My first visit experience to the Microsoft Campus in Redmond USA

Hi all,

While I’m mostly a technical blog post writer, I thought I could make a lot of people happy, by sharing my “first visit experiences” to the Microsoft Campus in Redmond USA.

(My reason for visit here was the “Microsoft Learning / MCT Advisory Council 2012 meetings”; check out my earlier blog posts on this subject to get an overview what this council discussed about with MSL…)

While I was only at the Campus for 3 days, it gave me so much good feeling that I just could not blog about it.

The biggest impression that stays in my mind is the fact that this Campus is HUGE!! and by huge, I mean huge… I think from one side to the other, it is stretched over multiple square km. There are even offices in Bellevue (closer to Seattle), and probably in other nearby regions I do not know about.

To give you an idea, I share a picture of the Campus plan and some sight seeing images:

My hotel was the Courtyard by Marriot (located in the upper left corner of the picture), within walking distance from the Campus (15-20min). Our meetings were organized in “The Mixer” and “SubMixer”. These are in fact little villages on their own, where MS people can find several restaurants, shops,…

Do a search on “Microsoft Campus Mixer Submixer” on the internet, and you will easily find out what I mean…

Coming back to the stretched aspect of the Campus: Microsoft has its own shuttle service, The Connector, which is free for all MS people and visitors, helping you to get from one building to another. A free taxi service as such. And this transportation service is not only within Campus, but also outside to regions further away. I heard a story from someone who commutes to work on a daily basis, waiting at the “Connector bus stop” right in front of his home, needing a ride of 30min to get to the Campus. And you wouldn’t believe it (but hey, this is Microsoft remember…), it has free Wifi on board !!

Below picture was taken in front of Campus Building 99, where I was told the Xbox 360 / Kinect R&D team is located…

The last cool thing that will stay in my mind for a very long time is the GreatRoom. This is an exclusive room (see the tag “on invitation only…”) which is built around the idea of a living room at home, having all the coolest Microsoft devices (Xbox 360, Kinect, Windows 7 phones, slates,…) to show you how it can be integrated in your day-to-day private live.

That’s about it for now. I can only say Thank you Microsoft for inviting me to your Campus. You have a new fan on your visitor’s list. I hope I’ll get back soon…

Oh, I forgot… they are even serving Starbucks Coffee here…

/Peter