Sep 20 2009

Windows BG Leads do offsites in style

So I headed on Wed. from Moscow to the Windows Client BG Leads offsite in Milan. To my suprise we headed straight to the Staium to see the Inter- Barcelona Game. The downfall for me is arriving at the Stadium with 76,000 people and having a suitcase and backpack with it pouring rain. I was then told to go against the traffic of all the people and head to the Metro to meet the bus to leave my bags and head to the game with the team. After a 40 minute walk and 2 hour wait, I finally found the bus-dropped off my bags and headed to the game. The energy in the stadium was crazy but it was no Allianz stadium in Munich. It was a tie 0-0 game and not much energy in the offense, mostly defensive game. Expected a lot more from Barcelona. We then headed to the Castle. Yes, the offsite was in a Castle and we had the Castle to ourselves! Our rooms were amazing and the faclities perfect! The food was fabulous and the conference facilities great! Free internet access and anything you needed you got. I felt bad for my leads as our offsite as always in Munich at the MS office.

A little history of the castle for you. Villa Gallarati Scotti is probably the most majestic of the many delightful villas constructed in the area. Of the Baroque structure, transformed into Neo-Classic shapes with a monumental entrance between the end of the 18th, beginning of the 19th century by the architect Simone Cantoni, there remain only the traditional U-shaped play and several interior spaces with 18th-century frescoes. The 19th-century modifications also involved the park, transformed into a typical English landscape, inside of which traces of the Baroque garden survive with a valuable nymphaeum of Neptune located on the northern edge of the landscaped area. In 2008, the restoration of the villa was completed and it currently houses a centre for conferences, seminars. I would recommend staying here absolutely wonderful! A few pictures from the 2 day offsite.

Sep 19 2009

Russia-I Love My IT Pros

So our CEE Headquarter Sever Team headed to Russia this week. The team has a lot of changes the pervious IT Pro Lead moved to Dubai to run IT Pro for Microsot Middle East Africa. The teams BG Lead (manager) is moving to Slovakia to run the Microsoft Marketing Organization, so there was a lot of discussions on where the startegy would go in this fiscal year. My acting lead Anton is doing an amazing job and I am so pleased with teh plans and how well the team is working together and driving a great strategy without a manager. We are also launching a Women in Technology Microsoft Chapter and exeternal user group. The team took us to great dinners after very long days, and yes we did have some vodka. You will love the picture of Csaba with the after taste of Horseradish Vodka. I had to head to the Windows Client BG Leads offsite in Milan, Italy-so I missed the great site seeing tour across Moscow. You’ll see some great pictures-wish I was there. The poor team, some how I got a free upgrade to a suit and my team-plus my boss just got single rooms…

Let me give you some interesting facts around Moscow. Moscow is the capital of Russian Federation. The city area is about 30 km in diameter and the population reaches to almost 10 million people. To be able to find the right building on any street, it’s useful to know that in Moscow house numbering starts from the center. Also, the odd-number houses are located to the left, and the even-number houses – to the right. So, if you’re looking for Tverskaya st., #2, for example, it will be located very close to the Kremlin (which is the most central place in Moscow), on your right-hand side (if you turn your back to the Kremlin). The main historical core of Moscow is Kremlin (a fortress – on photo), which is located in the core of the city. Tverskaya street, which is the main avenue of the city, starts from the Kremlin and heads north to become Leningradskoye Shosse, which leads directly to St. Petersburg (750km).Moscow has a radial structure, and the Garden Ring road defines the center of the city. A smaller Boulevard Ring defines the city’s downtown. In august 21, 1991, there was a small revolution set in Moscow. The government was changed and there had been tanks for several days in the centrum of Moscow. At this time the Soviet Union was over, but it was a strange time for some period. Also a little earlier there were the first democratic mayor elections in Moscow. 1991 was the beginning of the Democracy, people were excited, waiting for changes, but it turned out to be hard process. Good times till my next trip in November.

Sep 19 2009

MGX-I drank the punch

So I noticed I forgot to blog about MGX- Microsoft Global Exachange. This is the one week a year that 17,000 Microsoft employees from around the world get together to understand the strategies for the new fiscal year. This is my 7th MGX and I can’t believe every year I get re-energized and chanting I LOVE THIS COMPANY! Amazing Products, Amazing People, Amazing Research and Amazing impact in helping people around the world- makes me so proud to work for this company. It is also great to catch up with co-workers you haven’t seen for months- some for years. I am amazed at our MACH ( Microsoft Academic College Hires), could you image what it would feel like starting Microsoft right out of college and then being in the Atlanta Dome and seeing flags from all over the world and people chanting I LOVE THIS COMPANY with Steve Ballmer runing around the dome. Its pretty cool. Here are a couple pictures from the week.