Vista launch .... "It's a new day" or is it

Today there was a big event here in Jordan, the launch of the new Windows OS and Office. I was not thrilled to go to the event but for the lack of anything better to do and the nice venue (Hyatt's Zara center) I just went with it.

As soon as I parked my car and made my way to the elevator, I noticed a very interesting thing there were signs guiding you to get to the event. That was sweet since the customary thing is to either ask or work on hearsay.

Now I don't have many events to compare this to but it was refreshing to see this sort of organization in Jordan, according to the person at the front desk they were expecting 1500 people to attend now thats alot of people for a non public event :)

the track for the event is as follows:

• you register online to attend the event and pick a track of interest to follow; the options where IT professionals, Developers, and executives. this was nice since it offers a sort of a customization to what you are about to hear and limits branching in the topics discussed.
• you show up on the front desk and you provide your information; they print and ID card for you and offer you a package that includes a synopsis manual, a pen, and the schedule for the track you picked (they offered offline registration too). this was sweet since it offers you a kind of identity and importance, it also breaks the norm of having an online registration as just a PR scheme with no other value.

Now this is something am used to but am so enthralled that am seeing it in Jordan, and being implemented correctly ! to my surprise the front desk was efficient (they had 5 people I believe but seemed like double that), they were very curtious. surprisingly people didn't cut the line and where very orderly.

as soon as you made your way to the main hall, they scanned in your ID. that was intriguing. though it brought bad memories from O'Hare, the line "even here!" was running in my mind. the upside to this is it will allow them, I believe, to get some measurement about the way people attended the launch.
the scans where done on every entrance and exit of the halls, so naturlly you could account for what was of interest and what wasn't.
The speakers that where doing the main presentation did a very good job, they kept the attention of the crowd and were very focused. now the guest speakers where a different story, looked like they were told about this a couple pf hours before the event, hence people seemed to leave when they came on :D
They had a bunch of companies and partners in the coffee break area.
to not too carried away in a post that will probably never be read i'll wrap it up that overall i was really excited by the organisation of the event, it was top notch! the speakers in my track were slightly below par but that is forgiven, since in the end they achieved what they were set out to prove

they are offering a new, improved, and a superior product that will manage to enhance things on a bunch of levels and you should seriously think about adapting it as soon as possible

The only times that things went hay wire were on two occasions;

1. the presenters allowed too many questions to be asked hence they ran late, very late. the questions were mostly either something that common sense would have answered or were too specific to be asked to garner any interest from the public
2. They offered give aways ! well the objective was to get people to participate i understand that part. as soon as the session finished they had a mad crowd of about 200 people swarming those 2 poor souls, and no calls for order and patience were heeded. THEY WERE ALMOST MOBBED .

Job well done by M$ middle east, and congrats on what looks like a very successful marketting plan. Vista, office, and exchange have been launched, with the product available to comsumers in january. longhorn will follow by the end of next year, and it looks really interesting .

http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/EastMed/bvlaunch/Jordan/IT.aspx