Dear IT Professionals in Western Canada:

Loadfest 2008 is just around the corner and you don’t want to miss the activities that are happening…

Save the date in your calendar – September 27, 2008 from 8:30 AM to 5 PM, this is a Saturday and a great day to learn about what is happening with technology for the rest of this year.

Who is coming?

Rodney Buike from Microsoft is making the trip out from Toronto to show IT Professionals in Calgary when is coming with relation to Microsoft technologies.  Get the technical brief on Small Business Server 2008, especially now that it is RTMed.  Also, Rodney will show us Hyper-V and Windows Server 2008.  Get 3 hours of technical training on SBS and Windows Server.  Play with these great products and ask technical questions to the people that can answer the questions you have.

Loadfest 2008 is free for everyone to attend.

Curious about Response Point, Microsoft’s latest small business telephone system?  Jeff Loucks is an MVP with Response Point and Jeff will be giving a technical demo on Response Point during Loadfest.

Lunch is sponsored by our friends at AuthAnvil and Scorpion Software.  This technical lunch and learn will show you the technical side of AuthAnvil and how to deploy a higher level of security for your networks and clients.  Dana is sponsoring our luncheon and he will be available to address questions and talk technical about AuthAnvil.

And that is not it!!!

Popcorn Technologies will be giving a demo on MOSS (SharePoint Server) and how to fit MOSS into your environments.

Loadfest 2008 is free for everyone to attend.

Here is our tentative agenda

8:30 AM – Meet and Greet
9 AM – Windows Small Business Server 2008 Technical Demo
10:40 – Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
Noon – AuthAnvil Luncheon
1 PM – Windows 2008 Server and Hyper-V
2:40 –Response Point

Register today at http://www.samuc.com

Spread the word to every IT Professional you know in Calgary…

Special thanks to Scorpion Software, Microsoft and DELL Canada for sponsoring our event.

Stuart Crawford and I jointly presented “Creating Stickiness on the Web”, this is the second opportunity that I have had to jointly present with Stuart. I really enjoyed the meeting. We had an excellent turn out.

If you are an Entrepreneur in Calgary and aren’t a member of the Meetup – visit the site here and learn more.

Stuart published a blog entry, just now actually, that sums it up.  Here’s what Stuart had to say…

Dave and I have got some great ideas about what we are planning to do and to take the Calgary Entrepreneurs Group.  Our goal is to make this group the premiere networking group in all of Calgary.  So if you are an entrepreneur looking for a great networking experience, visit http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/5/ and sign up today.  We also have a blog at at http://www.calgaryentrepreneurs.ca.

Tag Goulet commented

“Stuart and Dave provided an excellent overview of important issues affecting entrepreneurs on the web. This was the best meetup yet. ”

I wanted to provide a few links to some of the websites that Stuart and I talked about;

Miro – by Participatory Culture -  http://participatoryculture.org/

Television is the most popular medium in our culture. But broadcast and cable TV has always been controlled by a small number of big corporations. We believe that the internet provides an opportunity to open television in ways that have never been possible before.

Google Enterprise Apps – http://www.google.com/enterprise/

Google enterprise products make your users more productive by combining the innovation and ease of use of Google’s consumer products with the features, security and support that your organization requires

Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/

Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Google Analytics is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners.

Google Webmaster Tools – http://www.google.com/webmasters/

Dim Dim – Web Video Conferencing – http://www.dimdim.com/

Dim Dim is the world’s free web meeting where you can share your desktop, show slides, collaborate, chat, talk and broadcast via webcam with absolutely no download required by attendees.

Hey – why not get Skype now and give me a call? – 403-775-2205

Cheers -
David A. West

PSst: don’t forget to subscribe at the bottom of this page…

PSSSsst: www.eKzact.com

For those of you unfamilier with Skype, it is a peer to peer text, voice and video application. The Skype website says, “Skype is free calls, video calls and instant messages. And you can call landlines and mobiles anywhere in the world at great rates. Free to download and easy to use. “ I agree, in principle, with their statement.

SkypeIn(tm) is when you buy a 10 digit phone number and have it assigned to your Skype Account. People can call you from a cell phone or landline by dialing your Skypein number and ringing you on your computer.  You can buy SkypeIn numbers for 21 countries… but unfortunately, not Canada.

Until Now…
Now you can get a number for most major Cities in Canada for Skype…
…but still not from Skype.

If you really want a SkypeIn number with a Canadian area code, there is a really inexpensive way to acheive it.  I did.  I can now be reached on my Skype account by anyone who dials my new number with the 403 Area Code – 403-775-2205 (give it a try… I spend 80% of my day near a PC)

Here is how you can get a Canadian phone number to ring into your Skype account;

1. Get a subscription for unlimited calling in the US & Canada for your Skype account… 3 months, the cost is $7.95.
2. Buy a SkypIn number for your account.  Choose from a number for any of the 21 Countries that are available… I chose a number in Texas. I like Texas.
3. Now, navigate yourself over to LES.NET.  Sign up for an account ( no cost to open the initial account).
4. After you are logged into your LES.NET account –> click the menu “order DID” that’s a fancy telecom term for “Phone Numbers” (direct inward dial… I think
5. Once you buy the phone number you want for Calgary… you need to get it to ring into your Skype Account.
6. Click the menu Peers/Trunks –> on the bottom, click “New Trunk”
7. Edit the Trunk details –> give it a name  –> Peer Type = Phone Number –> Peer Address = YOUR SKYPEIN number… remember the number you bought and assigned to your Skye Account earlier   –> SAVE your changes.

Now. There you have it!  Dial the local 403 number (in my case) and it forwards directly to my SkyIn number in Texas and then rings through to my PC!

Les.net rates are very inexpensive. You can get a North American Toll Free number for a one time fee $15, montly fee $2.50 and $0.055/min.  Canadian numbers with Les.net are $3.50 per month plus $0.011 per minute or a flat rate of $8.88. You choose, pay-as-you-go or flat rate.

I know that it is sometimes easier read than done. If you want a local Canadian number for your Skype account and find the above steps overwhelming… just drop me an email from the contact page here and  I will either coach you through it or just simply get you setup.

Happy Skyping.

Hey – why not get Skype now and give me a call? – 403-775-2205

Cheers -
David A. West