Conversation dear to my heart since the DEC/TEC conference I attended for 10+ years was doomed when Dell absorbed Quest a couple years ago because they didn’t “see it as being worth the expense”
It was extremely well supported by MS and the MVP community and was starting to stretch out nicely by including Exchange, Powershell and Sharepoint. The knowledge transfer from the presenters and product teams was nothing short of amazing. I took 2013 off from conferences because I was disgusted with Dell and the whole TEC situation but did attend the Redmond Identity Summit put on by OCG early this year. To Rod’s point, it was extremely well supported by the highest echelon within MS, small enough to be on their campus and there were a number of presentations by very senior folks like Stuart Kwan and Alex Simons. All in all it was very well done and I plan to go back next year but it is a very focused event totally targeted on a particular niche. I think this event was a perfect example of what Rod closed with. The fact that it is technology directly supportive of the MSIT mission statement isn’t lost on me. I spent another week up there afterward with MSIT and they are as all-in as you can get. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Rod Trent Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 2:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] I'm sure you've heard already... Yes, they do. Some went to TechEd this year to give it a shot (after Microsoft “merged” MMS into TechEd). The experiment didn’t go well, but MSFT event management spun it differently (in their favor) to show that a mega-conference is possible. I’ve worked with the event management/marketing teams since, oh…jeez…1999, helping them with community stuff and social media, so I’m privy to certain conversations from being included in meetings over the years. TechEd has actually been on the chopping block for about 3 years. There were talks that TechEd might be rolled into MMS at one point, since MMS really represented Microsoft’s true direction. This year made the most sense due to company shifts, a new CEO, and perceived cost-cutting. I have personal feelings about the new event I’ve never been shy to share, but from a Microsoft business perspective it makes perfect sense. That’s something that can’t be argued. Pure and simple, Microsoft needs a vehicle to deliver a centralized marketing and sales message to the biggest audience at once. Multiple events only serves to dilute the message and complicate a unified message delivery. There’s technical training and sessions built in, but that’s not the main intent of the event. And, really, you can’t blame Microsoft for doing this. All other big vendors (and even smaller ones) do the same. To be successful with this route, though, Microsoft will have to invest in and support the smaller, more targeted and better technical events. And, they know that, hence why Brad Anderson is supporting IT/Dev Connections this year. From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 4:57 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] I'm sure you've heard already... It’s been yelled about, cursed, discussed, and hammered to death in various private forums, before it was ever announced publicly. The MVPs (Lync, Exchange, SharePoint, Office, I can’t speak for any of the rest) hate it. Rod can tell us for certain, but I’m pretty sure the System Center folks hate it too (they had MMS). From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of William Robbins Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 4:50 PM To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] I'm sure you've heard already... I'm kind of surprised this topic has laid here quietly this long. I've never been able to go to any of the (now cancelled) conferences for one reason or the other, but I always had the impression they were considered a rather big deal by IT folk that attended. - WJR 🙈🙉🙊 On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 12:22 PM, Rod Trent <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: …but, TechEd, MEC, and all other events are being replaced. http://windowsitpro.com/cloud/teched-dead-long-live<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://windowsitpro.com/cloud/teched-dead-long-live&k=4%2BViHuL0UtSJBpVrYi3EdQ%3D%3D%0A&r=Jek3QSvahmIrNAN1nuPfQA%3D%3D%0A&m=86D8scAT2PCMPcZx3lJg6ivMkGIq0vghFamVnALxc%2B4%3D%0A&s=64689b7591e34c1197a4bf3bcdc38f0ab868ed677d6a707605f768796e008518> PG&E is committed to protecting our customers' privacy. To learn more, please visit http://www.pge.com/about/company/privacy/customer/
