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.