Minasi Conference 2009 Home PagePlease join us for the fourth annual Mark Minasi Conference 2009. We will once again be meeting in beautiful Virginia Beach, VA to learn new technologies, share ideas, and meet the people that have become our online friends. Hosted by Mark Minasi, this meeting will have in depth talks on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Exchange 2007, Windows Home Server (WHS), Windows Vista as well as other hot topics. You won't want to miss this!!
Technical Sessions (Schedule Subject to Change)Sunday, April 19, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
SpeakersMark Minasi Mark Minasi is a best-selling author, popular technology columnist, commentator, keynote speaker, and all-around alpha geek. What separates him from many of the other alpha geeks, however, is that he knows how to explain things to normal humans and often make them laugh while doing it. That's reflected in his recent Reader's Choice award for "Favorite Technical Author" at CertCities. More testimony to his popularity with tech world came at a recent SearchWin2000 webcast on tuning computers. At that webcast, Mark drew three times as many attendees as any previous webcast, crashing Yahoo!'s servers. He is probably best known for his books in the Mastering series (Mastering Windows Server 2003, Mastering Windows NT Server, Mastering Windows 2000 Server, Mastering XP Professional, etc) and his perennial hardware PC repair and fix-it book The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide, now in its 13th edition. His monthly columns in Windows and .NET Magazine are among the best-read in the periodical. Mark has also authored 19 other technology books, spoken on technical topics in 20 countries, and written and performed in a dozen technical education videos. Rhonda Layfield Rhonda Layfield has been in the IT community for 25 years. She began her IT career in the US Navy as a communications specialist holding a top secret clearance. She is now an independent consultant and trainer who develops and teaches her own curriculum on Various Microsoft and VMWare Technologies. Rhonda has a passion for learning products at the packet level and sharing that knowledge in her classes with some of the most prestigious organizations and corporations around the world. Some of which include Dow Jones, the US Airforce, the US Army, IBM, Bank of America, Wachovia, Bell Atlantic and EDS. She is currently an NT/2000/2003 MCSE and MCT. Along with teaching she enjoys presenting at national conferences (TechMentor and Windows Connections) and contributing articles to various technical magazines and is also a co-author of Mastering Windows Server 2003 Upgrade Edition for SP1 & R2. Roger Grimes Roger A. Grimes, Microsoft Security Architect, is 22-year industry veteran, author or co-author of over 7 books and over 200 magazine articles on computer security. He is often a top-rated speaker at many national conferences and enjoys just the chance to compete against the great Minasi. Roger is the InfoWorld security columnist so if you hate that guy, here's your chance to give him a piece of your mind. Often considered the Sam Kinison of the computer security world, he often rants against crappy security software and thinks few solutions offer real hope. Attend his sessions and learn about what really works. Eric B. Rux Eric B. Rux is cofounder of http://www.whshelp.com/. His monthly column Coming Home to Windows Home Server can be read at www.connectedhomemag.com. Eric is a senior Windows administrator for a large bill-management company and teaches the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) program at a local tech college. Nathan Winters Nathan Winters is a Lead
Consultant for Dimension Data. He is responsible for the Microsoft
Exchange practice in the UK. Nathan has been working in I.T. for six
years and specializes in Exchange and Office Communications Server. Curt Spanburgh Curt Spanburgh is a Microsoft Dynamics CRM MVP, Cofounder of One Solution Group. A Microsoft Dynamics Consulting firm in Atlanta. He has worked with Microsoft applications for more than 15 years and monitors a Microsoft Business Solutions forum on the Mark Minasi Help Forum at http://www.minasi.com. He has worked with Microsoft Dynamics CRM since Beta 1.0 and Dynamics Great Plains since 1998. He is a contributing editor, writer and software reviewer for Windows IT Pro Magazine and SQL Server Magazine. One Solution Group provides Microsoft Share Point, Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains and Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions. James Summerlin James Summerlin is 35 years old and has been working with computers since 1997. He has a bachelor's of science in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and currently consultants for small to medium sized offices - mostly in the medical field. James Summerlin works for Professional Data Management, Inc. located in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Aidan Finn
Aidan Finn has been working in IT since 1996. He has worked as a
consultant and administrator for the likes of Amdahl DMR, Fujitsu,
Barclays and Hypo Real Estate Bank International where he dealt with
large and complex IT infrastructures. More recently Aidan has been
working in the server hosting and outsourcing industry in Ireland where
he has focused on server management, including a large VMware VI3
deployment. Currently he is working for C Infinity (http://www.cinfinity.ie/),
an outsourcing services company in Ireland, where he is the Systems and
Infrastructure Manager. Here he has been working with Hyper-V and
Microsoft System Center as part of an advanced server deployment and
management infrastructure. Aidan is the leader of the Windows User
Group in Ireland. Aidan is also a Microsoft Most Valuable
Professional (MVP) on System Center Configuration Manager and is an
active blogger (http://joeelway.spaces.live.com/).
When Aidan isn't at work he's out and about with camera in hand trying
to be a photographer (http://www.aidanfinnphoto.com/). Joe McGlynn
Joe is a Microsoft Certified Engineer working for
Bryan S Ryan, The Complete Office Solutions Provider.
Most
times Joe will profess to knowing more about Whiskey that Servers, lives
with 3 DNS gremlins and is looking for his ideal job as a DHCP
Administrator for some lucky company. Stacy Hein Stacy Hein is a Senior Consultant for Lightedge Consulting Services. Stacy has been a SQL Server DBA for 8 years working for major avionics, insurance, and financial companies. He is a regular contributor to the Mark Minasi Forum.
You can contact
Stacy at
shein@lightedge.com. Location, Travel and RegistrationThe meetings take place at the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel, an
oceanfront Virginia Beach hotel. You are responsible for making your own
reservations. 2800 Shore Drive
When registering, please say that you are with the "Minasi group," so that you will receive the best rate. Room rates are $112/night. (That doesn't count the usual heavy slathering of added Federal, state, county, city, street and other taxes, of course.) TravelVirginia Beach is in the southeastern corner of Virginia. It is the 42nd most populous US city, outpacing such better-known cities as Oakland, Omaha, Miami, Raleigh, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and many others. (This irritates those cities, but inasmuch as VAB contains the huge Oceania Naval Airbase, we are fully prepared to retaliate to any attempts to knock us off our beloved 42nd spot.) You can drive to Virginia Beach via US 64 East to US 264 East. The Hotel's web page has more driving details at http://www.virginiabeachresort.com/directions.htm. To fly to Virginia Beach, go to either the Norfolk International Airport (airport code ORF, Web site http://www.norfolkairport.com/) and from there it's about a 35 minute taxi ride that'll cost about $50, not including tip. Or fly into Newport News / Williamsburg airport (http://www.nnwairport.com/), which is smaller and about 45 minutes' drive further. (Sorry, we don't have a guess on the cost of ground transport from Newport News.) RegistrationWe're charging $450/head to cover meeting room expenses, duplication expenses and the dinner at Mark's farm one evening. While the registration fee is a bit more than last year, the hotel is cheaper. When you add in the hotel and the registration fee, the total charge is only $50 more than last year. Click here to register. It's the "seminar registration" page because it was just easier and cheaper to put the registration on that page. Just be sure to choose the "Minasi Conference 2009." (if you are unable to register online, please email Jean Snead below). You can pay with checks, purchase orders and credit cards, but in any case we need payment before the event, and thanks for your help... and for joining us! (And if you're coming from outside of the US or Canada, then just ignore the need for a zip code, apologies -- we're using the software that we use for our public seminars, which only take place in the US and Canada. Just punch in anything for a zip. The credit card system won't work either because of the zip code issue, but if you e-mail Jean Snead (assistant@minasi.com) then she can handle a credit card manually. Apologies for the trouble, again thanks for joining us!) |
