I arrived in JHB yesterday morning at 7:45. I was strangely not surprised at the roadblock outside the airport and the traffic running from the Airport to the ITI offices, but did however realise I don't miss a moment of it. Effectively I walk to work, as my office is 2 blocks down from my house. I had a few rushed but very productive meetings with Microsoft as well as internal ITI meetings that will be continuing today, addressing various issues.

One of the people on my meeting list was Ruari Plint, MVP Product Manager for Microsoft. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the results of the meeting, and found Ruari to be a walking encyclopaedia on communities and motorbikes, both intense passions of his. Our initial 1 hour meeting quickly grew into a 2 1/2 hour brain dump on communities and community structures, as well as a long walk down memory lane. Ruari, along with Simon, was the founders of SA Developer.Net a few years back.

Willy-Peter Shaub also introduced me to Ryan Crawcour, the BizTalk Community Lead. We had a fairly quick chat however Ryan did offer to come to KZN and do some talks on KZN, so look out for some dates that will be coming up shortly. Afterwards Willy-Peter, Ruari and myself went to the Baron's in Bryanston for dinner, with a bit of business mixed in. The Interoperability day was big on the agenda, and Ruari had us in stitches with his car stories. I really want to thank Willy-Peter for planning the evening, and for still coming after finishing his deep dive at 18:30, with no sleep the night before.

I must admit being surrounded by them is truly a humbling experience, and I always leave with a feeling of excitement, along with intense knowledge transfer. Today I have a light agenda, flying back to KZN tonight. My parents will be arriving in KZN tonight as well and we have a long weekend planned.