Vancouver and Seattle both got hit by snow last week. This led to lots of internal messages like "I'm working from home," and "look at this photo of the snow on my backyard furniture," and "Anyone want a 12 year old? Cheap."
BETT 2020 Begins!
BETT week has arrived! I love this educational technology conference. Interesting people from all over the world, partners and customers I don't get to see enough, and all in one of my favorite cities.
Apparently the organizers changed the layout this year. Instead of one long airplane factory assembly floor, now we've got two smaller ones. I'm still looking forward to my fitness tracker being happy with my step count for once.
If you're going, say hi! On Tuesday I'll be co-hosting an invite-only pre-day event at the Sunborn Hotel London. The rest of the week I'll be dividing my time between customer meetings, presentations, and the show floor. if you'd like to chat about higher education or Microsoft stuff, drop me a line at @colinbirge on Twitter, or stop by the O365 section of the booth and ask for me. Somebody will know how to find me.
If you're curious what we're announcing, keep an eye on the Microsoft Education Blog. It'll be updated all week with the latest and greatest from the conference. I'll talk a bit about my favorites next week. Oh, what the hell, let’s talk about one of them now:
This is just brilliant for those of us who are speaking to audiences with a variety of mother tongues. Which, in this day and age, is just about every classroom and every presentation. I’ve tried an early version and been fascinated to see my rambling live-translated into three or four different languages.
On another note, with BETT I've set a personal record for number of pre-conference travel arrangement changes (five, so far). Keeping things interesting.
The Travel Bag
I'm going to be on the road much of the next month, which means it's time once again to pack the travel bags.
Awhile back I bought a Flight 001 Seat Pak bag for my long haul airplane trips. It's designed to hold your tablet, phone, passport, earplugs, eyemask, and other gear when you're actually on the plane, while being small enough to slip into another bag for the rest of the trip. I can't recommend this highly enough.
On a flight to Beijing awhile back I met a western guy who regularly traveled between North America and China. He offered the following wisdom: for a long haul flight, get as comfortable as you can as fast as you can. We hadn't even taken off before he'd changed into his slippers. He was asleep by the time we reached 10,000 feet.
Inspiration
I woke up early one morning at CONNECT a couple years back and caught the sun rising through the spray of Niagara Falls. An amazing moment.
Current Status
I started writing this at home and am finishing in a little café in London's Paddington Station. There's a little place nearby that sells Paddington Bears. I'd buy one for my wife, but I'm terrified of the carnage if my dog ever got hold of it. We must honor Paddington in our hearts instead. I'll find some marmalade while I'm here.
Onward. Hope to see some of you at BETT! For everyone else, remember to breathe, and follow the example of our neighbors in Newfoundland: if the winter is too much, just get out your skis.