Burrlanta, GA. January 10-14, 2011
Last week Cathy Dew and I delivered the SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta course to six brave souls in Burrlanta, GA. Burrlanta used to be known as Hotlanta or Atlanta, but since the ice storms of January 2011 the city’s name changed to Burrlanta. I am not exaggerating.
Despite the fact that Knowledge Development Center (KDC) the training facility where the course was held, was closed until Wednesday, Cathy and I were able to deliver courseware materials and online training with the gracious help of La Quinta, Hilton Garden Inn, and Embassy Suites wireless internet. Less than ideal circumstances, but the show and the SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta course must go on.
Once Cathy and I were able to meet up with the students at KDC things got a little easier: the students were able to remote in to the labs, Cathy was able to interact with the students and the students were able to interact with each other. I moved on to hunting and gathering food, since almost all of the restaurants and grocery stores in Atlanta were still closed. Meanwhile Cathy shared her branding magic with the students.
Considering Mother Nature was against us, the SPD2010 Beta course went well. The feedback from the students about the courseware modules and labs are busily being incorporated into the courseware for the February 7, 2011 SharePoint Designer Beta class at Mindsharp’s home office in Minneapolis, MN.
Special thanks to: The students Jim, Mark H., Patrick, Priyanka, Michele, Dong and Mark E. for their patience and stick-to-itness; Heather, the Manager on duty (Sunday to Wednesday) and brave shuttle driver from La Quinta Inns and Suites Perimeter, for getting the hotel’s wireless up to speed and shuttling students and myself over ice-skating rinks masquerading as roads to KDC; Harvey, from IntrinsicRev, for driving 1.5 hours (3 miles) to open KDC, even though he doesn’t work there, on Wednesday morning and driving me to pick up lunch for the students from Einstein’s Bagels; Mike and Scott from Mindsharp for making “Plan B” come together; Cathy Dew of Summit 7 for being such a gracious instructor under less than gracious circumstances; AND LAST BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY – Fred, the fearless driver with the town car. If you need to get anywhere in Atlanta at any time under any conditions, call Fred at 404-388-4659 or send him an email at dansoy1@bellsouth.net. With Fred even the impossible drive is safe, relaxing and do-able. It just might take a little longer.