The next few days were squarely consumed by the point of the trip in the first place – the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference.  I won’t blog too much about the conference here, as I’m doing more substantial articles on my technology blog, http://sanderstechnology.net

Day 9

Vision Keynote

In any case, with most of the days seeing me occupied with the conference, there’s not too much to report outside those activities.  The first day I started out up early, and out the door before 8am to ensure I reached the Air Canada Centre very early for the first vision keynote, featuring Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.  Afterwards, it was over to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where I spent  time between North and South parts of the centre.

Walking back to MTCC/The Commons

Aside from popping out to get some quality coffee in the afternoon, it was pretty much an all day affair.  Once the day finished, I met up with an old colleague Sean Callanan who is also known by his alter ego, Sports Geek.  We met up at the MTCC and walked back to my unit.  After I got changed, we headed over in my first Uber to a Jazz bar (Rex Hotel) not far from the Sheraton where the Microsoft Australia team (and many partners) were staying.  We had dinner and waited for Tony Winmill (a partner from Canberra) and his colleagues to rock up.

 
Sean and I/Jazz Bar

Once we realised Tony and co. were inside, we joined them for beers and to listen to the live music.  We laid back and relaxed and chatted for a few hours before splitting up at around 11pm.  Sean and I started heading west until we found a random bar and headed inside.  We spent a few hours chatting and talking to a guy called Morten from Norway and I was downing glasses of water like there was no tomorrow.

Random bar

Eventually, sometime after 1am, we called it a night.  I walked the 20 minutes back to the unit and hit the sack, with an aim to make the second vision keynote the following day..