Microsoft reIMAGINE 2016 - Pre-conference Day 2

Microsoft reIMAGINE 2016 hosted by Dynamic Communities is now over, but I did not want to let this week go by without giving you an account of my experiences at the conference, which sure brought a lot of surprises to all the partners in attendance.

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Sunday, September 18, 2016

The previous day had me meeting up with a few of the guys and gals here in town. Today, David and I had plans to meet up early to begin reviewing our sessions and making sure we had our act together. After a quick breakfast at the Home2 Suites and around an hour of prep time, it was time for us to head over to the Hilton Garden Inn Fargo to complete our registration and to get our conference badges and goodies. The Hilton Garden is just a few short steps away from the Home2 Suites.

Upon arriving at the Hilton Garden, we caught a small crew putting up some posters signaling the beginning of the event. Posters were placed on the sliding doors and on the outside columns.

reIMAGINE 2016 posters on sliding door

reIMAGINE 2016 posters on columns (the mystery girl's name is Rachael Brancich)

Walking in, we came across MVP John Lowther who seemed excited to see David and I. After chit-chatting for a few minutes, we head over to the Dynamic Communities registration desk, where we would claim our badges.

Microsoft Business Solutions MVP John Lowther

We were greeted by Daisey Eck, Program Coordinator with Dynamic Communities, who began searching for our badges and preparing our conference goodies. Apparently, David's badge could not be located for quite a bit of time and it took the quick eyes and memory of Shanna Hensch, Events Manager at Dynamic Communities, to locate the badge which happened to be in the very front row of the pile close to the drawer where Daisey was standing.

David Musgrave receiving his conference goodies and guide

After registering, we walked around to see what was going on and crashed the class of fellow Microsoft Business Solutions MVP, Ian Grieve. Ian is the author of AzureCurve, a blog dedicated to all things Microsoft Dynamics GP. Ian lives in the United Kingdom and did his first trek to Fargo, ND to teach a Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow pre-conference training session. He was also going to spend additional time after the conference, visiting friends and touring a few places.

Microsoft Business Solutions MVP Ian Grieve

Back at the registration desk, we caught up with the full conference reception team, so we decided to snap one more picture.

From left to right: Shanna Hensch, Sue Whitney, and Daisey Eck

Our day was just about to get much more interesting. A couple weeks aback, prior to arriving to the conference, my boss, Jay Manley, invited me to attend a car show even that was being held in Dilworth, Minnesota, just a few miles outside of Fargo, which I gladly accepted, given the fact that I am also a car nuts - BMW cars, but nonetheless a car nuts. The day before, I spent quite a bit of time trying to convince David to join in, until he finally gave in and decided to go. Jay happens to drive a 1972 Mustang Mach 1 which was originally equipped with a 351 cu CJ (Cobra Jet) engine. Jay has made some changes to this car to say the least and has acquired a Ford 351 cu in Cleveland engine stroked to 408 cu in, .631/.644 CAM lift, 240/244 duration and compression ratio of 13.5:1. This engine is fuel injected, burning 99.9% ethanol. These specs put the Mach 1 at nearly 600 hp at the crank.

'72 Mustang Mach 1

'72 Mustang Mach 1 Engine Bay

From left to right: Air Fuel Ratio (O2), Fuel Pressure, Trans Temp, Voltage gauges

From left to right: Water Temp, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp

Arriving at the event in Dilworth, Jay revved up a bit to call everyone's attention to the pony entering the lot. We found some really cool builds on the lot, although some others needed a lot of work. Here's the best of what I personally saw out there.

Following the car meet up, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, around the Fargo Dome to get some lunch and then back to the hotel. David and I decided to give our presentation one more pass, but not without the help of our dear friend and fellow Microsoft Business Solutions MVP, Leslie Vail.

David Musgrave and Leslie Vail

Leslie helped us with refining the introductory problem descriptions for our GP Power Tools session, which aided us in selecting sample of demos to present during our session. Following our meet up, David and I went back to our rooms to drop off our stuff to join Sheila Jefferson-Ross and Leslie Vail in what have become a yearly conference tradition: meet and greet and dinner with friends at Passage to India, a local Indian food joint located in the Westfield Strip Mall on 45th street south.

Sheila Jefferson-Ross

The crew in Sheila's and Leslie's room
Front, left to right: Craig Clapman, Tanya Henderson, Sheila Jefferson-Ross, Leslie Vail, David Musgrave, Ora Goldman, Angel Blum
Back, left to right: Lee Butenhoff, Jay Manley, Ian Grieve

At Passage to India

Well, after a heavy dinner, it was time to go back to the hotel as the real conference would begin bright and early on Monday morning.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP