monday evenings)!! Great work!!!
TechEd Event Management (Heidi van de Zande, Dave Sorsoli, Andrew Cheeseman, Mike Jackson):
Andrew, Mike handled this event from the highest level down to the smallest detail. All HOL-related questions were answered in a timely manner. Heidi and Dave provided me the space and support (and faith) in coordinating the labs. Thank you for your patience and cooperation!!!
THANK YOU once again! It was an amazing event - and it was my pleasure working with such talented and dedicated people!
Warm Regards,
Anthony Tsim
"Dave Sorsoli" <
Hi All, this level of self-paced training HOLs was a first-time for us, but the concept and all the expertise that you all brought to bear was truly amazing and something we want to duplicate for future events.
I'd like to give my personal thanks to you all for your willingness and dedication in working in the lab and being such great support for the attendees !
I'd also especially like to thank Anthony and Ronald who are truly superstars ! They really took this on to move it foward. Fantastic !
Thanks again and all the best !
Dave