• • I’ve been running Windows Phone Camps across the UK
  • I’ve been looking at lots of cool Windows 8 content ahead of the upcoming Consumer Preview
  • Our mid-year review process has drawn to a close.

What has all of this galavanting taught me?

• You get a better reaction from people trying to email you while you’re away if you have a funnier automated email response.
• Train journeys can be amazing if you plan your time well – and lousy if you try to sleep through them.
• There’s so much value in a face-to-face conversation when you compare it with a chat online. The internet is great – but I’d love to meet everyone I engage with online face-to-face just once. It adds so much.

Tune in next time…

• I spent Thursday and Friday in Newcastle and Middlesbrough talking about the Imagine Cup and inspiring students to enter.
• I fell down the stairs at the start of the week, breaking my coccyx and injuring my back. Nil Point.
• Mid Year Review continues at Microsoft
• I’ve spent a chunk of time working on a few proof of concepts for Windows Phone

I did learn quite a bit from all of this…

• Concentrate. Even when you’re walking down the stairs. One distraction could lead to a massive amount of pain.
• When you get prescribed pain killers that say “do not operate machinery”, it’s safe to say any code you write after taking them will need to be re-written.
• The North East of England is packed with brilliant, passionate developers and students who want to change the world. I’m excited for Imagine Cup!
• It’s good to look back at the past six months and list of achievements and improvements.

Bring on the next week!

A few months ago I got involved in the 2011 edition of Young Rewired State – both as a sponsor (with Microsoft) and a a general dogsbody and mentor. The event itself, along with a lot of other activity in the UK developer space, is run by Rewired State – an organisation currently facing that all important question of how to scale, and make it as both a social enterprise and a business.

Talking to them at Young Rewired State, I got pretty inspired by what they do – their mission is all about getting young people and developers together to do awesome things with technology… you only have to read the first line of my bio to know that there’s a pretty strong match up!

And so when Emma Mulqueeny, who no superhero title would do justice, asked if I’d consider getting more involved, it seemed like a bit of a no-brainer.

Emma is making amazing things happen at the helm of Rewired State – and really exciting things are coming. In a blog post earlier today, Emma explains the need for a steering group to meet the need to be careful as the organisations move forward: “Having spent six months talking to a variety of people about potential ways of scaling and growing the organisations it’s obvious that we come to a point where it is necessary to get a back-up team, primarily to keep me on point.”

I’ll be working alongside Ben Hammersly, Sym Roe, Thayer Prime, Jemina Kiss, and of course Emma and the RS team to help keep Rewired and Young Rewired State’s path true and steady – and I expect you’ll see me blog, tweet and talk about the topic more as time goes on.

Here’s to the future!

• It’s currently Mid Year Review season at Microsoft – which gives us an excellent opportunity to look back at the last half of the financial year and plan out the next. I’ve been taking a look at how well our student activities have been going, with lots of smiles as I remember some of the great stuff students are doing.
• I spent a couple of days working in London which, while not far from home, is always a nice change.
• Popped into Learning Without Frontiers at Olympia and saw some student superstars from Young Rewired State hacking together some  awesome things.
• I kicked off the first Windows Phone Camp of 2012 at Kings College London. There was pizza.

So like I said – a busy week. Any key learnings that stand out? Well…

• While nobody truly likes admin, spreadsheets and cloud storage based sharing make the whole thing so much easier.
• Putting a number in green instantly makes it look better.
• Too much pizza at events is a bad thing.

So this week has felt a little like two, having worked all last weekend at the tiring but fantastic MSP Summit. So what’s been going on this past week?

• Last weekend’s UK MSP summit, where 49 students came to our London office to network, learn a few things, and complete a challenge of real world proportions.
• Worked from home a lot
• Got content ready for the next wave of Windows Phone camps at various universities
• Realised that everyone around me seemed to be getting sick.

So what did I learn from all of that?

• Cats are playful, and expect a lot of attention from you if you’re working from home. Further investigation into kitten distraction methods are needed.
• Running events takes a lot out of you – but having great people on the team like Phil, Joanna and Grace makes life so much easier.
• You can’t stop yourself from getting sick, especially if those around you are coughing in your general direction.

I don’t get enough time to write any more – whether it’s for this blog, the various other blogs I write for, or in my personal life. I used to write a lot of poetry and music. Haven’t done that for ages.

And so my challenge to myself is: set aside a couple of hours a week to write. Whether it’s a lengthy post, a summary, or a look back.

It’s either that, or hire a shadow blogger…

• Running a charity shop for a day with colleagues, and raising around £35k for charity in the process
• Approving loads of great Microsoft Student Partner activities
• Working on a secret-yet-awesome project with two good friends and colleagues
• Preparing for the next few weeks of appathons and travel around the UK

This week’s AOB…

• There just plain aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things you want to

It’s too easy on a day like this to feel overwhelmed – but I’m not sure that’s what Steve would have done. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him, but through everything I’ve read about the man, all the people who’ve spoken of meething him, I get a vision of someone driven by passion, constantly pushing forward, making a difference that means something.

Every day, I dedicate my work and personal life to helping young people be the best that they can be. There are some amazingly talented, passionate and tenatious students young people and teenage entreprenerus in the world – and Jobs’ work ethic and vision is something that every single one of them can learn from and be touched by.

I’m inspired by so many people, and Steve Jobs is one of the most noteworthy. He, along with others, have always inspired me to do the job that I do – and from this day forward, a part of my work will be in his memory.

Here’s to Thinking Different.

Stuff this week has included:

• Reviewing UK applications for this year’s Microsoft Student Partner program
• Training new our new graduate scheme starters on social media use and policy
• Preparing for the BUILD conference next week
• Got a whole bunch of that pesky admin stuff out of the way

This week’s AOB…

• I’ve learned that stomach bugs aren’t at all fun, especially if more than one of your team gets one
• I’ve said goodbye to a couple of amazing colleagues who are diving into parenthood

Next week I’ll be in sunny LA at the first BUILD conference. Microsoft is extending its newest developer event BUILD globally in multiple ways including live streamed keynotes, having a major international presence in Anaheim and engaging directly with developers in their home country to learn about the future of Windows…

I’ve had a lot of requests for the UK time version of the agenda – there’s not much point in breaking down the entire agenda, but the timing for the two conference keynotes are as follows…

Tuesday September 13th | BUILD Keynote | 17:00 – 19:30 | Download ICS of This Keynote

Wednesday September 14th | BUILD Keynote | 17:00 – 19:30 | Download ICS of This Keynote

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