Category Archives: Events

Events, Meet the Team, Office Life

Game Night at SoftArtisans

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Board Games and Beer

Once a month we get together for board games, beer, and pizza. On Wednesday, Aug 8th, we’re opening our doors to the community (yes, you!) to partake in the festivities!

Come meet the team, strategize on building the next laser-bagel-toaster-cutter, and enjoy FREE food and drinks. That’s right — free food, beer and great company. (We can arrange transportation if needed.)

The Details:
When:
Wednesday, Aug. 8th, 6 p.m.

Where:
SoftArtisans
3 Brook Street
Watertown, MA 02472

RSVP: http://boardgamesandbeer.eventbrite.com/

What’s in it for us? Continue reading Game Night at SoftArtisans →

Events, OfficeWriter, SharePoint

SPTechCon Boston 2012 Wrap Up

Going through SPTechCon withdrawals? So are we. That’s why we’re bringing you a (relatively) quick recap from the Twittosphere. We can’t thank everyone who came out to booth #505 enough. We enjoyed meeting/tweeting all of you and learning from the SharePoint community! If you weren’t able to join in the exciting conversation or view OfficeWriter demos on how it can enhance reporting with SharePoint, fear not we have more demos online and the chance to download a free evaluation of OfficeWriter so you can take it for a test drive yourself. In the interim, take a look inside the four days of sessions, networking, and SharePoint learning.

[To view the wrap up on Storify]

Continue reading SPTechCon Boston 2012 Wrap Up →

Events

#Undertime BostonFest Contest: Fight Email Overload, Win a POP Phone

*Cross-posted from Riparian Data, a startup incubated out of SoftArtisans.

What’s the single best part of your workday? Work night? Weekend? It’s checking your inbox, right? Oh. It’s not? But you spend 13 hours a week dealing with email! You and your ‘box should be besties by now!

Pardon? “Enemies?” Did you really say that?

Way harsh, Ty.

But, seeing as it’s your work/life and I’m just interrupting it, Imma throw you a bone. Or, rather, a Pop phone.

Here’s what you need to do to get it:

Continue reading #Undertime BostonFest Contest: Fight Email Overload, Win a POP Phone →

Events, SharePoint

5 Things to Do in Boston Other Than SharePoint

SP Tech Con is fast approaching. If you’re new to Boston here are a few things you don’t want to miss – some touristy, some local.

  1. Duck Tour – Definitely touristy, but you should go until you get every driver. They are unbelievably fun and you get a nice overview of the history of the city – Or y’know you could do those segway tours but you better have confidence of steel because between you and me, people judge.
  2. Brewery Tours – Take your pick. Tickets tend to sell out fast so I recommend getting there early.
  1. Harpoon – Tour ($5) or a tasting (free). Tours are on the weekends and tastings are weekdays at 2pm and 4pm. Either way learn about the brewing process while drinking. Leave with a souvenir glass.
  2. Sam Adams – Free. Take the Orange line and follow the signs to the brewery. Learn about the brewing process while enjoying free tastings. Afterward, hop aboard the complimentary party trolley, which will take you to Doyle’s, one of my favorite bars. Continue reading 5 Things to Do in Boston Other Than SharePoint →

Events, Featured, OfficeWriter, SharePoint

SP Tech Con Prize Giveaway: Call Me Maybe?

Coming to SP Tech Con in Boston this July? Visit us at booth #505 and enter to win a POP Phone. We will be raffling off 5 POP phones throughout the conference. A throwback to the 50’s style Bakelight design phone, these plug into all mobile phones, tablets, and computers. Plus they add an additional cool factor when you’re Skyping or video chatting with friends. See below for prize giveaway details.

Prize details:

Where:

Booth #505

When:

July 24th – 25th

Tuesday, 11am – 7pm

Wednesday, 11am – 4pm

How to Enter:

Continue reading SP Tech Con Prize Giveaway: Call Me Maybe? →

Events, SQL Server, Uncategorized

Microsoft’s TechEd North America 2012 Keynote Recap

The 20th anniversary of Microsoft’s TechEd North America kicked off with a keynote showcasing Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, Visual Studio 2012, and SQL Server 2012.  They should have renamed it the Windows Azure hour, though.

A cloud-based infrastructure back end was included in 90% of the demos. These demos included:

  • System Center 2012 migrating virtual machines seamlessly from a local data center to 3rd party service provider
  • The process of creating virtual machines in Windows Azure
  • The act of deploying web and mobile applications to Windows Azure directly from VS 2012 with one click
  • Using SQL Server 2012’s Powerview to break down 140,000 movie tweets (I believe stored in a Hadoop cluster on Windows Azure though the presenter was unclear) into useful information for a movie theater owner looking to maximize revenue.

Of all the demos,  Continue reading Microsoft’s TechEd North America 2012 Keynote Recap →

Events, Social Media

Ad Club EDGE 2012 Conference Recap

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Monday the AdClub EDGE Conference rolled into town and consumed (see what I did there) the Institute of Contemporary Art. When I walked into the auditorium, The Ad Club’s Big Orange Couch was front-and-center, though it remained mostly untouched by the speakers, who elected to stand while presenting. (Sidenote: My coworker Paula pointed out the couch reminded her of our famous nap room couch here at SoftArtisans.)

Eleven speakers in rapid succession made for an engaging conference and a ton of fascinating insights surrounding the advertising realm including issues of privacy and big data. While the majority of the speakers focused on B2C marketing as opposed to B2B, (which is what we focus on with OfficeWriter) the insights proved to be extremely valuable. I wish I could cover it all, but in the interest of (your) time, I’ll just leave you with the key takeaways I gleaned from each speaker. As a bonus though I’ve also rounded up a few of the most interesting tweets from the conference to give an inside look at the conversations it sparked.

The Topic: Consumed (although the power of storytelling snuck in on more than one occasion)

The Gist: To steal the words of @SchneiderMike – Exploring “how brands and marketers are approaching this collision of media and data to better understand how their audience consumes content and what consumes them.”

Cue Rihanna’s bouncy “We Found Love” for walkout music as Kathy Kiely (@MadamePrez), President of The Ad Club kicked off the event. Continue reading Ad Club EDGE 2012 Conference Recap →

Events, Office Life, Uncategorized

WorkIT: Careers @ Bostinno Launch

It was such a great night to be out in Kendall Square!  When I heard the news about the launch of “Careers on BostInno”, my first thought was: please not yet another useless job board that produces zero quality for start-ups looking to connect with potential candidates.  On the flip- (insert: positive or any other politically correct segue) side, consider the source: in under four years, BostInno has gone from a niche blog to the nexus of all things groundbreaking in Boston. As stated on their website:

“BostInno’s foundation is innovation – …. our platform connects and informs people in a way that drives innovation at a time in which we believe our economy and society desperately need change for the better.”

In this market, I highly doubt that one source can be the answer to creating the ultimate pipeline for top tech talent.  What is exciting about this launch is that you have a creditable source in the Boston start-up community that is serving as a “connector” between the small start-up and the job seeker.

Overall the event was a great opportunity to get out, mingle, and meet new faces!  Since this was the first time that BostInno crossed the river, I hope that everyone had a great time and they continue to explore new places. (I hear things are booming in Watertown!)

As to the product, we are looking forward to trying it out!  One just never knows when, where, or how you will meet the next person to join our small community.  My search continues…

Events

Spring/Summer 2012 Conference Wishlist: DevCon, SQLBits, TechEd, and More


[Image via Huffington Post]

It’s 81 degrees out right now. In March. In Boston. We’re racing the kayaks out on the Charles this afternoon. El Niño, te amo. Nice weather tends to give me Magellan syndrome, and what better way to (semi) productively harness that than by researching cool sessions at upcoming conferences? The following were selected for their edgy subject matter. You may translate “edgy” any way you like.

I would love to see a conference devoted to SQL Azure Labs projects like Data Explorer, but that aside, I think this list sums up my current MSFT-related interests. If I’ve skipped yours, do chime in in the comments!

  • Topic: BI Reports
  • Conference: DevConnections
  • Session: Data Visualization Choices
  • By: Paul Turley (b | t)
  • Hook: Get the scoop behind Reporting Services, PowerPivot, Tabular Semantic Models, Report Builder, BIDS, SharePoint, PerformancePoint, Excel, Excel Services and the new Power View reporting tool.
  • Where: Las Vegas, NV
  • When: 3/26-3/29 (better book those plane tickets now!)
  • How much: $1595
  • Topic: Data Quality Services and Master Data Services
  • Conference: SQLBits X
  • Session: Take Good care of your Data: Introducing SQL 2012 DQS &MDS
  • By: David Faibish (in)
  • Hook: “The new exciting Data Quality Services and the improved Master Data Services in conjunction with SSIS provides the IT and IW with an attractive solution that allows full lifecycle data management.”
  • Where: Novotel London West, London
  • When: 3/29 (yep, same “buy those tickets stat” admonishment!)
  • How much: £350.00
  • Topic: Azure
  • Event: Windows Azure Kickstart
  • Hook: “You have chance to spend a day with some of the nation’s leading cloud experts and to learn how to build a web application that runs in Windows Azure. “
  • By: Microsoft Azure team
  • Where: Minneapolis, Independence, Columbus, Overland Park, Omaha, Mason, Southfield, Houston, Creve Coeur, Downder’s Grove, Franklin, and Chicago
  • When: 3/30-5/8 (check the listing for your city’s date)
  • How much: Free
  • Topic: Hadoop on Azure
  • Conference: Hadoop Summit
  • Session: Unleash Insights on All Data with Microsoft Big Data*
  • By: Alexander Stojanovic (b| t)
  • Hook: “Accelerate your analytics with a Hadoop service that offers deep integration with Microsoft BI and the ability to enrich your models with publicly available data from outside your firewall. “
  • Where: San Jose Convention Center
  • When: 6/13-6/14
  • How much: $499 (until 3/31), $599 (4/1-6/3), $700 (on-site)
  • Topic: Exchange 2010 SP2
  • Conference: TechEd Europe
  • Session: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 SP2: In’s and Out’s
  • By: Exchange Product Team
  • Hook: “Come and see how we have tamed this beast and turned it into something even your own mother could understand.”
  • Where: Amsterdam RAI
  • When: 6/26-6/29
  • How much: €1,695 + VAT (before 3/31), €1,995 + VAT (after 3/31)

 

*Sessions for Hadoop Summit are selected by the community. Results coming soon.

Big Data, Events

Boston Hadoop Meetup Group: The Trumpet of the Elephant

Heheh. But seriously, if you live in the Boston area and are working with Hadoop, or interested in working with Hadoop, or just think the name is fun to say, you should absolutely clear your calendar the night of February 15. Why? Because it’s the first Boston Hadoop Meetup Group since November, and judging by the presenter line-up, it’s going to be a doozie (or an Oozie, if you want to get all topical).

First up, MapR’s Chief Application Architect Ted Dunning (t|l) on using Machine Learning within Hadoop. I’m really excited about this one.

Second, Cloudera Systems Engineer Adam Smieszy (t|l) on integrating Hadoop into your existing data management and analysis workflows.

Last, Hadapt’s CTO Philip Wickline (t|ln) “will give a high-level discussion about the differences between HBase and Hive, and about transactional versus analytical workloads more generally speaking, and dive into the systems required for each type of workload. ”

Each talk will run about 15-20 minutes, with time for Q&A after, followed by (free) beer and mingling.

The Boston Hadoop MeetUp Group is organized by Hadapt’s Reed Shea (t|l). Hadapt is doing some very very cool stuff with unstructured and structured data processing and analytics–cool enough that founder/Chief Scientist Daniel Abadi took teaching leave from Yale to turn his research into a product.

This particular MeetUp is sponsored by Hadapt, MapR, Cloudera and Fidelity, and is being held at Fidelity’s downtown office, from 6 to about 8:30 pm. For more information and to sign up, visit the event page.

See you there!