So last week I had the amazing opportunity to attend the 20^th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down.  The weekend started with an offsite with our Microsoft Business Group Leads and IT Pro Audience Marketers.  We spent the weekend discussing our H1 plans and execution and what we can do better in the Central Eastern Europe Region.  We have amazing stories and amazing outreach to help IT Pros across the region reach their full potential and help them be the top technical experts in their field.  After our offsite we got to participate in Monday’s historical event.

Too bad it was pouring rain but I was able to see and be next to the falling dominos representing the location of the previous wall.  There was approximately 1000 dominions made by students that stretch almost 1 mile.  I was able to walk by the Lincoln town cars (well actually Mercedes) of Gordon Brown and Hilary Clinton as we were walking towards the Brandenburg Gate.  There were people I was standing next to who were East Germans at the time celebrating on the wall.  I have to admit I was surprised to have Jon Bon Jovi as the band that kicked off the song before the Dominos fell and theme music to who wants to be a millionaire.  For great stories and videos of the Berlin Wall, please go to MSNBC- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33492472/ns/world_news-fall_of_the_berlin_wall_20_years_later/ I particularly found the tunnel to freedom to be one of the best. 

After the fall of the wall the rest of the week was dedicated to Microsoft TechEd Berlin, our largest IT Pro and Developer conference in Europe.  On Tuesday night we launched our first Women in Technology Session for IT Pros and developer women in Europe.  After 20 years of the falling of the wall how have barriers for women been removed in the technology industry was the discussion we had.  Throughout the week we had many security sessions, virtualization sessions, development sessions, SQL sessions and it is always good to catch up with my fellow product team members from Redmond.  On Wednesday night we had a party for our amazing technical experts that have supported us with Windows 7 through the Springboard series. 

At the end of the week, my husband joined me and we joined the Romanian team for some site seeing through Berlin.  I think we are now adopted Romanians after several dinners, lunches and many kilometers of walking.  The sites we saw were the following: Brandenburg Gate, the Berliner Dom at Reichstag, East Side Gallery, Alexanderplatz, KaDeWe (the big department store East Germans thought all west Germans could afford to shop-like Macy’s in New York), Tiergarten, Pergamon museum (I have no idea how the Germans are able to keep all those relics from Greece).

Below are a few pictures from the adventures: