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So many Sessions, so little Time: Some tips on shortlisting WPC events

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With just SIX WEEKS LEFT until the 2016 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, the time has come to shortlist the sessions that you’d like your team to attend. Hundreds of different types of events will be on offer at WPC—everything from breakouts, hubs, expos, panels, keynotes to workshops—that cover the full gamut of subjects.

From app development and big data analytics to the wonderful world of Windows, Microsoft has pulled out the stops to bring you best-in-class experts sharing their vision, knowledge and strategies. Across the board, these sessions are designed to be practical, interactive and highly informative. But with so many sessions to pick from, where do you even start?

Divide & Conquer

If you’re coming as a team, suffice to say that you’re going to want to apply a “divide and conquer” strategy. Resist the temptation to double-up on sessions and instead ask each team member take notes/record and collect assets from each session, so you can share them internally after. (More about that later.) Dividing and conquering also makes sense when it comes to networking, which is a huge benefit of participating in WPC.

Master the Session Catalog Tool

A great place to start is by exploring the WPC website to put you onto some of the key speakers and events you’ll want to attend. Then go deeper with the Session Catalog. You can search by keyword, but we’re big fans of the filter functionality, which organizes everything neatly. Click on the green button…

Filter

And you’ll be able to access all the filers, which conveniently organize the sessions:

Selected Filter

These filters should save you a ton of time and help ensure you’re able to see everything on offer specific to each subject.

  • Theme sessions focus on our most important shared priorities: leadership, collaboration, profitability, differentiation and transformation
  • Special Interest sessions are mostly directed at audiences, such as first-time attendees, cloud service providers and WPC women
  • Business Leadership sessions zero in on the business side of things, such as marketing, mergers, sales and talent management
  • Products includes sessions on everything from Azure to Windows Server
  • Solutions covers everything from Business Applications to Trusted Cloud
  • Compete sessions cover companies from Amazon to Vmware and are helpful if you need to better communicate our value propositions
  • You can also filter by Competency, Partner Type, Industry, Customer Segment and so on

As you experiment with this tool, make sure you pay close attention to the filers you select and unselect. In the example below we chose Small Business + Business Applications + Azure and identified five sessions. Once we removed the Azure filter, 11 sessions appeared. So if you’re seeing no results, it may be because you have several filters selected restricting the results.

Selected Filters

For now, you’ll get a description of each event, including who is scheduled to speak and the objective of the session. As WPC nears, a detailed scheduled will be published. For now, you can simply cut and paste the session information of interest to you into your own document to have ready.

Leave Some Room

With so many exciting speakers and pertinent subjects on offer, it’s easy to overload your schedule with back-to-back sessions. Our experience is that you need to pace yourself and give yourself the flexibility to explore the commons and other areas at WPC. So leave a bit of time unscheduled. And don’t forget about your meals and breaks, plus fun stuff after hours too! Toronto is a great big city with just about every type of entertainment you can imagine.

De-brief Event

Most WPC participants come back to their office with their heads swimming with new ideas, solutions, strategies, contacts and practices they want to explore, pursue and put into place. We’ve discovered that an internal “de-briefing” event back at your office is a very helpful way to exchange ideas, prioritize your initiatives and get everyone up to speed.

Remember, WPC is all about you: our Partners. We’ve put together a fantastic event tailor-made to get you inspired, up-to-speed and connected to other movers and shakers in the industry.

Look forward to seeing you there!

If you have yet to register for WPC, please register your business team today, before it’s too late. This is a show you just can’t afford to miss!

#WPC16

@MPNCanada