Thank you SSW Handsome Hanselman Team

This Wednesday was an amazing success and I was very proud of the SSW team who put it together. Thank you guys, it was outstanding and a lot of people worked very hard over a 5 day period to make it happen.

Firstly ‘thank you’ to everyone who turned up, I appreciate you all being there on such a big night for SSW. It was a new record for the SSW user group, which had an old record of 150 held by the honourable Ken Getz and 130 by Brian Randell.

Running events and user groups is something we have done for a long time, however the area (Suite 13) is really only fine for the normal 40 to 80 guys we get… we had to make it work and work quickly, for the 201 registered excited Hanselman attendees + over a dozen SSW guys.

In addition we have had 270 watching the live stream. There will also be the recording that goes up on SSW TV and YouTube next week, that should get a couple of thousands of views in the first few months.

Figure: 200+ atendees is the new SSW User Group record
Figure: 200+ attendees is the new SSW User Group record

Thank you also to Andrew Coates and Yow for giving us Scotty for the night. Thanks to Vesselin Vasilev for the $1,500 prize from Telerik and of course thanks to Scotty Hanselman for the great presentation.

Figure: It was a memorable user group
Figure: It was a memorable night. You will see in the video that the question-answer part was the best

View more photos at Handsome Hanselman at SSW 2013 Flickr album.

Organising the transformation of our Suite 13 was hard work. These people went beyond the call of duty for this week:

Raj

Thanks for all your hard work to set the place up with a new sound setup and 2 new screens for the people towards the back of the room. These extra screens in the SSW Conference Room was a first.

Not many people could continue to work, when in pain. To have your foot ran over twice* – accidentally by a car with 4 guys in it – and continue working showed dedication. You even got to work on time this week, well nearly on time, which is early for you 🙂

*Note: Yes twice. Once reversing over his foot… then the car stopped due to Raj’s yelling “go back”. In the panic the driver went forward over it again!

The user group live stream went flawlessly and was enjoyed by people all over the world.


Chris Sainty was not down the road in Sydney, he was in Sweden!

Jo

Thanks for organising the event. How you fitted 200 seats into Suite 13 amazed me. Thanks for just stepping up and ensuring this event ran smoothly from the SEO to the champagne on arrival.

Figure: Thanks for ensuring our speaker and attendees were looked after on the night (including champagne on arrival)
Figure: Thanks for ensuring our speaker and attendees were looked after on the night (including champagne on arrival)

Rebecca

Thanks for spearheading the design for the night all produced from the Brisbane Office. I loved the new modern metro window signage. You got that done in record time (including securing approvals from me and others).

You did a great job working with your associate designer David to ensure lots of new things were delivered. I loved the posters, framed images, canvasses and the huge SSW TV logo that all together looked schmick!

I think you secured more approvals in 4 days than you have in the past year. Well done.

David

We threw you into the fire with too many deliverables for a week and you did very well. I will never tire of your ‘can do’ attitude and your ability to work until the job is done.

I applaud how you made a great grand plan of the overall look and feel and where everything should go and then realized the vision, day by day.

Figure: I loved your great designs on the canvas metro wall
Figure: I loved the refreshed office with the new “Metro” wall

Thanks for liaising well with Matthew from Signarama. He was a real character!

Marlon

As always great coordination skills. Thanks for doing the calculations that were needed to convince the guys that we really could fit 200 chairs in our conference room.

You worked great with David and Matthew.  Thanks for spotting problems before they arose…

Titus

Thanks for organising the SSW TV images – the frames looked great. I looked at the photos and cutaway footage you took last night. Lots of good stuff there. I assume I will seem them pop up in future videos.

And the rest…

I’m sure I’ll forget someone but:

  • Thanks Ben Cull for getting the reports on the wall looking great. I never knew that SQL Reporting Services could look so good.
  • Thanks Ed Barnes for painting the walls and moving all the furniture around multiple times
  • Thanks Justin King for quality checking our newsletter and LiveStream
  • Thanks Ewen Wallace for manning the camera at late notice, the most overqualified camera man we have ever used!
  • Thanks Tim, you like efficiency so here I go… “You were a super helpful dude”.
  • Thanks Brooke, you were as awesome as ever. I wish I could bottle your bubbles!

Well done guys and thank you. It was a great team effort.

The video will be up next week.

All attendees

Of course all 200 of you made the event memorable. You had great questions for Handsome Hanselman. Sorry for the squeeze, did you enjoy the night?

Cheers,
@AdamCogan