What an amazing week here in Berlin. We had over 60 sessions presented by over 80 different speakers on Windows 7 this week.

We had hundreds of people stop by our Springboard Series on TechNet booth and the Talking About Windows booth. Since we localize Springboard in 10 languages we had a cool time showing demoing the site in all of the different languages. I also want to give out a huge thanks to our STEP (Springboard Technical Experts Program) members who helped to work our booth. These amazing guys came from Ireland (Aiden), Bolivia (Miklos), New Zealand (Erdal) and the UK (Justin) to help support Springboard and Windows 7.

I even had a chance to be part of the Pre-Keynote. Check out the video of the bus arrival with keynote hosts Hyper-D and Hyper-T.

We met tons of IT pros excited about Windows 7 as well. We worked with a STEP member named Alex de Jong from the Netherlands. Alex asked the delegates at Teched EMEA about their Windows 7 experience. Alex contributes to NGN, the Dutch community of IT Pros. To learn more about Alex and all he does for the community, follow him on Twitter at @alexdejongngn. So ready to see the cool interviews and hear what over 100 IT pros from all over the world had to say about Windows 7 and Springboard? Check out our Talking About Windows events page under the TechEd EMEA event listing here. (Also a huge thanks to his crew, Ed Wens and Michel van den Einden who did all the camera, editing, and production).

 
Also, make sure to check our our newest Engineering and IT pro videos on the main page from Lidiane Souza, Greg Lambert, Stephen Hall and Peter Menadu.

Tuesday night was our Springboard Party at the Water-Gate Club. Over 300 It pros from around the world showed up to party and share their love of Windows 7 and Springboard. It was a great time with great music courtesy of DJ Joey Snow and DJ David Lowe. Thanks again to our co-sponsors on the Windows Server team and TechNet+ team as well as everyone who showed up to celebrate with us.

It was a week of listening to amazing speakers, everyone asking great questions,cool demos, people working in HOLs all day and getting certified that evening, amazing food and people passionate about all of our products. All of this and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. Our motto, “Life Without Walls” really took on a whole new meaning for me as I stood in front of the wall and outside the Brandenburg Gate on Monday.

Thank you Berlin for an amazing time.

Stephen

Meet Kevin Sullivan, He’s a Principal Program Manager here at Microsoft. Kevin shares his thoughts on Group Policy and how this innovative solution can provide flexibility, customization, and ease of adaptation for IT professionals and end users alike.

Also live is our “Making of Windows 7” video. Meet some of the many people who helped make Windows 7 a reality. Listen as Mark Russinovitch, Sandeep Singdal, Jon Devaan, and others share their stories about building app compat, saving IT pros time, and more

Talking About Windows.com is your chance to hear what Microsoft Engineers and IT pros like you have to say and gives you a chance to interact with them.

Hear what they have to say and get heard. Join the conversation. www.talkingaboutwindows.com

Check out our latest addition to TalkingAboutWindows. Ever wonder how decisions were made about the user experience (UX) in Windows 7? Linda Averett is a key program manager on the Windows Team. From Aero Peek and Aero Snap to the design of the new Windows Taskbar. Linda discusses the key decisions we made to make Windows 7 a great end user experience. Find out why “it’s all about you, and what you do.”

Also this week meet Blessing Sibanyoni and Mikael Nystrom. Blessing discusses how he is working to deploy features like BranchCache and DirectAccess to reduce complexity and simplify his bank’s IT environment and listen in as Mikael with TrueSec talks about his customers' needs for a more secure, reliable OS.

Hear what they have to say and get heard. Join the conversation.