I heard LOUD and CLEAR that Twitter is one of the BIG ways that the Brainstorm attendees keep in contact. I’ve had my personal account however I just started my professional one @MSClassroomGeek . Let’s keep the conversation going!

Part of the “behind the scenes work” which I’ve been attempting to put together is an interactive way for our customers or potential customers, from around the world, a way to connect with our Microsoft Product Group.

Flipgrid seemed like a natural choice since we can share experience in many different ways! Either leave your comments here or join in on the conversation over on our Grid on Flipgrid!

Have you ever had one of those periods in your life where you’re going a million different directions but never accomplish anything? Well…I’m in one of those periods within my life! Since taking on my new role, there’s SO much to learn and do; I’m not sure which to tackle first! Thus, in my grand way that I always do, I attempt to tackle them all!

Allow me to give you a little background. I started my new role within Microsoft at the end of August 2018, right? Let’s just call it September for conversation’s sake! We’re now already in February 2019!! (I won’t bother to tell you that it’s taken me two weeks to draft and complete this post alone!) I went to Seattle to meet with my new manager in September and then did some onsite customer visits in Sept. / Oct. However, you KNOW that when Halloween hits, it’s just the tip of the iceberg for the holidays! I was back in Redmond in November again before ramping up for an almost two week trip in December to Copenhagen, Denmark, Amsterdam, Netherlands and then Madrid, Spain.

Yes, travel is in the new role! That’s for sure! I came back from Europe to spend time with the family before leaving for BETT 2019 in London, England. Before you say it; I know there’s a TON of air time to be able to work. Yep. I just slept!

Now we’re in mid-February… however, there’s some great projects I’m starting to spool back up! The first is this blog again! However, I’m going to use this as a launch page for some of my other projects! What could those be? I’m glad you asked! I’ve embarked on a few:

1. I’m starting up my task-based learning videos again! For those of you who to not know, prior to my joining Microsoft, I was a consultant and I started a company called LearnSMS.com. The concept was to create short, task-based videos about SMS (product prior to SCCM). So, I’m back at that again! I’ll try to cross link the videos here as well… however, the YouTube channel link is can be found here or go to http://aka.ms/I4ESnacks. Once I get enough subscribers, I’ll change it to a vanity URL on YouTube directly!
2. Part of a Program Manager’s role is to get feedback from our customers and understand how you use our products. So, I’ve created a Grid on FlipGrid which can be found here. The thought is that we can start a virtual dialog on various topics.
3. In support of the prior two topics, I’ve had to get some new gear in order to vlog and create content for everyone! So, that’s been a learning curve as well!

So, you can see that there’s not a shortage of stuff to do on my plate! Now it’s time to start execution of the plan! Here we go! Let’s do this thing!

I’ll make EVERY effort to remember the conferences where I’ll be attending so you have the possibility to meet in person! This month’s conference is BrainStorm 2019 being held in the Wisconsin Dells, WI starting on March 3rd through 5th, 2019.

I’m going to be bringing my new vlogging gear to capture some of the activities while there. Come up and say hello! You never know if you’ll make my next vlog entry!

For those of you who know me… or potentially those that do not, I work for Microsoft. I’ve worked there for over 12 years; five of which were supporting K-12, HighEd and some medical researching institutions in the United States. However, I’ve recently returned to the Education Vertical as a Senior Program Manager with the Intune For Education Team.

As a historical reference, my career was founded on asset management; both client and server. However, as my career progressed, it diverged deeper into server technologies and eventually helping partners building their own solutions within Microsoft Azure. I am SO fortunate to be returning to my passion areas of education and client management!

To that end, I’m going to start blogging again! Not only am I returning to an area which has changed dramatically, but I am in learning mode again. I though I would document my learning, trials and tribulations as I work with Microsoft Engineering Teams as well as customers! Beware… I may be coming to a town near you!