Awesome Bootcamp Experience

Wow.. wow wow
No better word i could use than "Awesome"
The Boot camp at Microsoft IDC in Hyderabad was the biggest ever such event in the world so far. Three fun filled days ,countless hours of fun and ,lots and lots to learn. Around 150 MSPs all over India came to Hyderabad to be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Many freshers including me got the opportunity to network with the best in the business at IDC . We made a lot of new friends and yeah as i said earlier, we learnt a lot.
For the day wise details continue reading!!

Day 1-- 6th March 2009 Friday

The MSPs reported at Ellaa Suites, a star hotel , located very near to the Microsoft IDC campus. At around 4 pm a shuttle bus took us to the IDC campus. After the security clearance we were taken to the auditorium , it was like the whole MSP army in one single room. We had some introductory address by the Microsoft India Campus Rec. Team members and some quick notes on the internship test for the pre-final year students which was due in some time .
The internship test was taken by the pre-final year students while we(i m in ma second yr) were
asked to go to the amphitheatre where we came to know each other when we were asked to do a fun filled creative skit on any technology. this went on till 7 30 pm . Then was the Dinner time at the IDC campus. Food was something everyone enjoyed during their stay. After dinner we returned back to the hotel. We were asked to report to the IDC campus the next day by 7 30am.

Day 2 --7th March 2009 Saturday

The day started with Breakfast at Microsoft Campus immediately as we came by the shuttle bus. After a good breakfast the Technical sessions began. The Keynote of the day was given by Pratima Amonkar (Director Academia, Microsoft) at around 9 am. This was followed by the first Technical session fr about 1 hr on "Sql Server 2008" by the" MSIT Business Intelligence Team" comprising Fayaz, Swapna and Preetha. They explained about Sql Server 2008 and its advantages over the previous versions and competitors. This session was followed by Windows Mobile App Dev. by Abhinav Gujjar (MGSI) . The session was very interactive and on a lighter note nut very informative.
After the two sessions we had a small Photoshoot at the Amphitheatre where all the MSPs were included in one photo .
This was followed by lunch which included the networking session where we got to interact with the FTEs at Microsoft from various divisions of Microsoft. They were really kind in interacting with us and also mentored us suggesting future plans as so on.
PS. The Lunch was good!
The Lunch was followed by Application Security by Varun Sharma ( ACE team) . He discussed about the "Top 5 App. Security bugs in custom Code" and suggested ways to overcome them.
The sessions was an eye opener to many MSPs present there .The next session was on "Cloud computing" by Archis Gore (Windows Live Core Team) . As Cloud computing is still under development he could share much on the topic but he did give us a basic idea about Live Mesh and Azure.
The tech sessions were followe by some lighter sessions on Windows 7 by Siddarth Prakash , IE 8 by Mohammed Reza and a WPF presentation by Mark D Souza. Then was the time when the MSPs received their goodies and stuff. New MSPs got their visiting cards . Those who deployed Live @edu and MSDNAA were given some special rewards too.
Till now was the Work part of the day . Then we had a get together and a Disco party arranged exclusively for us near our hotel. The night was wonderful at the disco and followed by a pool side dinner . The experience was awesome . The night was too long for many of us who even stayed up till 3 am .

Day 3--8th March 2009 Sunday

At around 8 am in the morning we checked out of the hotel and headed towards the Microsoft Campus. Once again started the day with breakfast at the campus . We then witnessed technology where our fellow MSPs showcased some cool apps and demos. They were on Robotics studio , Visual Programming Language and Microsoft Popfly . This was followed by some adresses by the senior MSPs who wanted to share their experience with us . Then came the parting time. We had to leave the campus towards the airport and railway stations . We left the Microsoft campus around 3 pm and started towards our stations.

Some MSPs including me had some time , so we went sight-seeing Hyderabad in the evening and bade goodbye to each other. It was a painful thing as we had formed a bond so strong so soon, but thanks to technology that we could still remain in touch with each other!!


The entire Boot Camp was a wonderful experience that i hope each one of us would remember for years to come

for some photos
Ravichandran's Skydrive

ciao
Ravi