This past week, I had an opportunity to use the SBS Partner Event Kit that Microsoft is making available for promoting Small Business Server at events. Our Chamber of Commerce has a Mega Mixer once or twice a year, which is basically a "vendor expo" for area Chambers and Chamber members to promote their goods and services to other area Chambers and Chamber members. This time, I knew I wanted to have a booth (not only to support the Chamber but also for promotion and name recognition, etc.) and about the time I signed up for the booth, I got notification about the Partner Event Kit and followed the simple instructions to request the kit. The rest of this post covers my experience with the kit and the entire kit process, so feel free to skip if you've got no interest in the kit or my experiences.
As per Eric's post, I e-mailed the group requesting the kit on the date of my event, and got an e-mail response asking for some additional information. I e-mailed back the response, and the next day I got confirmation that I'd been approved to use the kit and they collected other information, including shipping address. They made it very clear that they'd ship the kit two days before the event, I'd get it the day before the event, and I'd have to return it the day after the event. I also took them up on the offer to have my company logo printed on a 6'x3' banner for a fee. I had a banner made up a couple of years ago, but information changed and it's no longer usable, so being able to get another banner was a real plus. We went back and forth a bit making sure they got the image file for the banner in the right format, and they even asked to get a couple of additional updates because the first print on the banner didn't quite match up with the logo colors they were expecting, so rather than get a banner whose primary colors were purple and dark green, I got one that had the proper shade of blue and light green. Big plus on customer service on that point.
Two days before the event, I got the e-mail that the kit had shipped and I'd have it the next day. This is unfortunately where things began to get a bit interesting. Towards the end of the day I should have received the kit, I called and asked if they had a tracking number for the package. They sent me the number, and showed that the kit was still scheduled for delivery, but if I didn't get it soon, that I should call the shipper and ask. When it hadn't shown up by 4:30 local time (building closes at 5:30) I called. The shipping company (well, the specific agent I spoke with) wasn't very friendly or helpful, but told me that there was no way that a package of that size (it weighed in at 138lbs apparently) would get sent overnight. I asked when I could expect it, and was told that they should get it to me by noon on the day of the event. Since I had to start setting up no later than 2pm for the event, that was going to cut it close. I communicated this information back to the folks who shipped the kit to bring it to their attention and went home.
The next morning, I got into the office at 7:30 and checked the tracking. At least now the on-line tracking showed that it had left the original facility. It also said that it had left the facility in Ohio at 4:35 that morning. I'm guessing that was EDT, which meant it was only 3:35 my time, but I was curious to see if it really was going to get from Ohio at 3:35am CDT to Denton, Texas, by noon. I called the carrier to see if they could give me an ETA on arrival so I could make sure that someone was at the office to receive the kit, and was pretty much told "no." I had a 10am meeting that I couldn't reschedule, so I left my associate at the office to wait for the package. Not so big brownie points to the shipping company, and I've already submitted that feedback to the appropriate parties.
I got back from the meeting in time to start packing to head over to the event, and sure enough, there was the kit, in all its massively large crate glory. Yeah, I can see why it might weigh 138lbs. The case alone looked pretty heavy, but there's no doubt that the contents of the crate were well-protected.
So we cracked open the crate to look at the contents. As advertised, there was a 19" LCD flat panel display (which hadn't been used before, so the next guys that get it, we left it in really, really good condition for you), table banners for SBS 2003 and Server 2008, an SBS 2003 standing banner, and three clear holders of propaganda (propaganda included). Also present was an extra banner with the company logo.
Rather than try to manhandle the shipping crate to the event, we packed the individual components, along with a computer, extension cord, power strip, keyboards and mice, and our own marketing materials, and headed over to the event. Our booth was near the front of the setup, and we hung the company banner first thing. 
Then we set up the standing banner and hung the SBS 2003 banner on the main table. We set up the LCD display on that half of the table to help hold the SBS banner in place. I opted not to use the Server 2008 banner as I didn't want to cause any confusion as to what we were hawking. Then we put up the marketing collateral and finished out the rest of the table.
Even once we put the people in the booth, it still didn't look too bad. 
As for the demo, the Kit was supposed to come with a DVD of SBS demos, but didn't (I confirmed with the folks that put the kit together that the DVD wasn't missing, even though it was in the list of items that should have been in the Kit), so we improvised. We built a Vista workstation running Office 2007, and had Outlook via the Internet connected back to a test SBS box at the home office. We also had an RWW session up connected to a test workstation hung off the test network. We also had a shortcut ready to go to connect to the RWW login page on my production box to demo AuthAnvil. And all this was done with a Verizon USB wireless broadband adapter (no networking available at the facility). No huge surprise, but folks not familiar with SBS were surprised at all it could do.
Overall, the event was a success, and having the kit really polished off our appearance at the event. I for one am thrilled that MS has made this kit available, and I hope that this post about the kit and how we used it can answer some questions that others may have had about whether using the kit would be a good idea. I can say for certain that the next opportunity I have for an event like this I'll definitely check to see if I can get the kit again.
I've mentioned the iPhone in previous posts and how I don't think it's really ready for prime time in the business community. Again, don't get me wrong, I think it's an amazing device, but for the folks that I consult with on a regular basis,it's just not going to be "all that" for them as a business communication tool. I do have a couple of clients running the iPhone, and one of them even tried to return it because it wasn't really doing what he wanted (I should also note that he purchased his iPhone prior to consulting with me about it).
Still, there are ways to get some level of e-mail communication set up with a Small Business Server or other Exchange server, but it requires some configuration changes on the back end of the mail server, and I've put up a couple of posts about doing just that (one for SBS Standard, one for SBS Premium with ISA 2004 to be precise).
I really should have put together something like this a long time ago, because as much as I like IMAP, it has the same core problem that POP3 e-mail does - the entire transaction is done over the Internet in clear text. No only are your username and password clearly visible to anyone who happens to be sniffing your network transaction, but all your e-mail contents are transmitted in the clear as well. By setting up IMAP communications over SSL, the entire transaction is encrypted, thereby protecting your account credentials. Unfortunately, the body of the message, unless it was an internal to internal communication, has already been sent in clear text across the internet when it was sent to you in the first place.
And I guess that's really my core point here - e-mail is NOT a secure communication medium. If you have confidential information you need to transmit to someone else, sending that information via e-mail is not going to get it there securely. Sure you can take steps to secure e-mail communications. You can read and compose your e-mail using Outlook Web Access over SSL (note that not all Outlook Web Access servers communicate via SSL). You can set up your remote e-mail client to use IMAP over SSL, or Outlook over SSL, if your back end mail server supports it. You can get an e-mail certificate that can be used to encrypt individual e-mail messages. But these are all extra steps an will not guarantee secure communications every time. If you mail server does not support IMAP over SSL, Outlook Web Access over SSL, Outlook over SSL, or another secure communications interface (how many web-based mail services actually have you both log in and compose/read e-mail over a secure web interface) then at least one portion of your e-mail communications will be sent across the wire in clear text. If you have an e-mail certificate, but the person you want to send to does not, you will not be able to encrypt an e-mail message to that person.
Yes, there are ways to secure e-mail. It will take some effort. Last year, I had reason to have secure communications with a local vendor that I worked with. My side was secure (Outlook over SSL, Outlook Web Access over SSL, etc.) and we both had e-mail certificates so that I could encrypt messages to him, and he to me. I feel fairly certain that those encrypted messages we exchanged were as secure as reasonably possible. But one he received and decrypted the message, Ihave no idea if or how it stayed secure afterward.
So if you've been thinking that e-mail is a nice, convenient, and SECURE way to communicate with business or other associates, please clear this myth from your mind. If you haven't had to jump through a few hoops to set up secure e-mail, you don't have it.
This sounds like a good topic for a radio show. I'll probably work that in for next week's eOnCall episode.