Meet the Born to Learn team at TechEd 2010 - Born to Learn - Born To Learn

The Born to Learn crew is heading to New Orleans next weekend for TechEd 2010! If you’re attending TechEd as well, stop by the Community Lounge throughout the event and say hi

We’ll have staff at the Community Lounge all week long, but we’ve got some special sessions and topics scheduled as well:

Monday, June 7 11:00am – 12:00pm – Ken Rosen, Director, Community and Evangelism, Microsoft

Ken leads Microsoft Learning’s Community Marketing and Evangelism team—their mission: to build strong relationships with MCTs and MCPs worldwide. Today, the MCT and MCP communities extend far beyond newsgroups. Stop by and ask Ken about new ways to connect with peers and with Microsoft—through Born to Learn, LinkedIn, Virtual Summits and more—and get a sneak preview of things to come through the rest of 2010.

Monday, Jun 7 12:30pm – 1:00pm – Stephen Holcomb, MCP and Olympic Gold Medalist

Steven Holcomb is the reigning four-man bobsled world champion, the 2010 Winter Olympic Bobsled Champion… and a Microsoft Certified Professional! Steven has a passion for technology--that’s why he went for a Microsoft Certification and a CompTIA A+ certification—and while Steven plans to be in the sport for quite a few more years, he is also planning for a career in IT. Stephen has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated—stop by the lounge for a chance to win one of 3 autographed copies of that issue!

Tuesday, June 8 11:00am – 12:00pm – Tjeerd Veninga, Senior Community Lead, Microsoft

Tjeerd tends to call himself ‘your friendly neighborhood Community Lead’. As such he is the voice of Microsoft to MCTs and MCPs as well as the voice of those communities towards Microsoft . He takes your satisfaction with the very seriously: after a nice upward trend over the last few years, how do we take a leap this year? Which opportunities excite you, how can we support you further, if you could make one wish for the MCT/MCP Program – what would it be? Hear our plans and ask/suggest/demand/encourage--it all helps!

Tuesday, June 8 12:30pm – 1:30pm – Barbara Birney, User Researcher

Barbara Birney is our User Researcher. She’ll be interested in your response to some of our new designs that address CPLS business processes, MCT courseware reviews and student learning. The user experience research we do helps us understand and explain satisfaction scores through behavioral studies, prototyping, and in-depth interviews. User research is housed in our applications and platform group where we work closely with the teams that deliver solutions for trainers, students, authors, business employees, and independent learners. While you’re helping Barb better understand the customer experience, don’t hesitate to sign up with her to participate in remote studies of our MCTs’ experience and receive free technical software as a gratuity!

Wednesday, June 9 – 12:30pm – 1:30pm – Jeff Hora, Product Manager, Community Courses

If you’re an MCT, you may already be familiar with the Microsoft Learning Courseware Library and Community Courses. This session will be about the changes that are taking place to make publishing as a Community Author a better experience and how your contributions as a technical reviewer have direct impact on quality. There will be a healthy Q&A session as well, so be prepared to share! If you’re interested in writing and publishing a course on Microsoft technology, Jeff’s the guy to talk to!

Thursday, June 10 – 11:00am – 12:00pm – Matthew Roche, Quality Architect

Matthew is our Quality Architect, helping us release best-of-breed courseware. But Matthew is not just about quality, drop by and hear more about title plans, our vision for the future, and course improvements and enhancements.