Registration

The first and most significant thing about going to the Earnest Morial Conventions Centre and seeing inside is the bland look of the place. I know when I arrived at about 10AM Sunday it is early and there are only a few people about but the place feels drab. Also when talking to regular attendees it seems that there is a low key feel compared to previous years. I’m sure it will pick up Monday when the conference starts in earnest. Sorry about the pun!

Anyway I had a very constructive morning passing the time with the original CEO of 7global Karl Roe. Karl looks after SPLA for Microsoft in the Middle East and Africa which is no mean feat. And has possibly the most stamped passport I’ve ever seen.

Even though it’s early in proceedings I’m starting to meet more people including another ex 7global guy Nick Caw who works in the UC arena again for Microsoft in the UK. 7global currently has 3 ex employees who work for Microsoft the other being Martin Walker who mirrors Karl by looking after SPLA in the UK and is due in later today, good to see so many of our people in prominent positions in Microsoft, this probably reflects the fact that we’ve been in the business for a long time providing ASP services back in 2000 and now still out there with SaaS, Incubation Centre and S + S in 2009, ok advert over. I’m just about to have my first meeting of the week. If it goes well it will mean we have found a great addition to our Hosted Dynamics CRM service....

Well the meeting went well, and I hope to progress things when back from WPC. Now there is jazz band playing at maximum volume only a few yards away, great music, just a bit too LOUD. The ability to meet potential partners and add products to our portfolio is my prime objective for the week and although it’s difficult to mention product specifically you will be unsurprised to know that my focus on Mobility, UC, BI and collaboration.

After spending the day in and out of the conference I think that overall there seems to be a big push on Dynamics and the inevitable Windows 7 hype. I also think that there are going to be some big announcements that will have far reaching consequences to hosters like 7global; wave 14 and all that. Talked to some really great people in the 'meet and greet' sessions form places as far apart as Scotland, Mexico and the Middle East.

The most standout thing in that was we all had similar problems and experiences, it is a small world and this certainly is that case when I talk to people at that WW Hosting Summit. That's it for today it's 20:45 and high time I carried on networking, you know what I mean!