Yesterday saw the 2nd Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server User Group meeting take place in Birmingham – and the curse of the pizzas struck again.
The meeting took place at The Studio in Birmingham, and I have to say the venue and the facilities were amazing – the staff there couldn’t do enough for us (thanks again for the big pot of sweets)!
It all kicked off promptly at 10am with about 65 or so people, along with myself, Ian Dixon, Andrew Cherry, Garry Whittaker and Simon May.
Last year the event was a few hours in the evening, and it all felt a bit rushed, so this year we had a whole day, and a much bigger set up.
The first session was on Made for Media Center and that really seemed to get people in the mood for the day and it didn’t stop all day.
Last time my presentation on Windows Home Server was due to start straight after the pizzas, and then they were very late so my presentation started late, had to be shorter and it was all rather amusing.
This year, we had my session after lunch, which everyone was going to go an do their own thing for an hour, but the Next Gen User Group very kindly offered to buy pizza for everyone so that was all ordered to be there for around 12.30 (at the latest) ready for my presentation at 1pm.
So, can you guess what happened? 🙂
Yep, you guessed it, the pizzas arrived literally at 1pm! Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up!
Anyway, the pizzas were lovely and so we started up again at 1.30pm and my 30 minute session ended up being nearly 50 minutes and only stopped because we were really running late by then. Everyone seemed to enjoy talking about Vail and there were a lot of really good questions – so thanks guys, you kept me on my toes!
We had a lot of goodies to give away as well, ranging from a Zune HD to some Sonus gear, about 23487245847 Xtreamers, software, DVBLink licences and more.
Most people got a prize of some sort (apart from me whose ticket was pulled out twice but I had to give the prizes back) 🙁 Although everyone did get a really cool 2GB Windows 7 pen drive (including me!)
The day ended up with a sort of Q&A session, which again had some very good questions.
All in all I had a really great day. I got to talk about Vail, listen to some good presentations, talk to a lot of good people and generally just have a great time. Oh, and there was pizza!
See you next year everyone!
I agree, it was a great venue and a most interesting day. It was a real shame that I didn't win one of the Xtreamers – now I'll just have to go and buy one!
It was a shame dave as you were like the only person not to win one 🙂
And thanks for joining in the questions and answers during my session!
Really great day – I too missed out on a Xtremer (see Andrew told you I never win anything in competitions) BUT I did get a Microsft Mug and the pen drives are the swankiest ones I've ever seen. Great sessions and next time (please be a next time) we should get Andrew on BEFORE the pizza !
thanks Carl – maybe next time.
Spare a thought for me – i won twice and had to put both prizes back in the draw 🙁
I tell you, if it had been the Sonos I would have been down those stairs and out the door quicker than you could say Pizza!
Andrew