Highlights from Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011

The curtains have fallen on another Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC).

Held in Los Angeles this year, this was the biggest WPC ever, with over 16,000 attendees converging from around the world. For those of us travelling long distance, having the conference one stop away in LA was a bonus. As always, Microsoft was an excellent host and looked after the large contingent of partners, especially those new to the WPC experience.

I was joined at WPC this year by our CEO, Tony Stewart, and our Chief Operating Officer, Simon Bright.

For me, WPC can be broken down into three key components, each of which is equally valuable:

• Keynote and session updates. The opportunity to hear from Microsoft executives including Steve Ballmer, Kevin Turner, Kirill Tatarinov and many others about Microsoft’s vision for the future, and upcoming activities and plans.
• Networking with Microsoft Executives and fellow partners from around the world. The opportunity to hear first-hand about future plans and how we are best positioned to leverage them.
• The Expo, renamed this year to the Solution Innovation Center. The opportunity to meet key partners from all around the world that we represent and work with.

While 2011 wasn’t a major ‘wave’ year for Microsoft, there was still plenty of new stuff to discuss, see and hear about. Key technologies discussed included:

• Cloud (Azure and Office 365)
• Windows Phone 7 ‘Mango’ release
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
• Windows Intune/Systems Center

There were two key highlights for me at this year’s event:

• Seeing the demo created by the Intergen team utilising CRM 2011, Office 365 and Azure at the Tuesday keynote.
• Receiving recognition for achieving Inner Circle status for the second year in a row. This recognises Intergen’s position in the top 1% of Dynamicspartners worldwide. Plus we received Presidents Club status, recognising the top 5% of Dynamics partners worldwide.

As with every other WPC I’ve attended, there were always more things to do than time allowed, which is a shame when there are several important things happening at the same time. That is an unfortunate reality of attending an event of this scale. All in all another successful WPC.

Next year WPC heads back to Toronto (it was last there in 2004) and I’m sure it will be another memorable event.

wayne.forgesson@intergen.co.nz

They must have heard we were coming? We slummed it on a trip to Santa Monica. A visit to the Microsoft store. We built this demo.