I was invited a few weeks ago to attend a Microsoft Vista/Office 2007 launch event in Orlando which was being held today.  So I decided to get up early and brave the cold and rain to see what Microsoft had to offer.  It was being held at the beautiful Rosen Plaza hotel in Orlando.  Unfortunately, there was more than 2000 people at this event and parking was almost impossible, but I eventually made it in.

Microsoft had a very nice registration area setup with beverages and a light breakfast for participants.  There were several representatives there to direct people, and they were all very friendly.  I handed them my ticket and they gave me a string backpack full of goodies.  By goodies I mean a pen and a t-shirt.

The presenter had just started a few minutes earlier, and he was showing some of the basic functions and some of the new features of Vista.  He started off showing us the Documents folder and how in Vista you are able to "look in side the documents" and how the use of metadata makes finding and browsing your documents easier.  He went on to show off other things like Windows Flip, Flip3D, and desktop search.

For some reason he spent just an hour or so on Vista, and the rest of the time telling us how great Office 2007 was.  We saw a visual timeline of the progress of Microsoft Office, a few spreadsheet jokes, and a few minutes reminiscing about "Clippy".  I will admit I learned a few new things about Office 2007 that I didn't pay much attention to before like previewing e-mail attachments inside the mail message. 

During the breaks many people started "mingling" and I got a chance to talk to many people, most of which were from small or mid-sized companies.  The big topic of discussion was obviously Windows Vista and many of the people I spoke to planned to upgrade to Vista.  The interest in Office 2007 was quite high also, which I didn't personally expect.

Overall it was a good event, and I even learned a thing or two, maybe even three, and met some really nice people.  Microsoft put on a great presentation, and it was well worth the drive.  The Microsoft Launch events are still going on for several weeks, so if you have the opportunity to attend, go for it.  You can get locations and dates from the Microsoft events website below.