Microsoft's READY Launch '05 at KLCC

I attended the Microsoft READY Launch at KLCC, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (not to be confused with Suria KLCC) on Tuesday. The READY Launch was a launch for SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) and BizTalk Server 2006. There were 2 tracks in the afternoon. 1 was targeted at IT professionals and the other at Developers. I attended the Developer track. It was indeed a very information session although some people weren't really sure why they were there in the first place.

I seriously think that many people are here for the wrong reasons. Many come just because it's a Microsoft event. Some treat this as some tutorial class where they come to learn how to code and to be disappointed that it's merely a showcase of Microsoft's development tools. One "uncle" who was sitting beside me was practically snoring away... Gosh! How pathetic!

The door gifts are pretty impressive for a FREE event. There is a free exam voucher for one of the Microsoft's Certification Program exams (I got 2! =D). There's also a 50% discount voucher to attend ASP.NET 2.0 course at any of the participating training centres. For those who are READY to purchase Visual Studio, it's RM2750 and until 31st of December 2005, free gifts come attached with the purchases.

Here are some of the pictures I snapped at the event.


Microsoft READY Launch... with a Rock n Roll kind of theme.


The attendance was awesome! This is the conference hall for the Developer's track.


KLCC at KLCC... what a Name! The KL Convention Centre is definitely an impressive piece of architecture. My first time in it and it's really beautiful. Reminds me of KLIA!


Azali Adnan who is a Microsoft Valued Professional and a Microsoft Certified Trainer gives a speech. He is pretty nervous on stage. There were quite a few hiccups here and there but I don't blame him. His session was pretty good despite the hiccups. He is one who definitely knows what he is talking about although it would be better if he attended some public speaking seminars... =D People were walking out of his sessions in bundles.


Edmund Quek is the Regional Developer and Academic Evangelist from Microsoft Asia Pacific which is based in Singapore. His session was on Building Web Applications with ASP .NET 2.0 An impressive showcase on how easy it is to deploy ASP.NET applications on the web. I thoroughly enjoyed his session.


Finally, Loke Uei of Microsoft Malaysia presented his session on Smart Client Application Development and Deployment. Again, a very impressive sessions and he is by far the best presenter among the 3. I saw him presented before at the Microsoft Office launch some while back ago.

All in all, a very good initiative by Microsoft to "market" their products. They sell their products by educating people.