Hayes Mansion, San Jose, CA

I spent last week in California in lovely 60 degree weather while the East Coast got a pretty significant snow storm. The training was an internal HP event that I have attended before. The first one of these Exchange Academies was in Atlanta in 2000. I was actually one of only 5 people (out of 120) in attendance that was also at that first academy. That was pretty surprising. This academy was on Exchange 2007. This new version of Microsoft's Email server has changed in a big way. It will be a major process for organizations to implement. Which is good news for HP and why they spent a whole lot of money on training their consultants (estimated at over half a million dollars when you consider all the man-hours spent on development, the training location, travel costs, lost billable hours, etc). It was good to reconnect with a couple of people I have worked with in the past and meet a few new people too. My hope of networking my way onto a west coast project has not worked out yet. We stayed at the Hayes Mansion which quite a nice spot. Unfortunately I was not able to see anything but the Mansion and the park next door because we were in sessions and labs from 8:00AM till 10:00PM or later every day. Even with those late hours the presenters were having to keep a fast pace to get through all the information. My lab partner Dave R. and I never completed all the labs either. But they kept us fed very well with three big meals a day and lots of break-time snacks. The deserts were a bit too good! It felt good to actually attend some training again. I have not been to formal training in over six years. Too bad it does not actually help me get the certifications that I need. Here are a few more pictures.