*READY*

As I sit here preparing my session for the New Zealand launch event I glance and notice that both the Chirstchurch and Wellington technical sessions are now sold out! I'm feeling a lot better being on the presenters side of the fence than on the organisers side (as I was for Tech.Ed this year)... Thanks Lucas!

This will be my first "Big Crowd" presentation... I'm now comfortable infront of 60 people so hopefully this will be just the same... I guess the only difference this time is that I will not have a beer in my hand while I present!

I can't help but think that half the people that attend my 'ASP .NET 2.0' session will have seen all the content before... but maybe that is just my evangelist side talking! I'll do my best to keep you all in the fold! Besides this is the Visual Studio 2005 & SQL Server 2005 Launch!

For those of you that are out and about on the web today you might have noticed that the Worldwide Launch has begun!

The Microsoft News Tracker site sums it up nicely (this time ;) ... you can also watch Steve Ballmer's Keynote below

See you in the coming weeks at our launch!

Nigel