Susanne Dansey’s Blog

I’m sure the UK MotherShip is going to groan when they read this because I’m probably already covering something they are hopefully discussing. But as it’s half ten at night, they won’t be about, and if they are then they won’t want me interrupting them on their xbox dashboard (yes, you know who you are!).

Sometimes I sit here and ponder on this and that and today, after looking at the promotional stuff about the World Partner Conference, I thought to myself, how many people from the UK are actually going to this?

The answer is, before you answer, not enough.

I don’t mean that we should all fork out thousands to fly across the ‘pond’, but the content is really, REALLY, useful. And knowing that February’s Symposium went well, I thought that maybe we should have another one September/November time…

I told you they would groan… they’re remembering how much work they put into it and here’s me asking them to do it again!

But seriously, here’s what I’m thinking…

It doesn’t necessarily have to be all Microsoft, and maybe if with enough warning others can get involved i.e. distribution (Westcoast, Computer 2000, Ingram Micro, Bell Micro/Ideal, Enta etc…), and vendors (HP, Dell (did I just say that?!)Symantec, McAfee, Trend, Level Platforms, Belkin, Cisco, Intel, AMD). Any partners who want to exhibit can also add to the funds pot…

Invite all partners with a small business focus - not just SBSC because the definition of ’small’ is different for everyone and who’s to say that a Gold Partner shouldn’t attend even though they sell SBS in bucket loads?. Add a dash of Microsoft and a few professional evangelists and you’ve got what I think is a useful day. A bit of product demo, open Q&A, 1:1s, partner talks, and a chance to network with the variety of partners in attendance.

Okay, so it might not reach this scale but we need another big event to tie everything together. But let’s make sure it’s not just a chance for the big guns to showboat. I want the opportunity to tell the vendors where I think they may be missing an opportunity, or even to say ‘your product rocks’.

The feedback from February was fantastic and I know that in recent months more and more people are responding directly to presenters (James & Matt for example at the TechNet events) to say how much they enjoyed the content.

Let’s get the PTS team out in front of us and talk about all the new ‘toys’ and shiny products that are coming out. The community is starting to feel that SBS is being overshadowed by Cougar and the coding for it is radically different to the familiar platforms, so let’s get it out there, see it, play with it, and get excited (not sure if I need to re-phrase that).

The linch pin in all of this is to meet the needs of the wider range of partners out there. That means:

• No talks about the same stuff that was, and is, already discussed four-fold
• Appreciate that there are partners in our community that have more experience in this market than I have had cooked dinners - don’t tell us how to install stuff but show us the fancy stuff and how to make the tin ’sing’.
• Realise that many of us, even though it takes an hour as the crow flies, have to sit in traffic for a good while to get to TVP and therefore you have to give us something that is over and above the LiveMeetings and events that are already in existence.
• Raise the bar on the content. Marketing 101 shouldn’t be presented more than once a year. If a partner has a marketing person/team, they don’t need a 101 - they need the equivalent conversations we have with David Overton but in marketing speak. If they are a one-man-band, then telling them what is available to them but not how to use it is just going to frustrate them.
• Increase the time spent on Q&A and pre-empt some of the questions. There are some who ask questions just to prove they know their stuff (well done you) but it takes up valuable time and frustrates other delegates.
• Include some fun stuff that we play around with as well i.e. Media Centre, xBox 360, etc… because like our clients we are also ‘dual users’
• Find out from the events teams across the breadth of industry partners what gets people out of bed, and travelling in their car to attend events - it’s usually the chance to talk to the product specialists, maybe bring out Darren Strange for 2007 Microsoft Office System and a few others so that they can hear first hand what the barriers to market are.

Right, I’m done now. This was obviously aimed at Microsoft more than anyone else but that’s because I know they have the best connections with the community and they have just rolled out the 3-day Symposium tour. If anyone else feels like taking up the gauntlet then please do!

It will be interesting to hear from our UK community partners as to what they found interesting at the Worldwide Partner Conference - we’ll have to wait until the end of July for that!