Greetings from Microsoft’s campus here in Redmond, WA. My name is Leigha Anderson and this is my first blog post on the Windows Experience Blog. Here Microsoft, I work on the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) Product Marketing Team where I look after anything relating to Small and Medium Business. I joined Microsoft in July fresh out of college and I am so excited about the opportunity to share my experiences at Microsoft and provide some personal insight about being young and working in the crazy world of technology. I am blogging because I hope to bring a different perspective about PCs and technology to the table, as well as provide some personal insight about being young and working in this crazy industry. Every day I am surrounded by PC experts who love to pass along their knowledge and my hope is to combine that with my experience and share it with you.
This year, I had the privilege of being able to attend CES and had an awesome time the five whole days I was there in Las Vegas for the show. CES is unlike anything I had ever been to in my life. For me, understanding the size of CES was like trying to wrap your head around the size of the universe. It’s this crazy eclectic mix of color, devices, music, and booths of all sizes packed in to a building that seems to go on forever. The variety of everything relating to electronics was almost unbelievable.
While there, I was one of the people staffing the Microsoft booth showing off really cool PCs. This is something that I enjoyed because I love to get out of the office to talk to people about PCs. Making personal connections, hearing the thoughts and opinions of people from all walks of life is very inspirational and fuels the passion that I have for my work.
My favorite question from visitors at the Microsoft booth was “So, what’s new?” People really wanted to know more about new PCs. The two words that automatically sprinted to the front of my brain were thin and light. I am not just referring to the laptops that are getting all the attention right now. While we had an awesome assortment of thin and light laptops, the All-In-Ones were equally impressive and should not be left out of the conversation.
Another very common question I received was “which one is your favorite?” In most circumstances I am a very decisive individual (just ask anybody who has ever been shopping with me), but picking out my favorite PC among all of the awesome choices was almost impossible.
To see what I mean, I will refer you to the Microsoft booth tour video shot at CES. Take a look as Nick Parker, the Vice President of World Wide OEM Marketing here at Microsoft, showcases the wide variety of PCs available. At around the 3:26 mark he gets to the wall of thin and light PCs, my favorite category, and a huge trend this year at CES. Nick does a great job showcasing the vast differences in design that we have on display from stunning All-In-Ones that I would love to have in my kitchen, to laptops that are awesome for watching movies.
After watching the video you can see why I find it almost impossible to decide on my favorite. There are so many PCs that are great choices for everybody, from the casual Facebook stalker, to the college student who is on campus from sun set to sun down, to the finance exec who needs a TPM chip for BitLocker on a laptop that looks as sleek and great as his business is running. If you haven’t had the chance to get your hands on this awesome new wave of PCs, I would highly suggest you take them for a test drive and decide which one is your favorite.
That’s a wrap for me and CES 2012. Overall, it was one crazy, jam packed week and now I understand why it only happens once a year. Look for more blog posts from me in the upcoming months as I am constantly saving fun tidbits and stories to share from my experiences working for this crazy, awesome, company moving forward at the speed of light.