Raised in Spokane Washington, Blain Barton has been with Microsoft for 25 years and has held many diverse positions. He's currently a Senior Software Engineer working in the world of the "Internet of Things". His career started in 1988 with Microsoft as Team Leader in M&D moving to PSS Team Manager for Visual Basic Product Support and Product Development Consultant for Microsoft Word Division. Blain has organized and delivered a wide array of technical events and has presented over 1000 live events and has received six “top-presenter” speaking awards. He has traveled around the world delivering OEM training sessions on pre-installing Microsoft Windows on new PC’s. Blain wrote his first book, “Setting up your business in the cloud – Microsoft Public Cloud Services” in 2015 and attended Washington State University graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Business and Minor in Computer Science. After college, Blain taught snow skiing on a professional level in the Cascade Mountains before starting his career with Microsoft. Blain also runs a 5-acre farm consisting of palm trees within his nursery operation in Homosassa Florida. Blain currently resides in Tampa Florida.