We are spoiled here in Canada, and I never knew it. Of course I always appreciate the efforts that Microsoft Canada made for our group; It is not uncommon for me to be in conversation with a member of the community who will say something along the lines of 'Rick showed us how to do that at the Paramount last November, right?' Rick being Rick Claus of Microsoft Canada, and the Paramount refering to the venue for the quarterly Technet Canada tours that we are all invited to every few months.
I hear similar feedback from other cities across the nation and have often lauded the entire ITE team for their efforts; as Rick is the primary contact for Montreal I will speak specifically to his efforts but I want to be clear that credit extends to the entire team - past and present.
Off the top of my head I cannot remember exactly how many TechNet events rolled through Montreal during my tenure - a dozen would not be an unfair guesstimate. Prior to each event and with very few exceptions the rep - usually Rick - would contact me well in advance and ask if we could hold a user group meeting the night before (or the night of) the main event. Those meetings were always informative, and never talked down to us. Rick was presenting to a knowledgeable group of professionals and colleagues and not just to a group of potential customers.
Many of the technologies that Rick presented to us at those meetings then were new to me and have since become tools that I use on a daily basis; Virtual Server and Push Technology - not to mention the proper configuration of Exchange Server with RPC over HTTP - are technologies I can hardly live without. I am sure I would have discovered them eventually but it was Rick who first made me aware of them.
I have heard complaints from fellow UG Leaders in small markets who complained that Microsoft did not give them the attention that they needed, and I always thought that it was because they were in smaller markets - our friends in Vermont and New Hampshire being a prime example.
Sitting with my colleagues from the USA and South America this week I understood for the first time that it is not a large market / small markey problem. The divide is the border between Canada and the rest of the world. It turns out that there are some pretty major markets who are hungry for the attention we take for granted - both the Bay Area and Southern California - two American markets that have a combined population equal to Canada's - do not have an IT Pro Evangelist from Microsoft, and if they want to bring one in they pay travel and expenses. Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Quito (Ecuador) share a single ITE with the rest of the continent - and travel between countries in South America is not quite as simple as it is in North America.
I have heard before that Microsoft Canada is a model for the world but I did not realize the vast implications of that statement until this week. Michael Dillon and Chandana Hathi of Microsoft heard loud and clear that the world should be looking to Canada as shining example of how to interact with the community. I hope for our breatheren outside our borders that they learn from our example. I know that as long as John Oxley is at the helm of the team in Canada that it will only continue to improve.