Here we are. July has past, and as we look out onto August I see something more than just another month.
July has been a bit of a whirlwind for me. I moved from Montreal to Toronto, and though I have accomplished much this past month the reality is I have chiefly been on vacation. I am moved in and my apartment is organized, I have gotten to know my way around my little corner of Mississauga, as well as the ins and outs of the Ontario DMV and insurance companies. I have proposed and put together a presentation for an upcoming tour which will be a lot of fun, reaching out to the community once more. I have gone on a total of five failed dates, seen four decent movies, read a little, written a little, and taken stock of where I am.
All of that takes us to the here and now: Saturday, August 4th. By all rights this is the start of a long week-end for the province of Ontario, and most of my friends left their offices yesterday afternoon anticipating what they would be doing with three days off. There are two aspects of my life that prevent me from celebrating with them: Firstly, I have been off work for the past six weeks and secondly that all ends Monday, when I board my flight to Houston.
The next few months will be as interesting as they are busy; after Houston I will move onto Chicago, Rochester, Cleveland, Reston, Columbus, Omaha, Fort Lauderdale, and Portland (Oregon). In between I will be presenting in Montreal, Ottawa, and Waterloo, and hopefully a number of other Canadian cities thrown in for good measure.
While I am grateful that my schedule will bring me home for week-ends, I love being on the road not because of the glamour and such – which is truly overrated – but because of all of the great people I get to meet. In every city I have been I have had the honour of teaching some really nice and intelligent people who have all touched me. Wednesday morning I will meet my first class of the new tour, thirty-five IT Pros from Microsoft partner and client organizations in the great state of Texas. My last trip to Houston was one of the most energizing tour stops I have had so far, and though I was grateful for the time off, I was sad that my summer holidays ended after Houston because I was so invigorated, so inspired by the people I met, that I could have gone another six weeks before truly needing a break.
Unless this is your first visit to my blog you will know that I have a great passion for the IT Pro community, and that is why I put together a user group/community presentation to run parallel to my tour. In some of the cities I will be visiting I will be seeing the local user groups, and giving my presentation to them. In other cities, such as Houston, where there is no user group we are inviting the community at large to come out, and hopefully seeing what can happen when a few people get together will spark the flame in the hearts of a few good people who will have the impetus to creating their own user group. If you ask why I am so sure it is simple – that is how I came to organize the Montreal IT Pro Community three years ago! Myself, Dan Nerenberg, and a handful of others came out to an event at the Microsoft MPR room and when the idea of forming a user group was put forward we stepped up and created one of the most successful groups in North America!
If I am coming to a city near you I hope you take the time to come down and see me. If nothing else remember that I am in a strange city (some stranger than others!) and could always use the company ;) And if you are in a city without a user group, then this might be your big chance to come out and make History!