So, Steve Ballmer and I were hanging out the other day................

OK, now on a serious note. I saw him for the first time on stage at the Microsoft VC Summit. I'd seen him on other occasions but never speaking. Well, for all I can say, he sure is better than the SAP executives (except maybe Shai) when it comes to delivering the MS message entertainingly. He is a much better speaker than I imagined and really has presence on stage. Although not much detail was given as to where exactly we as VC's should be investing to get Microsoft to buy our portfolio, it wasn't expected. The event was a good high-level update to the many things you could find out on the Net anyway. It was a great platform though to meet many relevant people at MS and I enjoyed the two days quite a bit. Now, I have to go and see whether I can install Vista and Office 2007 as smoothly as I was hoping!

Note: Please forgive the quality of the fotos. It was a camera phone and the lighting was horrible for taking pictures with such a device.

Update: Ed from Dawntreader again does a great write-up about the event this year and makes it clear how to take advantage of it in terms of networking. He got it exactly right in saying you have to find the specific executives at the event and start the discussion there on how to go about partnering. Really do take the time if you're interested to read his post. He is so much better than I at writing things that matter. Remember, I just babble here!