Well it’s been another roller coaster of a week jetting around the country in the midst of a sub tropical heatwave for the third Microsoft Student Partner meeting.
Having already visited the home of Microsoft Ltd in Reading and MSN in London this time we headed off to Microsoft Research in Cambridge. The event began on Sunday evening with Pimms, an old British Summer tradition, in the gardens of St Catherine’s College followed by a formal black tie college dinner. When Neil and I originally planned the event some 6 months ago we had no idea that it would conflict with 2 other crucial events – Suicide Sunday (the culmination of the university year which sees Cambridge University students embarking on a 24 hour drinking bonanza) and the opening game of Euro 2004 for England against our “close” friends, the French.
So after dinner the group of 40 split up with one group following Neil to watch a video of the England game back at the hotel (for Gavin’s benefit I won’t mention the score) and splinter groups headed off to sample the various aspects of Cambridge nightlife. I ended up with some of the Academic Team and Fabien the University Relations Manger at Microsoft Research in the Qi Lounge which is apparently the Sex and the City of Cambridge and then my evening was rounded off with a trip to one of the smallest, smokiest bars imaginable – the Light Bar.
The MSP meeting proper began on Monday with a mix of MVPs, Microsoft and Microsoft Research speakers including Andrew Herbert, Antonio Criminisi, Tim Regan who wowed us with some of the great 3D vision and social media spaces research projects that they are currently working on. Dominic, a former MSP, cofounder of Project Hurricane and now a Software Design Engineer in Test in the Whidbey/Burton product group at Redmond also made a special trip back to present. The afternoon was rounded off with some great best practice sessions by Alan, Dan and Sarah from Southampton University who showcased their .NET Coding Competition as well as the inaugural Xbox LAN Party that was recently held at Keele University by Gavin.
So I guess Neil and I need to get on with planning the fourth and final event of the 2004 programme in August. As always ideas for speakers, content and social activities are greatly appreciated…