Last night, I had the pleasure of attending Microsoft’s Make Web Not War Community night at the Drake Hotel in Toronto.Having attended the Make Web Not War event in Vancouver in May this year,  I was looking forward to a night of  great people, lots of cool technology stuff and the first class treatment that comes with attending a Microsoft event. ( if you have never attended a Microsoft event,you’re really missing out, as they know how to treat their guests thats for sure…).

The event kicked off with a talk from Erin Bury from Sprouter, who spoke about what a great time it was to be an entrepreneur in Toronto.I have seen Erin speak briefly at the soon to be revived Sprouter meetups and she is always full of great information and this time was no different. Erin is definitely plugged into the startup scene and always worth seeing present. Next up was Saul Colt, The Head of Magic at Freshbooks, who had a great presentation on how important it is to connect with people on a level thats is beyond the keyboard. Not only was it an enlightening session but very funny at the same time, despite the lack of laughter installed in the mic!

One of the great thing about attending events like this is getting to see new technology in action. The presentations by Epilogger and My City Lives were impressive and I actually downloaded the My City Lives app to my iPhone mid presentation.

After a quick presentation by Frederic Harper on why he left the Open Source world to work at Microsoft, it was time for the highlight of the evening, the key note by Mark Reale of bNotions. I have seen Mark speak at the Make Web Not War event in Vancouver, and was fortunate enough to be able to include him as one of the speakers in the recent WordCamp Toronto (I was one of the co-organizers for the event), and he is always engaging,informative and most importantly, thought provoking. And last night he was on his game, presenting on the Future of Mobile, with some of the best/worst slide graphics in the history of PowerPoint.

The evening was hosted by the amazing (and very pregnant) Julia Stowell, who as always, organized and hosted a first class event, from the location, to the food to the giveaways, and most importantly,organizing a stellar lineup of speakers!  Job well done Julia!!

Oh and did I mention I also won scavenger hunt/ door prize? Thanks for the Xbox with Kinect guys, I am really looking forward to getting back into the Xbox…..