Mark Dorfling from South Africa @ WPC 2007

Allison Watson closed of WPC 2007 with some further insight into Microsoft Auto, Surface as well as some other exciting technologies which should be available in the market place for commercial use soon.

 

At the expo this year there were a number of exciting stands giving away some awesome prizes, XBoxe's, Zune's and then the two that prizes that drew that most attention were a super bike from Citrix and a Mustang from the Microsoft Vista Business Unit. The bike was eventually won buy a partner from the UK and the mustang by a partner from South America.

Simon Witts (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/witts/default.mspx) delivered an awe inspiring keynote on this the final day of WPC. Looking at all the new technologies Microsoft are introducing, no longer are these products sold as stand alone items but rather a collaborative set of tools and applications accessible through a common user interface.

Last night a bunch of us South Africans went to the Hard Rock Cafe (http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafes3/cafes.aspx?LocationID=48&MenuID=15&MIBEnumID=3) for sundowners and a bite to eat, the company was great and the food superb, would recommend the S.O.B Burger to everyone. A great time was had by all, and I think I may have talked myself into doing the Iron Man in South Africa (http://www.ironmansouthafrica.com/).

Just finished attending a very interesting Business Leadership break out session delivered by Rod Beckstrom (http://beckstrom.com/Main_Page) re his new business model that is covered in his book, Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (http://beckstrom.com/The_Starfish_and_The_Spider). It idea for the book came after the happenings of 9/11 and the workings of Al Quaeda.

 

I would suggest if you are looking for some new ideas about taking your business to the next level, this book could well be worth a read.

Allison Watson started Day 2's Keynote, re-inforcing the Partner Ready message. Microsoft will continue to support and invest in tools that will assist partners with growing the businesses and better aligning themselves with Microsoft.

 

Andrew Lees (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/lees/default.mspx) who is the Corporate VP for Server and Tools rattled off a huge dose of numbers about the continued success Microsoft has been experiencing in this area of the business, with double digit growth for the last (if I remember correctly) 19 quarters or it may just be the last 9 quarters.

 

Andrew re-emphasised the message that the official launch date of Windows Server 2008,  SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 would hapen on the 27 of February 2008. This launch will be HUGE!!!