Read them all here: http://tommymaynard.com/extra-powershell-summit-north-america-2015-0-2015/

I couldn’t believe it when it arrived: the final day of the PowerShell Summit North America 2015. Fifty some days ago and I wasn’t sure the summit would ever get here, and now, it’s over.

My final day consisted of another ride over to the Microsoft campus, another second breakfast — seriously, I ate two each morning — and several more PowerShell sessions. The standout sessions for me on the last day were Jason Helmick‘s The Top DSC Gotchas and Best Practices, and June Blender‘s PowerShell Help Deep Dive. These two speakers are two of the best when it comes to capturing the audience’s attention. Jason could keep me awake regardless of topic, and June could sell me anything. They are both great presenters, and so you should get to watching both of their sessions now. Now, as in relation to when you finish reading this post.

As I sat and listened to June speak, I kept thinking the same thing, and no, it’s not that her voice reminds me of my CPA — something I told her earlier in the week when waiting outside an elevator. Oh, by the way, I should probably put my apology out there for her now. Microsoft had these mints on the front desk, as you enter the building. I popped one in my mouth as I made my way to the elevator — bad idea. As much as I’d like to forget it didn’t happen during our conversation, a small piece of my breath mint decidely left my mouth and took flight near June’s direction. Thanks for pretending that didn’t happen, June!

What I kept thinking was that June should have spoken way sooner than day three. In future summits, she needs to do a welcome or keynote presentation, alongside, or before, or after Don. She pulls you in, and I think we all might have benefited from her speaking sooner, and to everyone.

So, as you might be aware, I had been looking forward to day three for awhile, because it was time to take the Verified Effective exam. During lunch on the second day, Don spoke to everyone that was going to take the exam and gave us some information we were going to need to know. One of the things I remembered most, was that the average time to complete the exam was 37 minutes.

Sometime on Wednesday morning, I took a look at my return flight home. The time had been changed to two hours earlier than I had planned. I called the airline and the change was made back in January. I can take some of the blame here, but for whatever reason the notification sent to Expedia, was never sent to me. That doesn’t mean it was Expedia’s fault, but suddenly I had to scramble — a little extra stress with my test. The airline couldn’t help me, nor could the hotel for a ride. If I wanted a ride from the hotel I would have to skip my exam. Ah! I asked the person at the hotel about a taxi and he had a private company, that was able to guarantee the pick up time, give me a call (“I have a guy.”). I gave them my info, got a call back, and arranged my car for 3:45 p.m. — the test started at 3 p.m. (ish).

The test wasn’t hard. In fact, I know I would have completed, if I had been given more time. I left at 3:45 p.m. (and turned in what I had completed, since Jason mentioned doing that) and headed to the airport. Originally, I wasn’t going to bother turning in anything. When I stood up at 3:45 p.m., I was only the second person to do so since the exam began. The first person had been sitting next to me and left a few minutes into the beginning of the exam. No one in a room full of 40+ people was done at 3:45 p.m. Someone did come up as I was standing at the front of the exam room and having Jason copy over my exam. I’m not sure how people felt about the exam and the amount of time to complete it, but I would definitely be interested to know. It seems like nearly all of us could have use a bit longer, unless of course everyone finished after I left, but before 4 p.m.

The summit was over. I was seated in the back of my SUV transportation and headed to the airport. I was disappointed about my test, and I was still stressed — I had to get my boarding pass, drop off and pay for my luggage, get through security, and find my gate all before it was my departure time. I didn’t have as much time as I wanted, but luckily I had enough time to make it.

In the end, I would absolutely recommend you join us next year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that too, because this was an opportunity like no other I’ve yet to have in my career. My prediction was correct. I look forward to continue to script in PowerShell, to continue to explore DSC, to continue to answer questions on PowerShell forums, and to continue to create tools for the community, and my employer. It’s a special bunch of people, and I’m glad I got involved. PowerShell is rewarding, and one of the best things I’ve done, and will continue to do, for my career.

It was great meeting and talking to everyone! I look forward to doing it again.

Read them all here: http://tommymaynard.com/extra-powershell-summit-north-america-2015-0-2015/

When the second day was done and over, I simply didn’t have the energy to do much more than get a shower and watch 30 Rock on Netflix. Yes, 30 Rock — I still have a couple seasons to go. But, just because I didn’t write, didn’t mean I didn’t have another rewarding day. On day two, I attended sessions such as as Dave Wyatt‘s, Keeping Secrets… session, and the combo, two-part session by Jeffery Hicks and Lee Holmes. Each of those were great. Not only do they explain the how in everything, but they explain the why — I think that’s an important distinction, and a requirement for working with Windows PowerShell at the 400-level.

I also got to hear Jim Christopher explain SeeShell and Mike F. Robbins discuss PowerShellGet. They both had a well-thought-out flow to their topics. I recommend these two, without question. I’m looking forward to that future moment when I suddenly remember SeeShell while working on that future project. As well, I can’t wait for WMF 5 to be out of preview, and be ready for down level versions of Windows. PowerShellGet, and especially the PowerShell Package Manager — previously OneGet — are going to make a huge impact on desktop administrators — mark my words.

The final two sessions of the day were quite legendary. First, we heard Don Jones discuss what he knows about — and his predictions for — Nano Server. This was followed up by a QA session with Jeffrey Snover. Yes, that’s as cool as it sounds — especially on a stage this small.

Speaking of Jeffrey Snover, I didn’t get to sit with him again during lunch, but our table did have a second best guest. Don Jones decided to sit with us since “all the spots were taken at the cool kids’ table.” Of course, he was kidding — that’s at least what I’m telling myself. During the conversations with Don, he explained some of the differences between using the Microsoft Campus for the summit and what they had done in the previous year. He indicated that next year’s summit will be back in Washington, and as of now, is tentatively scheduled for the 4th, 5th, and 6th of April, although those dates were actually mentioned on day one. I’m hoping to be there next year, and look forward to venue where everything is in walking distance.

Consider how amazing this event is for a moment: In two days’ time, I sat and ate lunch with Jeffery Snover and Don Jones. The likelihood of that at a big conference is next to zero. Besides all the great PowerShell content, there’s this possibility to actually have conversations with some of the community’s most talented and influential members.

You can watch most, if not all, of the sessions here — seriously, do it, it’s worthy of your time. I’ve been somewhat vague about the session content because my intention is more in line with convincing you to attend — to work on your PowerShell knowledge and skills daily, to be a member of the PowerShell community, and to come out and meet the rest of us. I think I heard Jeffrey Snover say it twice now: it’s his favorite conference. If you’re not going to take my advice, fine, but you’ve got to take his. He’s the inventor of PowerShell; he’s the one that’s been telling us to learn PowerShell — that we’re going to need it (think: Nano Server). We’re System Administrators learning DevOps skills; we’re developers that are thinking operations. We’re blurring the lines, and moving to the front of the line.

One of the most memorial parts of the second day was the evening out. While I could have packed up and easily sat in my hotel room for the evening — I mean, I am a geek; I have a computer — I instead took the offer from Stephen Owen to head out for dinner with a handful of other enthusiasts. Best decision of the summit. I had a great time! I sat at a table at some hip and trendy joint with Warren F, JC, Paul, and Josh Atwell, and had one of the most entertaining conversations, with fellow IT people, in a long time. Never mind that we didn’t talk that much shop, but we laughed our asses off. Josh has to be one of the funniest people I’ve met. If you’re at the summit, do your best to get a seat next to him outside the conference. I also gathered he’s a smart guy, and an author — you go, Josh. Here’s the thing with this conference: everyone is smart. This was an elite group of people. Don’t let that scare you off though — I was there, too.

Read them all here: http://tommymaynard.com/extra-powershell-summit-north-america-2015-0-2015/

Today was the first day of my first PowerShell Summit. What, an amazing opportunity. We’ll get to today, but a bit about last night first.

It started when I arrived at the Ri Ra, a downtown Irish pub and grub. I had a ride with Dave Wyatt, who, as I learned sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. today, has code from his Pester project shipping with Windows — well damn, that’s quite the accomplishment, Dave.

We spent a hour or so at the pub where I was able to chat with Jeffery Hicks, Richard Siddway, Teresa Wilson, and several others. At that point in time, many of these people seemed like celebrities. They still do; however, I’ve come to realize that this summit is designed to break down what might separate speakers from attendees, at a large conference. I’ve shaken hands with Mark Minasi and had a book signed by Mark Russin — hold on while I go figured out how to spell his name — ovich, but this was different kind of experience. The same Jason Helmick I watched on the DSC videos earlier that day, was standing over by the bar. I’ve yet to meet him personally, as well as plenty of others, but still, none of this felt real until today — like mid morning.

Dave and I left Ri Ra after a quick decision to find a place to eat — perhaps one of the BBQ joints we saw on our walk from the garage, where he parked. Sure, it’s only a couple blocks over… through. a. downpour (there had been tornado warnings). The umbrella and sweatshirt I considered bringing, were in my hotel room, dry and unused and probably grateful. When we arrived at the restaurant, I couldn’t see, as my glasses were drenched on both sides of the glass, and my clothes were drenched, too.

After an incredible meal at Queen City Q — something that was required to help keep me from thinking about having dinner with someone I just recently met while wearing clothes that felt as though they just came out of the washing machine — we headed out. Although the GPS in his rental car repeatedly lied to us, we finally made it out of downtown Charlotte. It required that we travel north, to go south. I’m glad to see he made it to the summit today, because I had my doubts about that thing.

So, today. It started off with (my second) breakfast and an opening welcome by Don Jones. Following that, I ended up attending the sessions I planned to originally. This meant I listened to Jason Helmick discuss PowerShell Web Access, permissions, and IIS application pools, all in relation to DSC and DSC resources. I’ve yet to create my own DSC Resources, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity. Jeffrey Snover said something later in the day about the impact of the community; he might be on to something.

I followed up Jason’s session learning about Pester, monitoring, DSC and AD, and then oData. As well, I enjoyed listening to Jeffery Hicks discuss constrained endpoints. Ever since my SharePoint constrained endpoint project, I’ve come to really enjoy the capabilities they provide. I’m looking forward to transferring that knowledge to JEA: limiting cmdlet parameters without a proxy function, sounds good to me.

Jeffrey Snover closed out the sessions in the early evening with his State of PowerShell discussion. It’s always great hearing Jeffrey speak, whether it’s at a TechED, an online video, or a lunch. That’s right, he also spoke at lunch — but not with everyone.

I was sitting amongst a group of other PowerShell enthusiasts. It was a full table, outside the empty chair that was at my right. Next thing I know, Mr. Snover sits down next to me. For 45 minutes to hour he told us stories, introduced us to topics he’d cover in his closing session, and answered questions from anyone at the table that spoke up. It was amazing, as was his ability to eat and chat so well — as if he’s perfected doing these at the same time. When we were rounded up to move to the after lunch activities, he asked where I worked and we briefly discussed Tucson, Arizona — my home town, a place he’s visited. It was a honor to be a part of the discussions that took place at that table. It was something I won’t soon forget, and something I didn’t see coming. Either was being able to guess the number of stickers on Ashley McGlone‘s laptop (25) — something that scored me a sticker.

To round out the evening, I chatted with Adam Bertram. It was an exceptional day and I’m so fortunate that I was a part of the community today, in person. I’m looking forward to tomorrow — round two.