How the Microsoft TechEd Experience Changes with #TheKrewe

By MattG / June 18, 2013 June 1, 2020 / Microsoft, Out-of-Band Post

The last three years I have been extraordinarily lucky that I have been able to attend Microsoft TechEd. Every year I have participated in a group known as #TheKrewe and I have striven to force myself into social situations more and more every year.

What is #TheKrewe?

“The Krewe is a community organized professional networking group. Our mission is to build a dynamic networking community through various activities and gatherings. The Krewe primarily meets at Microsoft TechEd North America every year where we have The Krewe Meet ‘N Greet the day prior to the opening of the conference. Our group takes Networking to a whole new level, we are all close friends and are open to helping each other in any way possible be it through charitable works or by helping solve a question that has you stumped in your professional life. We are IT people from every level of the career, you may find someone totally new to IT who is just starting off or meet someone who has 20 years’ experience and is an MVP, MCT, MCP and any other abbreviation you can think of.”

– IAMKREWE.ORG

Year 1 Experience

My first year at Microsoft TechEd was in 2011 and I was still a student in college. I had no idea what I was doing attending this conference, I just knew I was excited and I was ready to learn. As the conference approached I realized I wanted to find evening parties as much as possible… after all I was 21 and who doesn’t love free drinks? …

How the Microsoft TechEd Experience Changes with #TheKreweRead More »

Summarizing The Microsoft TechEd Experience 2013

By MattG / June 17, 2013 June 1, 2020 / Microsoft, Out-of-Band Post

Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to be sent to Microsoft TechEd by the company I work at. It was such a busy week and another week of catching up with real life I am just now getting around to blogging about TechEd.

Warning: Long blog post!

This summarization of TechEd does not do a justice to how fantastic the experience is and how much you learn while there. …

Summarizing The Microsoft TechEd Experience 2013Read More »

Now that #IAMKREWE, how the hell do I meet you?

By MattG / May 31, 2013 June 1, 2020 / Microsoft, Out-of-Band Post

As I sit here reflecting on my last 2 years being with #TheKrewe I was thinking. There are quite a few new people this year and the majority of you are probably like me when I joined and have NO IDEA how you are going to meet new people. So I’ve decided it would be good to share some helpful tips on socializing with other members of #TheKrewe

The Basics:

Get on Twitter use hash tag #TheKrewe and #IAMKREWE
Join IAMKREWE.org
Join the Facebook Group
Attend evening events (Ex: #TheKrewe Sunday Meet ‘N Greet, #TheKrewe Monday Mixer, etc)

Breaking Out of Shell:

Now this is where I have a horrible time and I am lucky enough to have already started meeting people online, once I’ve met someone online it makes it much easier for me to talk to them in person. You may be different and may be more outgoing than me and if that is the case you will be golden!

When attending evening events
- Introduce yourself to other groups (Super hard for me to do)
- Start talking about work
- Find other people from same State/Country as you (I met 3 people from my State last year I didn’t know before!)
- Share your charging station, good chance to talk when you are waiting for a phone/tablet to charge!

Lets get Advanced:

Find common interest, meet up other nights of TechEd
See someone hiding in corner all quite? Go engage with them, make a friend even though they may not be the most social they are out at night so they want to meet people!
Stay in touch after TechEd, never know when you need that Lync admin you met at TechEd
Stay active on Twitter/IAMKREWE.org/Facebook group, these are friends for life now!

I know a lot of this is very general, but I can’t give you a set instruction on how to meet people, that is why I am so horrible at it! However if you are willing to help people, they are willing to help you. If you want to make new friends, so does everyone else at these evening events. If they didn’t they would stay hidden in hotel room playing with the new tech they learned that day.

Arris TG862G/CT from Xfinity Port Forwarding – Signature Support Sham

By MattG / May 29, 2013 May 29, 2013 / Out-of-Band Post

Recently I received a letter in the mail that Xfinity had increased the speed of the internet in my area… SWEET! However I needed to upgrade my modem as it cannot handle the increased speed, sounds reasonable they will send me a new one. This is where the sage begins with my discovery of xfinity’s Signature Support Sham and their horrible support and customer service.

The Story

I received the package fairly promptly and it is a brand new Arris TG862G/CT. I hooked it up with little issue aside from having to switch all my devices to a new wireless AP.

The next day I continued my efforts in configuring my network which included simply setting up a port forward so I can RDP into my desktop at home from work. As a Technology Specialist at a local IT Consulting and Managed Services company I felt I was more than qualified to implement such a minor change. After having performed the configuration and it not working I felt like an idiot. I continued trouble shooting and decided to disable the firewall on the new gateway. After having performed that change I still could not RDP into my system. I verified RDP was working within my internal network and decided to go above and beyond and even though it made no sense for this change to work I decided to try Port Triggering. Still no luck, so I resorted to calling the xfinity support. …

Arris TG862G/CT from Xfinity Port Forwarding – Signature Support ShamRead More »

TechEd 2013 is Coming!

By MattG / February 5, 2013 June 1, 2020 / Microsoft, Out-of-Band Post

Hello Everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting but this is super important! Tech Ed 2013 registration will be opening on February 12th so make sure you start begging your bosses for approval to go to this conference. I am lucky enough that I received my approval already and plan on booking everything as soon as registration opens. I strongly recommend you read on to know how to make the best out of your TechEd experience, with much more content on this subject to come as time gets closer.

…

TechEd 2013 is Coming!Read More »