You could have guessed what I’ve been up to from yesterdays live pictures and social events. Of course, there is far more than meets the eye when it comes to business meetings – while its perfectly fine to grab someone people ought to see at a party, its not quite the same taking pictures with people you’re trying to close big deals with.
Yesterday, meetings were the core value of the day. What is particularly interesting is that none of my meetings were direct, they were all partner to partner to partner meetings where a number of us were getting together to provide a solution. That, by itself, is the reason you come to the big meetings and come to the WWPC. I know some of you guys look at me (someone called me a TITAN in their blog) but at the end of the day, I am here to copy Microsoft. Open business model, honest service, straight forward pricing and focus on a partner model (again, if you were an OWN partner you’d know my concept, why I do what I do and more specifically why I say what I say, even if you scratch your head about some things)
Keynotes
Ok. Frankly, it was all about “innovation” but thats a Microsoft term for “here are all these ideas we’ve stolen or bought from our partners and are now calling it Microsoft *.*” – and next year we’re going to steal twice as much!!! Have to hand it to them, they were quite energizing about the whole prospect and the solution stack and tried to dance as hard as they could away from the core (Client/Server) and towards dynamics, services, hosting, presence, entertainment, mobility, portability. Frankly, it puts up a huge stamp on the fact that Microsoft is going for the capex because those solutions came with a hefty price tag. A very hefty one. The quote of the day?
We’re not a 503(c) charity, we’re here to make money and win business.
SBSC hat on: Whether the majority of the world will become IT basic / esential or strategic is the largest bet this multibillion dollar company will ever make. They are betting that bigger is better and in my heart I believe a majority of my customer base is IT basic that only uses IT as a part of the business, it does not build a business on technology.
Vlad: What should Microsoft be afraid of? Well, thats between me and Steve but here is a little tip for the borgs in the reading audience: You got here with the ISVs and service shops. You continue to go against us, squeeze us out of our markets, solution portfolios and…. well… it just might become more lucrative and reasonable for an ISV to focus on those IT essential / basic platforms like MacOS and Linux and develop for the emerging markets where software can be sold for years without the threat of Microsoft squeezing you out before you’ve covered your R&D. Just food for thought folks…
Tweetie Bird Lounge
Absolutely awesome. There was a nice cocktail reception last night and literally everyone was there, packed in a tiny yellow room. Again, Lynnette saved the day and really pulled off a great event though I can’t blog that in detail. Let’s just say that we all had a great time thanks to her efforts.
I spent perhaps an hour or so working in the lounge and got a chance to talk to the people in SMB about the things we find relevant, who is meeting with who, whats the roadmap, where are the opportunities, who do you need to see. This is the value of the community at its finest, you paid $1800 to be in this hall, now how do you optimize that time and make sure you get every pennys worth? By asking for advice.
Parties, Parties, Parties
Went to the US party first, at the Invesco Field. Had an awesome reception at the club house and got to talk to some of the Microsoft folks that I really respect and am waiting patiently to get sick of Microsoft 
What can I say, its a hiring trip.
Microsoft spent quite a chunk of change on the party. After Dave Sobel of EvolveTech won the customer service award we went to the field to watch the concert. I’m much younger than most of the crowd here and the name of the geezer they dug up to play escapes me at the moment… “I want a new drug” or something was this guys hit.
More Parties
After the concert about 8 of us got into an SUV and took off to the UK party. During the first hour I really had a great time. I met so many UK partners, talked shop, geek stuff, played pool, shot a bandit, danced with her majesty. What happened after that is a bit blurry to say the least, I am sure I will receive incriminating photos shortly. When will I learn that I just can’t go out drinking with the British folks?
Today: Big client meetings. Tomorrow: Vlad free-for-all, if you want to talk shop, community, etc I have kept the day clear because meetings always get rescheduled at the last moment, cancelled, moved, running late, have to go off early, etc. Things happen, thats business. And thats why I always keep the last day of the week clear on my schedule so anyone that wants to meet me can just give me a call and we hook up where-ever we can find the nearest table.
Lunch was pretty cool as well. Each table had a specific discussion subject so you could sit with your peers that were interested in the same subject you are. Dave Sobel and I sat at the Giving Good Customer Service table simply for the irony showcase but I will admit that in the discussions between him, Susanne, Robbie, Tim and a few others I did pick up some things that we will be implementing soon at OWN – nothing earth shattering or life changing, but service is about the details and the more you can pick up and bounce off your peers the better off your stuff comes out. 
Skip this part if you’re not into Susanne Fan Club stuff. With as many conferences as I’ve been to there is always that one person, that one presentation or that one conversation that basically pays for your trip. Susanne’s presentation on customer service was easilly it. I can go home now. It was funny, it was on the point but more importantly it really helped me put into perpective how to deal with difficult people. Thankfully, most of our business is with partners and I have to admit that they are all pretty much wonderful and understanding… but customers. Ever look at the phone and think to yourself – “Do I feel like having my day ruined by this person, again?” – Susanne’s presentation gave me some insight to how to fix that and how to do a little bit better with this particular pain point. Just like Warrilow’s presentation, it addressed the current pain point and gave me something I never got from my business books.
All my local Microsoft people are here. All except The Greg Boyd, best sales person on the face of the earth. I wrote about this earlier, but Jessica Emmons, James Cuomo, Rene Alamo, JJ Antequino… everyone seems to be here. Why is this relevant? Because I do business with these folks year round and I rarely get to see them, once a quarter if I’m lucky and the calendar matches up. But while I am here I get to hear what their plans for the year are, what they will and wont likely have the chance to do – and I can plan my local market engagements based on that as well as the community aspect. For most SMB partners whose engagement is 100% local I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t show up for at least one day.
Aside from the brief moments of Susanneshine, these conferences are far more about networking, exchanging ideas and partnering than they are about presentation content and keynotes. This year the SMB Symposium dedicated a cool room just for this. Tables, couches, drinks, etc. This is incredibly valuable for me because I partner with a lot of these folks and we generally don’t get to sit down and talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. The ugly is what I really need to know because the products and services we deliver are selling like crazy so addressing the problems and issues we are not aware of is critical. Also finding out how to make those products and services work better for our clients is incredibly important because it drives the feature set based on the actual users needs. It also helps to show some… uhm… pride… in what you do and really try to find the best solution or at least a good compromise. Kudos to the Symposium folks for arranging this.
