• Canada Party Details

    The Canadian Party at WPC 2013 – Saddle Up for a Night to Remember!

    We are back on the road for a new edition of WPC and this time we are heading south to Houston, TX and we want to immerse you in an electrifying techno-rodeo experience at the Warehouse Live.

    This year, it’s all about giving you more chances to connect with Microsoft employees and fellow Partners at this exclusive celebration. Bring your cowboys boots and get ready to hit the dance floor at your own personal, Texas dance party.  The DJ will spin top 40 hits while mixing in a little country to keep those boots two-stepping to the beat. 

    Your host for the night will be America’s Favorite Cowboy Will Roberts, is none other than the man who trained Beyonce on her wild electric bull riding moves.  A modern day Will Roger, this talented roper, professional bull-rider and former Cirque du Soleil performer, is sure to light up the night and bring out the cowboy in each of us.

    VIP Shuttle service will circulate continuously from the designated Canadian hotels to the Canada Party from 7:30pm – 1:00am and make sure you arrive in style.  But before you depart, there will be a surprise at the end of the evening!

    With other surprises in store, this year’s party is lining up to be fun & memorable! We’ll be sharing out more Canadian experience details as they evolve so continue to visit our Canadian WPC Blog.

    Please note that only Partners with All-Access Passes will have access to the Canadian Party.

    See you in Houston!

    WPC Canada Team

  • WPC13 Canada Lounge Activity

    At WPC, the Canada Lounge is the headquarters of information, networking and activity.  To help make this environment even more effective, we’re creating opportunities to encourage deep conversations with Canadian MPN experts and Business Group Leaders. 

    These locally focused discussions will allow partners to discuss the key messages delivered in the Vision and Value Keynotes and how they relate on a Canadian landscape, directly with the Business Group leaders during concentrated times.   

    In addition, First Time Attendee Lunch ‘n’ Learns will take place from 12:00pm - 1:30pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with. You’ll interact with our first time attendee mentors and MPN experts and discuss specific techniques regarding accelerated business growth on daily topics.

    Canada Lounge Activities

     

    Day

    Time

    Subject

    Monday

    8:30am - 12:00pm

    Vision Keynote

    Click for Calendar
      Invitation

    12:00pm - 1:30pm

    Rookie Lunch n' Learn: MPN

     

    1:30pm - 2:30pm

    Value Keynote

    Click for Calendar
      Invitation

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Windows Team

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Office Team

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Server & Tools Team

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Dynamics Team

     

    4:00pm - 5:30pm

    Happy Hour in The Commons

    Tuesday

    9:00am - 10:00am

    Value Keynote

    Click for Calendar
      Invitation

    12:00pm - 1:30pm

    Rookie Lunch n' Learn: Cloud

    Click for Calendar
      Invitation

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Windows Team

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Office Team

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Server & Tools Team

    3:00pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Dynamics Team

     

    4:00pm - 5:30pm

    Happy Hour in The Commons

    Wednesday

    9:00am - 11:30am

    Vision Keynote

    Click for Calendar
      Invitation

    12:00am - 1:00pm

    Rookie Lunch n' Learn: Training & Readiness

     

    1:00pm - 2:00pm

    Value Keynote

    Click for Calendar
      Invitation

    2.30pm - 4.00pm

    Meet the Windows Team

    2.30pm - 4.00pm

    Meet the Office Team

    2:30pm - 4:00pm

    Meet the Dynamics Team

    2.30pm - 4.00pm

    Meet the Server & Tools Team

     

    See you in Houston!

    WPC Canada Team

  • Guide to the Canadian Experience

    The WPC Canada Team is thrilled to share Your Guide to the Canadian Experience at the 2013 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference !

    The Canadian conference guide provides you with essential information; such as critical WPC Canadian events, things you should know before you go, assistance with building your plan to maximize your value and corporate events and activities.

    Top 5 essentials in the guide:

    1. Key Dates + Events – The most critical Canadian and corporate events for the week.
    2. Logistics  – Important Info on hotels and transportation.
    3. WPC Connect Canada – Tips on how to engage with us on the tool.
    4. Build Your Session Schedule – Info on how to plan, schedule, and export your sessions.
    5. Rookie Success Steps to WPC – How to succeed at WPC in a glance.

    We hope you find Your Guide to the Canadian Experience at WPC 2013 helpful for planning your week and maximizing your value!

    See you in Houston!

    WPC Canada Team

  • Highlights from Day 1

    “No matter what happens to consumerization we, together, will deliver devices and services.” –Steve Ballmer

    Houston, WPC Canada has landed. The first day kicked off with a keynote from Steve Ballmer about the four mega-trends underpinning our transformation as a company and the boundless opportunities.

    Today’s key takeaways:

    • Office 365 is on track to become one of the fastest growing businesses.
    • Companies generated more than 50 percent of their revenues from the cloud (IDC Cloud Profitability Study)
    • OEM Partners will be able to get the RTM bits and begin preparing devices with Windows 8.1 just in time for the holidays! Find out more here
    • Incentives will be provided to authorized distributor and reseller partners who sell Featured PCs and tablets with Windows 8 Pro and touch. Partners can find out more about this program here
      • This User Experience Design competency will provide a way for partners to train their designers and get recognized for their expertise with the Microsoft Design Language.

    The Canadian Lounge in the GRBCC Commons also opened up – have you checked it out yet? The first event held in the Lounge was a Rookie Lunch ‘N Learn for the Microsoft Partner Network. To cap off the night, Canadian Partners had the opportunity to meet
    business group executives and network with fellow Partners at Hay Merchant.

    Watch the keynote on-demand at digitalwpc.com and follow the action on Microsoft.ca/WPC.

    Follow us on Twitter @WPCCanada and join our conversation with #WPC13.

     

  • Highlights from Day 2

    Now that WPC is underway in the great state of Texas, the second day focussed on two main topics: enterprise social technologies and integrating the Cloud into MPN. 

    What did we learn about Enterprise Social technologies?

    • 17 631 social media mentions of #WPC13, the partner channel, Microsoft and Surface show first-hand the impact of social communities
    • A global survey of nearly 10 000 employees revealed that 50% of respondents who use enterprise social tools (Yammer, SharePoint and Dynamics CRM) observed increased productivity and would dish out their own funds to pay for such technologies

    Any updates on the MPN and the Cloud?

    • Julie Bennani’s blog here provides an in-depth view of the new Cloud Essentials and Cloud Accelerate program
    • Application innovation and device selling increasingly focuses on user design experience, onboarding Windows Embedded Partners

    Yehaw, Canadian Partners!

    The Canadian Lounge buzzed all day on Tuesday with partner meetings, new connections and wristband distribution. Partners around the world tried to gain access into the Canadian Party because it’s been historically known to be the ‘best party in town’. The day ended with great anticipation for what was yet to come.

    The Canadian Regional Party at Warehouse Live started at 8 pm and VIP shuttle buses were on route from the Derek Hotel. Over 500 Microsoft Representatives and Partners got into the Rodeo theme, line danced the night away and waited in line to participate on the mechanical bull! Once the party ended, the late night snacks from Chi’Lantos food truck were also a delicious surprise. Please share your photos with us by tweeting at @wpccanada, we would love to see how much fun you had!

    Follow the action on Microsoft.ca/WPC, on Twitter @WPCCanada and join our conversation with #WPC13.


     
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
     
     
     


  • Highlights from Day 4

    We painted the city red and white! The final day of WPC13 concluded with an all-Canadian keynote and breakout sessions delivering this year’s priorities and how our Canadian partners can continue to win in the market.

    Keynote Recap: How do we accelerate growth together?

    Over 450 attendees kicked off the fourth day with the Canadian Keynote hosted by Greg Larnder, celebrating last year and getting excited for what’s to come.

    What are your opportunities?

    • Cloud: Capitalize on Virtualization & Management Solution Incentive Program Payouts, Proof of Concept engagements, Lead a transfer the Datacenter Immersion Experiences (TDI), Cloud Essential, Cloud Accelerate, and Joint Selling motions
    • Big Data: Microsoft’s new Technology Centre is a state-of-the art facility with collaborative and purpose-build environment to ensure world-class learning and development experiences. By working through scenarios with customers, the MTC offers strategy briefings, architecture design sessions, Proof of Concept workshops, and hands-on immersions.
    • Mobility is as hot a topic as the Houston sun. Windows 8 across all devices allows for productivity on the go, anywhere, anytime with increased reach and security.
    • Social: Social media provides a platform for every organization to learn from and to harness with productivity of enterprise social gaining momentum with Yammer, Lync and SharePoint built into the Office 365 offerings.

    Canadian Breakout Sessions

    Office -  Transformation: Growing and Building your Business Productivity Revenue with the New Office

    • In this session we heard from Sumeet Khanna, Director, Microsoft Office Division, who spoke about a new portfolio of Software + Services and new business models. He spoke about the new go-to-market plans for the year, including; winning with Office 365, the social platforms of SharePoint and Yammer and enterprise communications of Lync.

    Server & Tools – Capturing Canada’s Modern Datacenter & Business Insights Opportunity

     

    • Vinay Nair, Modern Datacenter Lead, Eduard Davidzhan, Senior Product Manager, SQL and Stephen Giles, Partner Technical Advisor shared details about their plan for the Private and Public Cloud and Data Platform and BI in Canada and how they can be an investment and opportunity for partners to engage. Vinay, Eduard and Stephen dove through modernizing the datacenter, trendings of financial opportunities involved with a Cloud platforms and improvements to the SQL functionalities. 

    Windows – Windows 8: Prepare for Impact Canada

    • We joined Henrik Gutle, Windows Business Group Manager and James Nicholson, Senior Product Manager, Windows where they showcased partner opportunities around Windows 8, applications and awesome new devices. They also shared information on Windows investments and priorities for the partner channel to drive our customers forward. There is positive momentum for Windows in Canada as businesses are adopting and developing for Windows 8, showing high interest in Windows tablet solutions and taking advantage of new apps. The consumerization of IT brings significant cost savings and a new class of devices addressing needs of IT as the Surface is highly comparable to other products.

    And that’s a wrap in the Canadian Lounge!

    Throughout the week, the Canadian Lounge was the place to be for partners to meet and network with the Business Group Leads and take part in Rookie Lunch and Learn sessions. Share your photos in the Lounge with us @wpccanada! We want to see who you’ve met and what you’ve learned.

    Register Early and Save Big.

    It’s never too early to think about next year! Take advantage of the discounted WPC 14 rate until this Sunday.  

     

    Follow the action on Microsoft.ca/WPC, on Twitter @WPCCanada and join our conversation with #WPC13.