Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009

For the second year in a row, July has been the month of Microsoft Partner Conference 2009 for me. This year, it was in New Orleans, LA. SoftCom Inc., the company I work for, is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. This fancy designation, in short means, we almost live and die by Microsoft. Considering the importance of the event for the company and the interesting location, anticipation had been building up since couple of months.

Microsoft is a partner oriented company. Until very recently, the business model had been solely based on partners. They know how to train and entertain their partners. It is a simple method: “Work hard, play hard.”. The day starts early filled with keynotes, sessions, meetings and continues into the evening and night with business dinners, networking drinks and parties ending sometime around the wee hours of the next morning. Then it starts all over again and again and again. I have to say, to attend a Microsoft Conference and to operate at 100% is hard. But then again, you reap great rewards.

Here are the highlights from this year:

Last year around these times, there were controversial issues surrounding Microsoft like Windows Vista’s weak uptake in the market, launch of Business Productivity Online Services and its competitors gaining momentum. Hence, at last year’s WPC in Houston, Microsoft’s message to its partner community was not very strong and clear.

As Steve Ballmer stated in his keynote, when you have a strong culture of innovation and a stash of almost 10 billion dollars allocated for R&D every year, it is no wonder that Microsoft keeps coming and coming until they get their act together and come up with a valuable product. Judging by all these major achievements either being launched or coming to fruition this year, apparently, Microsoft cranked up the 9.4 billion dollar R&D engine within the last year.

Windows 7 Taskbar and Screenshot

Microsoft asks us to bet on Microsoft in these competitive times. While we have already been doing that at SoftCom since many years, it is always easier to bet on a company as long as they keep delivering value and innovation. Therefore, the next couple of months will indeed be interesting times as Microsoft will start rolling out all the major product launches to general public. Personally, I am very excited about these new technologies and curious about how the competition will unfold.

For detailed information and videos from the keynotes sessions, you can always visit Digital WPC.

Written by Kaan Bora on July 31st, 2009 with no comments.
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A Conversation with President George W. Bush & President Bill Clinton

Power Within Inc. is a company based in Toronto, which is an organizer of educational, motivational and leadership events. SoftCom, the company I work for, has a close relationship with Power Within. We have been attending their events since some time now and we have always been very happy with their service and organizational skills.

Power Within had a very important event last Friday, May 29th, 2009. For the first time ever, they managed to put two former presidents, President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton on the stage for an almost informal conversation. Here is the coverage of this event by Huffington Post and Time.

As SoftCom, thanks to our close relationship with Power Within, we got couple of invitations which included a brief moment with both of the Presidents, a photo opportunity and a front row seat to the public event.

Here is my photo with the Presidents.

Kaan Bora Soran's Photo with President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on May 29th, 2009

Kaan Bora Soran's Photo with President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on May 29th, 2009

It is quite an exhilarating feeling to shake hands with not long ago the most powerful men in the planet, look them in the eye and greet them. Both of the Presidents were very friendly, courteous and relaxed to make you realize that they are only human just like you and me. I guess, that is one of the traits of being a politician, a politician good enough to become the President of United States.

I would like to thank SoftCom, Power Within and Joseph Khoja from Power Within for providing this great opportunity with the Presidents.

Written by Kaan Bora on June 5th, 2009 with no comments.
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Holiday Season and Boxing Day in a Down Economy

In my humble opinion, the Christmas week, a.k.a the holiday season, is the most important time of the year in the western world and I am fascinated by the dynamics behind. There are many sides to the story in play here; there is the religious side which I find not too bad of a storyline and then, there is the capitalist side, which I find very creative. I don’t think myself as an expert on the matters of the heavens, so no comments there. For the other part, I think, the capitalist side of the story  is somewhat the endless pursuit of encouraging and deceiving people to spend more by capitalizing on side stories around the Christmas theme. Yes, sure, a little bit of Santa Claus is good for the kids’ imagination and also for the economy. But what about Boxing Day?

For people who are not living in Canada, Boxing Day is the Canadian version of the Thanksgiving weekend in US. For people who are not living in US, basically these days in North America are the “best days for shopping because of the huge deals around” kind of shopping days. Of course, you usually get to enjoy these deals if only you wake up at 5 a.m. on the 26th of December and then line up in front of the store before it is open around 8 a.m. (let me remind you this is Canada, so we are talking about some serious minus something temperatures out there) and then when the doors are finally open, rushing in while racing with your competitors and then finally putting your hands on one of the limited quantity “doorcrasher” deals in the store. Sounds like a challenge? You bet.

Given the state of the economy, the looming recession and the worst financial crisis of the century in action, I was curious about how the shopping during the boxing day would turn out this year. So, I cruised around couple of retailers and shopping malls early afternoon. In one shopping mall, it took me 35 minutes to find a parking spot. In another one where I parked almost a mile away, all the good deals were already sold out by early morning.  By 7:30 pm, half an hour before all the malls closed down, everywhere people were still shopping like there was no 2009. I could not make sense of all this. With all the tight credit and job losses, companies shutting down, there had to be a reason I didn’t know. And then, I saw this:

Shop, damn it, shop. It is your patriotic duty.

Shop, damn it, shop. It is your patriotic duty.

Just when I thought the boxing day was all about boxing and returning the unwanted gifts from the Christmas day and getting new ones instead, I suddenly realized that it was all about patriotism and the love of the country. One can only appreciate the creativity of the capitalist system.

Happy Holidays to you all…

Written by Kaan Bora on December 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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iPhone 3G, Barack Obama, Facebook and Financial Crisis: All the big things of 2008

As the year 2008 is coming to an end, it is about time all newspapers, magazines, TV shows and people with all sorts of opinions share their view of the best and worst of the year on varying topics. Without further ado, here are my candidates on technology, politics, internet and daily life which makes 2008 a year to remember.

Chinese are said to use “May you live in interesting times” as a curse, referring to the insecurities and difficulties one faces during the times of change. We might feel that way, sometimes for good and sometimes for the other way around. One thing is for certain though, if not us, our kids will live in a different world with different values. I sincerely hope, it is a better one.

Written by Kaan Bora on December 9th, 2008 with no comments.
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Thank you all and a brief update from us…

First of all, many thanks for all the support we got from you after the birth of Onur Kaan via comments, emails, phone calls, voice mails, short messages, flowers, cakes and all the other possible channels of communication you have used. They mean a lot to us and we truly are grateful for all these.

After a difficult first couple of days, things eventually got back on track and we started to get used to the idea of being a bigger family. When I say we got the idea, I really mean it. Apparently, when it comes to having 2 kids who are 2 years apart, life becomes a little bit tricky. 1+1 no longer is 2, but now equals to 3. And for 3, you might sometimes need 3 people at home to keep things under control; mommy, daddy and grandma. Yes, our special thanks goes to Pelin’s mother who has sacrificed the last 5 months of her life to help us before and after the birth of Onur. We can’t thank her enough.

Grandma Nermin with her grandkids and her daughter...

Having said that, despite all the hardship, having another child is still a blessing. You can witness our happiness in My Photo Gallery. As always, please let us know what you think.

Written by Kaan Bora on May 31st, 2008 with no comments.
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Baby 2.0 is here!

I am proud to announce the birth of our second baby, Onur Kaan Soran.

He was born on March 7th, 2008 3:37 am at Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital. He is a healthy cute little boy as you can see below.

Onur Kaan Soran 

You can take a look at more of his first photos in My Photo Gallery.

Due to minor complications following the labour and delivery, Pelin had to stay in the hospital a little longer than expected. She got finally discharged yesterday evening and I just had the chance to update the blog and the pictures.

Our daughter, Hande Selin, is celebrating her 2nd birthday today and I think, as parents, we gave her the best birthday present ever; a brother.

And for Pelin and me, we are, one more time, overjoyed by the miracle of procreation.

Written by Kaan Bora on March 12th, 2008 with 24 comments.
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Getting the rust off on my scuba diving skills…

I had a week long business trip to Istanbul, Turkey in August and while I was there, I extended the trip for a personal vacation. My wife and I had discussed the possibility of leaving our daughter, Hande Selin, with our parents in Kuşadası, Aydın and then to go on a short trip to a resort elsewhere for couple of days, just two of us, to enjoy some children-free time. We immediately executed on that plan by joining our friends Işılay and Levent who were vacationing at the small town of Kaş.

The view at our hotel's beachKaş is a lovely seaside town in the province of Antalya at the southwestern part of the Anatolian peninsula.  It is also the closest town to the Greek Island of Meis (Also known as Kastellorizo or Megisti in Greek). While the number of ugly concrete buildings in the town center are definitely on the rise, it is still protected from the tourism vandalism which transformed many of the coastal towns in Turkey to ugly mini cities in the last two decades. It preserves the ambience which makes you feel that the time is moving slower there. It is a laid back, relaxed, relatively cheap and quiet destination not crowded by the party people who will migrate from one bar to another.

I had done my first scuba discovery dive in Kaş with Nautilus Diving Center in 2002. Nautilus was one of the first to run an around-the-year dive operation in Kaş back then. Owner Süleyman Biber and his team are exceptionally friendly people and they know the local waters very well. So, on our second day of arrival, we got on the diving boat and set sail.

Having logged more than 100 dives in 2005 and only 1 in 2006, I was feeling a little bit rusty but also very excited to be back under water again. Our first dive spot was called as Hörgüçlü, named after two pinnacles which resembles a camel’s back. Wow! Incredible visibility, little bit of a current and 30+ degrees celcius water temperature. This is the first time my dive computer logged something warmer than 30 degrees, ever. I had not experienced such water temperatures even in Philippines during the rainy season. It was such a nice comeback for me.

Our second dive was even better. We dove the Fener spot which means lighthouse. Biber asked me to lead one of the dive groups. His team was caught shorthanded due to high demand that day. Since I felt like the rust was off my skills, I proudly accepted the offer. Aside from the groupers and horse mackerels joining our dive group occasionally, we got to see an Ottoman ship wreck starting at 22 m depth. Large pieces of amphoras scattered around the wreck and the wreck’s still intact wooden skeleton were the highlights of the dive. I came out of the water with a big smile on my face. As my scuba instructor Daniel Burgaud once wisely said “People dive for fun and diving makes them happy. If you love teaching diving as a professional, that puts you in a beautiful environment having good time with clients who are with you simply to have fun. There are only only few professions which provides you that.”

 I couldn’t agree more. 

Written by Kaan Bora on October 16th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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Spock – The New People Search Engine

In my opinion, one of the hightlights of the Web 2.0 Expo 2007 was the Spock presentation at the first session of Launch Pad. Launch Pad is the venue where  organizers choose approximately a dozen companies wishing to have their first public unveiling, of either the company or a significant new product, on the mainstage at Web 2.0 Expo. Among the presentations conducted in that Launch Pad session, Spock was selected by the audience as the most interesting.

Now, what is Spock? Spock is the new people search engine. Once logged in, you can search for a certain person and if this particular individual is already in the Spock database, you can tag him/her as you wish and even upload a photo which you think relates to her/him. The leveraged Web 2.0 concept is “wisdom of the crowds”. So, ideally, once there are enough voters and votes for a person on the same tag or photo, his/her most popular and true attributes will prevail over the others. And if the person you are looking for is not there, you can send an invitation and then start tagging.

When I first logged in, I found my name and all the tags were by the ”Spock Robot”. Spock team seems to have used the LinkedIn database for the ordinary folks like me. If you find your name in Spock and if the information source is LinkedIn, you can claim that is you by simply clicking on the “claim: This is me” link and entering your LinkedIn email and password. At that point, the system will merge your two profiles into one. This merging process sometimes takes forever. Good thing is you won’t need to keep your browser window open for it to be completed. Just start it and come back in couple of days, you might find yourself lucky.

While there are some hickups with it, I like the Spock concept. I would be happy to see these folks at Spock succeed. Spock is still in private beta. That means to be able to use it, you will need an invitation. I initially got an invitation through a close friend and since than I have been tinkering with it. Apparently, these guys at Spock might have noticed that I have been very active so they gave me more invitations to share. So, I have plenty of invitations to share for anyone who is interested. Just post a comment and I will be sending you one shortly. I would like to hear about your experience with Spock as well.

Written by Kaan Bora on July 9th, 2007 with 1 comment.
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Web 2.0 Expo 2007

I spent the last week in San Francisco attending Web 2.0 Expo 2007. For beginners, the official web site defines Web 2.0 Expo as an annual gathering of technical, design, marketing, and business professionals who are building the next generation web. The web site also claims that Web 2.0 Expo features the most innovative and successful Internet industry figures and companies providing attendees with examples of business models, development paradigms, and design strategies to enable mainstream businesses and new arrivals to the Web 2.0 world to take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities.

So, what is Web 2.0? The first Web 2.0 conference was held in 2004, so at least since four years, people are trying to define and refine the answer. Apparently, there are many answers to that question and they all seem to complement each other.

Tim O’Reilly briefly defines Web 2.0 as “Networked applications that explicitly leverage network effects”. This is quite a simple form of referring to user generated content, social software, syndication, participation, folksonomy and all other names and descriptors used to define Web 2.0. It covers a lot of ground, but does it cover all?    

The movie below was shown just before the keynotes of the first day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

And this one was shown on the second day, again, just before the keynotes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9MgHuitMwU

 

Now, after watching these, I’d say Web 2.0 is all about “harnessing collective intelligence and enabling two way use of web”.

What is your pick?

Written by Kaan Bora on April 22nd, 2007 with no comments.
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Customer Care on Rainy Days

At least two times a year, I fly to Istanbul, Turkey, due to both business and family reasons. There is not a direct flight from Toronto to Istanbul so I usually choose one of the few European carriers which are serving that route. I travel with my family, therefore my choice is dictated by the convenience factor rather than the price, frequent flyer miles or brand loyalty. Among British Airways, KLM, Air France, Alitalia and Lufthansa, I usually pay the premium price and fly with Lufthansa. Even though Lufthansa is at least 30 to 40% more expensive, it adds considerable comfort due to cleaner and newer aircrafts, larger seating space in economy class, shorter connection times at Frankfurt airport and straightforward booking and check-in procedures at their travel agents. All of these are worth the extra dollars spent especially when traveling with a baby. However, nobody is perfect and so is Lufthansa. To my surprise, I recently experienced the bitter side of Lufthansa Canada team’s notion of customer care and satisfaction. 

Our latest pilgrimage to Istanbul was scheduled on the afternoon flight of Lufthansa on March 1st. Around 2 pm, just half an hour before we left for airport, a major snow storm started to unleash its fury on to the city. What was a relatively beautiful day up to that point, turned into chaos and mayhem. While we were already in the airport taxi struggling through an incredible traffic jam, I checked the flight status of Lufthansa flight LH 471 through my BlackBerry, not suspecting any cancellation but anticipating some delay, and it was surprisingly on time. I remember saying to myself “Geez, these Germans, they seem to be on time even under these circumstances”. Thanks to our driver’s extraordinary maneuvering skills, we showed up at the check-in counter on time. Before I could say anything, the lady at the other side of the counter looked at me with a stone cold face and said “I cannot check-in anybody yet so please wait and we will let you know when we are ready”. No explanation, no timeline, no empathy. While most of the afternoon flights were starting to announce their cancellations, the airport’s departures screen and web site were still showing the Lufthansa flight on time. Half an hour later, the announcement came: “The flight is cancelled; you can book for another flight through our 800 number”. Funny part was, when we called the 800 number, we realized that call center agents were not yet informed about the cancellation and they were still referring us to the Lufthansa airport ticket counter. Another hour of struggle at the line of the airport ticket counter and we got ourselves a booking on the next day’s flight. Feeling lucky to be able to get a seat to the next day’s flight and we did not mind the two and a half hour taxi ride back home due to ongoing traffic jam. This day was simply a bad surprise from Mother Nature.

Next day, there was just occasional snow. Our flight was showing on time when we reached the check-in counter. Once checked in, we placed ourselves at a vantage point with a view of departures screen at the waiting lounge. One hour after the planned departure time of our flight, the first announcement from Lufthansa staff finally came; the plane coming from Germany to pick us up had to divert to Montreal and it was still there. It was expected soon to make it to Toronto. The departures screen got updated. After two more hours of waiting with no official announcement, we were told that the plane was still in Montreal and our flight’s fate will be decided within the next hour. We saw another late update on the departures screen. And finally, half an hour later, unexpectedly, first the departures screen flashed the bad news; our flight was, again, cancelled. Feeling frustrated and desperate, we rushed to the ticket counter. On our way, we heard the Lufthansa staff making the cancellation announcement, almost 10 minutes later than the departures screen update. Thanks to our fast reaction, we were at the beginning of a 200 people line. We quickly realized that the ticket counter team was understaffed, ineffective and their manager had absolutely no idea how to manage a crisis at that scale. He even did not seem to care. Our complaints did not change anything. An hour later, we got rebooked. For the people at the end of the line, it took up to 6 hours. The chaos at the luggage collection belt was even worse. There was no staff to coordinate the luggage handlers and for some reason these guys were simply throwing the luggage from the belt to the floor. After another hour spent at finding our stuff through the piles of bags, way past midnight, we were home.

On the third day, we got on the flight. It was still delayed for 4 hours due to a “mechanical problem”. Again, the Lufthansa team at the airport was not up to the task of customer care. We felt again out of the loop, unconfident that we would fly and more importantly not respected. When we finally took our seats, I was certain that I would never fly Lufthansa again. That feeling somehow waned through the flight since the in-flight teams and Frankfurt airport transfer staff caught up with good customer care. When we landed in Istanbul, we knew that Lufthansa overall was still OK, but their team in Toronto was the weak link.

The Mother Nature can be a force majeure, especially for airlines but it is not an excuse not to treat your customers with respect. What we experienced was a true example of how a weak customer care team could place a respected brand’s reputation in jeopardy. Toronto might be a small town, but world is also a smaller place now. I am sure Lufthansa management team will learn this lesson pretty soon; no matter how good your product, your technical team and your management team is, customer is the king and your customer care is your kingmaker against your competitors. Make sure that they are up to the task.

Written by Kaan Bora on March 31st, 2007 with no comments.
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