Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Luncheon, Redux

Even though TechEd has now moved on into its second week, and I am hard at work preparing for my two breakout sessions on Thursday and Friday (I've actually been "ready" for weeks, but when I have a big presentation coming up, I can't help but obsess about it) I wanted to share one more post about one of the many highlights from the first week of the conference. The folks at Microsoft who organized the delightful Influencers Roundtable Luncheon last week have sent out the group photos that were taken at the beginning of the event. Take a look:

gateslunch1_small

gateslunch2_small

And to sort of round out this whole event, S. Somasegar has also blogged about his impressions of the luncheon. It is fascinating to me that he came away with the same impression from the luncheon that I did:

"I left feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the passion that people in the room had for a single topic that took up the majority of the conversation.  The conversation centered around how we can better marry IT skills and expertise to non-profit work in the areas of healthcare and education.  All of the conversations and comments focused on how each of the people in that room could step up and bring their expertise in technology and IT to help people that are less fortunate"

I've blogged on this in the past, although not recently, but this luncheon and Soma's blog post have both reminded me how vital it is that each of us take advantage of his or her own unique strengths to help others. Whether its something as simple as helping out at your local school or community center, or as involved as volunteering for the NetHope project, there is something that each of us can do to improve the lives of those around us. It's so easy to make a big difference with a small effort. And it's delightful to know that I'm not the only one who feels this way...

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