[mso] Office 2003 Launch in NYC
- From: "Dian Chapman" <dian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <mso@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 14:40:13 -0600
>Well...once you have some time, I would love if you would send a little
email to the mso group, summarizing your experience at the Office 2003
launch. Hope you had fun!!
Yup...it was fun. But exhausting thanks to a rough schedule this week to
deal with a client rollover with Office and some Outlook training I'll be
doing all day Monday.
But I'm going through my email to try to catch up and wanted to pass along a
little insight as requested by Linda. "summarize"???? What's that?<smirk>
Here's a preview of my article for the November issue of TechTrax
(www.mousetrax.com/techtrax) ...which will include a link to lots of photos.
(Warning....long post!)
And speaking of photos, as you can see from this one that I just HAD to get
up on a temp page, NYC is a wild place. www.mousetrax.com/naked.html
------
Monday, mid-morning, I slung my cases over my shoulder and headed to the
Chicago "L" to head off to O'Hare to catch my 2 hr flight to NYC. I've never
been to NYC and prior to 9/11, I had no real interest in going
there...assuming it would be like Chicago...only more so. But after 9/11...I
saw an incredible spirit in the soul of "New Yorkers" and developed a great
admiration for anyone being a "New Yorker." So I was really looking forward
to going there.
Kathy Jacob (PPT MVP and member of this [MSO] list) recognized me at O'Hare
and made the trip more enjoyable by having a traveling companion. We arrived
at LaGuardia and headed for a cab. I'm barely in NYC when I'm already
getting yelled at by the Airport Cab Nazi who is directing folks to cabs and
nearly fines me for attempting to grab the door of a waiting cab before she
"okayed" the match!
We finally got a cab and were off to Manhattan.
Microsoft invited the top Office 2003 beta testing MVPs to NYC, on their
dime, to enjoy the launch and meet with the press, as well as attend several
special events. There were about 50 of us in attendance.
We arrived at the "W" Hotel in Time Square.
Time Square! What a major assault on the senses. The ultimate in gluttony
and advertising...as well as the useless consumption of electricity! But
what fun!<g>
A quick run to check into our gorgeous "Jetson" like rooms at the W Hotel
and we're back in the 7th floor lobby to meet and head off to Ruby Foo's in
Uptown for an MVP (sushi/Japanese) dinner. HA...and we stand on the street
for about 1/2 hr trying to get everyone into cabs just as the theatres are
letting out. We eventually end up grabbing limos, too...and Dian and friends
manage to nab the first limo for our ride to the restaurant!<hee, hee>
Dinner was beautiful and strange. I discovered I STILL don't like eating
"bait" even if you wrap it up in sticky rice and make it look pretty...it
still belongs on the end of a fish hook! Blah! But the other dishes were
excellent. And the desserts, served in candy boxes...were amazing!!
We received our MVP beta tester awards and personalized thank you notes from
Steve Sinofsky...VP of Business Apps at MS (head Office dude), along with
our tacky MVPs love NY T-Shirts<smirk>. As MVPs, we also receive a set of
Office 2003 NDA product support training CD courses. Very cool!
The next day we're up bright and early. Susan Ramlet and I leave the hotel 1
hr early...about 6:30am...to wander the streets of NY before the world
wakes. Well...the sane folks, anyway. As we stroll off in search of the
Millennium Hotel...where the launch will be held...we get to see Time Square
at pre-dawn hours. Very pretty. We stand outside of Good Morning America and
wave like idiots. Then we come across a bunch of "cavemen" roaming the
streets in Beatle wigs and body suits advertising some new Nintendo Caveman
video game. How funny!
We drool at all the amazing bakeries along the streets and I feel right at
home, as if I'm wandering the streets of downtown Chicago.
We get to the hotel and there are lots of media trailers and media folks
outside. We get our MVP (VIP) passes and bypass the line of folks to get
into the AM breakfast with MS VP Jeff Raikes and VPs from Dell and Intel.
Once the MVPs are seated in the intimate room at our assigned group
tables...the press is allowed in and the show begins. Jeff explains that the
majority of bugs found and fixed in Office 2003 were the direct results of
MVPs! <applause> This was prior to the 50,000 public beta launch, he
explains.
After comments from the Dell and Intel VPs and Q/A from the press...Jeff
leaves and we all mingle and chat for a bit before we have to be down to see
Bill. Dian sneaks out to wander the streets of NYC in search of a NY candle
for a colleague who did her a big favor before she left...but not before she
passes her TechTrax editor business card to the VP from Intel telling him to
check out Greg's TechTrax article explaining how cheap processors can burn
up your motherboard and why he recommends users use Intel processors! (See
Keeping the Home PCs from Burning:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=193)
Back to the pack of smokers outside the hotel and in we go to get seats in
the intimate auditorium at the hotel to see Bill. Dian manages to get very
close seats on the main floor!<g> As with all MS productions...the
rockin'/upbeat music begins the show and Bill soon appears on stage to tons
of camera flashes and applause. The next hour is spend listening to Bill,
Jeff and various experts in the industry explain why the Office 2003
"System" is cool and show demos of how they have provided business solutions
using Office 2003.
The CIO of Siemens, a company that has completely upgraded to Office 2003,
explains some cool solutions...and one of the MS engineers comes out to demo
his winning solution with Office 2003. WAY COOL...he shows how project
approvals are easy with a Share Point Portal business site that allows
documents, forms, conversations, group meetings and such to all take place
within the bounds of one virtual, in-house web site (group intranet site
with SharePoint).
Dian...an others, like Bill Coan who was sitting next to her...are excited
about all this way cool technology...but feel sad that the majority of the
computing world won't bother to move to this level of cool technology for
another couple of years...sadly due to the stigma that you should "wait
until the first SR comes out to fix the bugs!" Office 2003 is very stable.
But this "afraid of new technology and it's expense" was further confirmed
to Bill and I...who were amazed to hear one guy sitting in front of us
mention that his company was still using Office 97! Bill and Dian just shake
their heads in amazement thinking of all the cool stuff and time saving apps
they are missing using this old version. And being VBA devs...realizing they
are still using VBA ver 5...a much inferior version to the now available VBA
6 from Office 2000+.
We watch a demo of how cool InfoPath is and how the XML integration in
Office 2003 will provide so many solutions to forms. Dian is already
thinking of how she will enhance so many of her forms solutions with this
new technology...if she could ONLY get some time to mess with it more!!
Bill shows us a fun demo of how he uses his computer with a live demo from
his Tablet PC...and his E-Bay site where he's trying to sell off old Clippy
T-Shirts and versions of MS Bob...and it appears that "some guy name SteveB"
has the biggest bid!<much laughter from those who get the joke>...cos'
SteveB is Steve Balmer...the President of MS and Bill's college buddy who
helped him start MS...and Clippy and MS Bob are two controversial projects
in MS history.)
After the launch, we head to another room for a buffet lunch and chance to
meet with the many MS partners who have mini exhibit tables and info/goodies
for us to pile into our product bags...along with our free copy of Office
2003!
The day's events over...we drag ourselves back to the W to dump the pile of
bags we now have, change and plan a trip on the subway (since some folks
feel the desire to check out a subway...this Chicagoan sees no thrill in
that!<g>). We find our way to the subway and head off to Ground Zero. A
family friend of Dian's...Vanessa Kolpak...was killed there and we all feel
the need to go and pay our respects.
After a typical tourist romp on the subway, we walk up the stairs at the end
and are immediately struck by this huge construction area surrounded by
fences and many people walking around...somber and some in tears...hugging.
We're here!
Seeing these images quickly took it's toll on us all and we are all soon
hugging each other and wiping away the tears...the emotions just being in
the presence of this location are awesome. I find Vanessa's name on the
banner of "Heroes of September 11th" and more tears are choked back. Several
photos and quiet time/prayers/thoughts later...we start discussing the
evening plans. Some stay to do more sightseeing...Susan Ramlet and Dian head
back on the subway to go back to the hotel. Dian has work to do and Susan
needs to meet her brother for dinner.
As we enter the subway, we strike up a conversation with a very nice New
Yorker wearing an Ironworker had and union pin. I ask him if he's an
Ironworker and he says yes. I ask to shake his hand and he pulls back a bit
apologizing that his hands are too dirty and he doesn't want to get me
dirty. I ignore his comments and grab his hand and shake it. He gives a
humble look! Then he explains how he's also a volunteer firefighter and how
he was working on the WTC after 9/11 helping clear things away. He worked it
for weeks...until they pulled out his mentor/commander...Lt. Phifer...and
then he lost it and decided he needed a break. He talked more and it was
very emotional. We all got on the train and continued to chat with "Dillon"
and others on the train. Yup...New Yorkers are very cool folks!! They made
sure I got off at the right stop...since Susan had left a few stops earlier.
I did some shopping and headed off for a REAL dinner...at a NY deli, which
consisted of Chicken Noodle Soup, Corn Beef on Rye and NY Cheese Cake! The
best I'd ever had and I LOVE to sample cheese cake!
Back to the hotel, pack, try to get to sleep to wake at 3am to make my 5am
limo ride to the airport for a 7am flight (from hell!...with one of the most
obnoxious business JERKS sitting behind me continually wrestling with the
back of my chair (the pocket and tray, apparently) until I let him know he's
a PITA and he gets up and moves!<smirk>)
Okay...so you all probably REALLY wanted to know more about Office
2003...but hey, I'm a writer, too!<g>
For those of you who need your fix...here's some additional info....
-------
For those interested in reading the entire Bill/Jeff transcript from the
launch:
http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2003/10-21OfficeLaunch.asp
More on the Launch:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2003/Oct03/10-22livemeeting.asp
Office 2003 launch application image gallery
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/officesystemlaunch/gallery.asp
First Office 2003 Users Weigh In
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113045,00.asp
(Discussions with MVPs)
Microsoft Launches Next-Generation Office System
http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/3096181
(Except this guy messed up and called us Most Valuable Partners)
Office 2003 details...
New! The Reading Pan, Navigation Pane and new email views.
Improved! Enhanced Rules and Desktop Alerts.
New! Outlook Search Folders.
New! Outlook Quick Flags.
Improved! Junk email filtering.
New! Block external HTML content.
New! Cached Exchange Mode.
New! Microsoft Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager.
New! Research Task Pane.
Improved! Enhanced ink support.
New! Meeting Workspaces.
New! Document Workspaces.
New! Shared attachments, integrated task panes and support for intranet
collaboration tools.
Improved! Instant messaging and alerts.
Improved! Contacts and calendars.
New! Information Rights Management (IRM).
New! Document Protection.
New! XML Support.
Improved! Programmable Task Panes.
Improved! Smart Documents.
Improved! Smart Tag.
New! "Very High" Macro Security Setting.
Improved! Office Object Model.
Improved! File Type Blocking.
Improved! Integrated Antivirus Application Programming Interface.
System Requirements for Office 2003....
* PC w/ Intel Pentium 233mhz or higher processor; Pentium III recommended
* MS Windows 2000 w/SP3 or Win XP or Later OS
* 128 mg of RAM or above recommended
* Hard drive space varies depending on configuration and custom install
choices...
* Standard and Student Edition: 260 mb minimum, additional 250
recommended for file cache
* Professional Edition: 400 mb minimum, 1290 mg for Outlook
w/Business Contact Manager...additional 290mb for optional file cache
(recommended)
Other...
* CD Rom drive
* Super VGA 800x600 or higher w/256 colors
* mouse or compatible pointing device.
Estimated retail Pricing (is largely unchanged from XP) and upgrades will be
less:
* Student/Teacher edition 2003: $149
* Standard edition: $399
* Professional edition: $499
* Stand alones are unchanged at $229 for Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and
$109 for Outlook 2003.
EDITIONS:
MS Office System Professional
"" Professional Enterprise
"" Small Business
"" Student/Teacher
"" Standard
"" Basic
Core Programs:
* Word 2003
* Excel 2003
* Access 2003
* PPT 2003
* Outlook 2003 (* OL w/Business Contact Manager)
Stand Alone programs:
* MS Office InfoPath 2003 (new)
* "" OneNote (new)
* "" Visio
* "" Project
* "" Project Server
* "" FrontPage
* "" Publisher
* "" SharePoint Portal Server
* "" Live Communications Server
* "" Exchange Server
* "" Live Meeting (new)
* "" Online (new)
Solution Accelerators (new)
* MS Office Accelerator for Proposals
* "" for Recruiting
* "" for Six Sigma
* "" for Phone Conferencing
* "" for Digital Media Communications
* "" for Compliance
* "" for XBRL
Enabling Technologies, but not part of MS Office System:
* Windows SharePoint Server
* Windows Server 2003
More details can be found at: www.microsoft.com/office
And finally...as our little group of MVPs arrived home, (pals who hung out a
lot together...Beth Melton, Susan Ramlet, Echo Swinford and Dian Chapman,
Bob Buckland), we begin a list of things we learned on this trip:
What we learned on this trip...
* It would be really, really difficult to work on the WTC site, especially
if you had friends who died there
* Most Times Square hotel lobbies are not on the ground floor
* The Meat Packing District is surprisingly large
* I can still pull an all-nighter, if desired
* Jamie is amazing (only reinforced; I did know this before)
* I'm a whole lot more comfortable in New York than I realized
* I still miss smoking, but less than I thought I would
* Echo and I have some really odd things in common
* Cowboys sing while naked in Time Square
* Men we passed on the street found Dian worth a second look (though she
probably didn't notice)
* Some primarily seafood restaurants have awesome food; wasabi and pickled
ginger are very good to eat
* Sushi is bait in cognito
* Always leave room in your suitcase for all the extra stuff you have to
bring home from an MVP event
* New Yorkers are really nice people who aren't bothered by much cos'
they've seen/experienced it all, plus some
* Don't bother bringing a laptop to an MVP event cos' you'll never have time
to use it
* Bob is a very good tour guide - he knows all of the 'must see' sights
* If you wait for a cab long enough, a limo will show up
* Wear good walking shoes if Bob is the tour guide
* Always ask the Concierge for directions and their recommendations for
restaurants and such (I learned this one from Mike)
* Bring your own lights if you are staying at the W.
* The thicker style driver's license will give you a blister if you dance
all night with it in your shoe
* A NY ironworker name Dillon is a very nice guy
* Don't encourage women you don't know to dance or you may get more
than you bargained for
* Water from the shower SOME HOW doesn't spray on the bathroom floor even
when the shower door is only 1/2 covering the shower
* Susan Ramlet has more funny faces to make than a circus clown and she's a
riot
* If you put your room key in your shoe and dance all night it demagnetizes
it and you have to get another one
* Businesses in NYC recycle their buildings, i.e., an old theatre is now a
McDonalds...an old hot dog stand is now a police station
* You should take your driver's license out of your shoe and dry it off
before arriving at the guest services desk or they'll give you a *really*
funny look
* A bottle of water cost more than the museum tour
* People look weird when you film them in night vision
* The $12 price for the museum is a suggested price only - you can get in
for a penny if you really want to be cheap
* Some people really *are* that cheap
* NYC is the best place to buy lots of cheap souvenirs
* The nice warm-fuzzy-looking blanket in the overhead compartment of the
airplane more than likely is someone's coat.
Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant,
Microsoft MVP & Instructor
Free Tutorials: www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tips & Tricks eBook: www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Learn VBA the easy way, thru video! www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html
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