PowerShell Summit: Best Conference Deal Ever!

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:55:39 +0000

What’s the average tech conference cost these days? $1500? $2000? And that’s just to get in, to say nothing of hotel, air, food, and whatnot.
The PowerShell Summit North America 2013 has an idea. Lets do a community-owned event, with a goal of breaking even and supporting an annual event, but not worry about a profit.
Lets say you live in the US. A ticket to Seattle in April will run you $500-700 after taxes. Maybe less if you can get on a discount carrier like Southwest - they fly to SEA. Hotel will run you under $450 for three nights. Say you decide to splurge on a car for four days, probably for under $200 (including all the ridiculous taxes on rental cars). Toss in another $250 for food? That takes you to under $1600. PowerShell Summit only costs $550 - less if you register during one of the Early Bird tiers; as low us $450, in fact. That’s $2100-2200 total, or just a bit over what some conferences charge for their registration fee alone!
What about quality? Well, you’ll get the same food Microsoft employees get. So that can’t be all bad. You’ll attend sessions delivered by Microsoft product team members, along with independent experts. You’ll interact directly with PowerShell team managers, too, in a small-event format that lets you provide product feedback directly to them. Heck, with under 100 fellow attendees, you’ll get plenty of face time with everyone.
It’s going to be a great event, and it will definitely be affordable. It’s being run by members of the community, not a conference company. This will hopefully become OUR event, an annual gathering of PowerShell enthusiasts, experts, and team members. A chance to network, to learn, to share, and to grow.
I hope you’ll be able to join us!

Own a Piece of the Community: Buy Shares in PowerShell.org, Inc.!

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:35:16 +0000

When Kirk Munro and I set this site up, and started redirecting traffic from the old PowerShellCommunity.org, one of our main goals was to make this a truly community-owned resource. We wanted it hosted independently (my company, Concentrated Tech, is being paid to host the site, so we get pretty good service and total control). We didn’t want to be beholden to anyone’s commercial interests or whims (companies do get distracted by their real jobs from time to time, after all).
When we started talking to Microsoft about holding aPowerShell Summit, we wanted that to be community-owned too, and not tied to a commercial interest - in part so that we could keep the price low, but also so that Microsoft would be able to support us without getting into any possible conflicts of interest with any of its ISV partners.
Today, our intention becomes legally realized. PowerShell.org., Inc., a Nevada corporation, is born - and we’re offering ownership shares to help raise capital. This capital will be used to pay for necessities like bookkeeping, and also to help bootstrap the Summit event. Shareholders are _legal owners of the corporation, _and will vote for its Board of Directors - who in turn appoint the Officers that make things happen. Our first Board will consist ofmyself,Kirk,Jeffery Hicks,Richard Siddaway, andJason Helmick.
**Want to become a community owner? **You’ll want to start with our “Shareholder Brochure,” which is available inthe new “PowerShell.org, Inc.” forum on this site. That forum will also get you our Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation; the Brochure will outline the purpose of the corporation, and explain what it means to be a shareholder. The forum also contains the Share Purchase Order form, which you can use to purchase shares, and contains documents that outline our initial Board of Directors and Officer lineup and other important details.

Cool tip: Shareholders get access to a special forum on PowerShell.org to discuss company business, are eligible for an @powershell.org e-mail address, and may receive a discount to thePowerShell Summit North America 2013. In fact, if you’re planning to attend, you can add $100 worth of stock to your event registration for just $75 (plus card fees), instantly giving you your $25 discount!

We hope you’ll give serious consideration to supporting this community effort, and to finally - about six years after PowerShell’s introduction - help us realize our dream of creating a truly community-owned online resource, educational event, and more. We have createda set of forums on PowerShell.org for discussion and Q&A about this corporation, so if you have any questions, we encourage you to turn there for your answers.
Although the corporation will not be publicly-traded in the sense of appearing on a stock market, we do intend to make as much of its business as possible completely open and transparent. To that end, we’ll use this blog to periodically announce the availability of public documents (as we create them), along with shareholder meetings and other important events. Just look for items in the “Inc.” category of the blog. We’ll also use theForums as a repository for various documents, so that you can always find them easily.
What do you get by being an owner? Well, a vote (one per share owned) for the Board of Directors makeup. The aforementioned $25 discount to the PowerShell Summit. An @powershell.org e-mail address or forwarding alias, if you want one. And a chance to help us create a truly independent, group-driven entity that’s owned not by any one person, but by all of us together.
Thanks for joining.

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PowerShell Summit: 'I'm Feeling Lucky' Tickets on Sale, $400 Each

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 22:55:29 +0000

That’s right, for just $400 you can guarantee yourself a seat at the PowerShell Summit North America 2013, to be held at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA. Just 10 tickets will be made available at this low-low-low price, which is $150 off the normal registration rate.
Why so low? Why are they called “I’m Feeling Lucky” tickets? Because while we’re committed to an April 2013 date, we haven’t actually locked in dates with Microsoft, yet. So to purchase these, you’ve got to be feeling flexible… or lucky!
But it’s not a marriage. The tickets are completely refundable, up to 30 days prior to the event. So if we manage to lock in the three dates you can’t attend, we’ll give you your money back. You can also transfer the ticket to someone else, at any time (although they’ll be paying you directly for the ticket, and we won’t get involved in that transaction).
Once these sell out, or we lock in our dates, we’ll commence the Early Bird period, with a rate of $475 and just 30 tickets available. That rate will be good through the end of December, unless we sell out. Full rate of $550 kicks in after that, when we’ll sell the remaining tickets to fill our roughly 100-person venue.
Thinking about presenting? Start submitting topics in the Forums! You can get all the other juicy details on the Summit’s dedicated site, and catch the Summit’s Twitter feed for ongoing announcements.

Who can present?

Articles from September 2012 on PowerShell.org - Welcome Automaters!

PSCX 2.1 and 3.0 Release Candidates Posted

PSCX 2.1 and 3.0 Side-by-Side Support