Had a great time at Microsoft last week. I went directly from the Microsoft campus to a show in Los Angeles and am just now getting the opportunity to look at photos and reflect on the great things discussed.

I did take the opportunity to jump up on the main stage (after the sessions) - which is pretty unusual as I am usually behind the staging running the show.

And if you have wondered what a hotel lobby would look like with hundreds of Microsofts MVPs it would look like this - everyone using the wifi! And that empty chair was mine...

- Troy @ TLC

Flying up to Seattle for the week. Will be attending the Microsoft MVP Summit and having time with the PowerPoint development team and other PPT MVPs.

- Troy @ TLC

Working at different locations around the world have different rewards. This week the reward was working in the Olympic host city, Vancouver, and being able to hold the Olympic torch as it climbed to the top of Grouse Mountain where my meeting was staged.

- Troy @ TLC

This is Buster Wells in December:

This is Buster Wells today:

And this is Chris Wells, Buster's owner - who I work with at corporate meetings.

I learned the story of Buster's bad winter experience while working with Chris last week in (warm) Phoenix, AZ (it was a great show). Apparently Buster had a bad grooming appointment. He went in small and fluffy, but came out small and completely shaved. Oh, and Buster lives in Boston where it is very cold!

CALL TO ACTION:
Turns out an unnamed mischieveous person (not me) decided Buster needed a Facebook account to share his nakedness with the world. I think Buster needs 1,000+ Facebook friends so he can hold his small, furless head high and bask in the glory of being more popular than his owner.Search "Buster Wells" on Facebook and befriend him today!

- Troy @ TLC

Winter season is here, so the corporate meetings head to warmer climates. In the past 30 days I have been in Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Hawaii and Arizona. To pick a favorite skiing with my girls in Colorado was #1, but working in Maui with the Oakley (ie. sunglasses) group was a lot of fun!

That is Paul Chrisope (show producer and video playback) and Gary Meeker (audio, VOG and music mix-master).

- Troy @ TLC

Sorry for the lapse in posts. I am on my 4th city/show this month - and 2 to go...

Here is my "office" backstage:

And my view of things:

- Troy @ TLC

This week I have been enjoying a fantastic time skiing with my wife and kids in Colorado (snow is a novelty for us being from San Diego). Each evening as the hot cocoa is ready, all the laptops come out (it's a vacation, but still lots of projects) and my kids have been playing games on Y8.com.

Pretty impressive website with literally thousands of free Flash games. Enough to entertain for a full week of snowy nights.

- Troy @ TLC

Here is a quick photo of my backstage graphics setup from a recent meeting. Always great to head to Florida during the Winter months for a week!

It's even better when your wife is working with you!

- Troy @ TLC

It is almost here - PowerPoint 2010! I have been running the pre-beta - beta for 2 months and here it is!

As a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP I have talked with the development team, seen demos, been asked questions and overall impressed. I have been excited about this version for almost 2 years from these interactions and after spending a few months with the near release version (eg. not 100% stable and not 100% functional) I am truly excited.

The month of November is going to almost entirely be focused on PowerPoint 2010... all from my perspective. There is a lot of information on the web about Office 2010, so I am going to list off my top 15 new features/functions from the perspective of a designer who works with the application daily.

And hopefully during this month information on the upcoming public beta will become available. Then you can try it yourself and see if my top features match yours.

- Troy @ TLC