WPC: The Afterthought

Last year was the first in the recent memory that I skipped out on WPC; two from my team went and had a far different impression of it than I used to. This year, I went again with the team that for the lack of a better word has been the “mop” of Own Web Now: cleaning up the mess left by years of vertical growth and lack of really solid business controls that we needed to get to our SAS 70 and many enhancements I said we were working on Jan 1 to bring more consistency to the business.

Every day counts.

But it isn’t every day that you’re challenged to take your game to the next level, working shoulder to shoulder with some of the best in business. When I think of where I started in this business, and where we are today, it just blows my mind.

WPC is the driving force behind motivating me to that step.

So, let me be honest about WPC and how it changes our future in a way that Microsoft won’t advertised it.

Community

We spent roughly the cost of a nice sedan on our presence at WPC as a sponsor. No, it was not to give out the tshirts and talk about ExchangeDefender.. It was to more efficiently work with our community.

This year, thanks to the SPAM Show, I am far more in tune with the backchannel of the IT space and the major movers and shakers. But do I get to sit down and have 2 hurricanes with Chris Rue? Curry with Richard Tubb? Faux-beef with Dean Calvert? Talk about acquisitions with Jamison West, who isn’t even our client? Noope. Never do.

The length, the intensity, the frustration of WPC is all about endurance and your willingness to be better. If you’re willing to participate, ask questions and offer advice – even when it doesn’t have material impact for you directly in ROI sense – it will offer you more perspective than you could ever buy from a survey. Face to face is important.

I am more confident now, than ever, to say that there is no real community left. Sitting in the tweetie bird lounge (SBSC Central) made it quite clear that it’s just a bunch of very successful, nice, people that are willing to help one another.

Expo

Ok, so the expo was a mixed bag. As you can tell by the video below, it was not well received by everyone (and I know this is going to come as a shock and disappointment to many, but it’s not my video):

The foot traffic was down from previous years but we still did remarkably well. If you are interested in “selling” stuff from your booth then WPC is not for you. It’s just not that kind of a show. People attending WPC paid $3-5,000 to just show up and they aren’t the ‘tards that want to buy the latest shiny toy for their client just so they could play with it. Those days are long gone.

I spent very little time in the booth, maybe less than 10% of the entire time it was open. Even then, it was simply to meet people there so we wouldn’t have to go through the WPC table meeting area that was as far from food as possible.

Expo was just my hub of operations. And it was worth every penny. Even if it didn’t sign up one more dollar of new business.

Microsoft

Meh.

The keynotes made it more apparent that there is very little vision in that company. They just see the word as competitors they are trying to catch up – Apple, Google, Vmware, Yahoo, Oracle, IBM, Amazon…  I know they tried hard to put on the fight paint but to me it just seemed like a long infomercial to check out the alternatives.

For example, we are a major Visual Studio / Hyper-V operation. But based on what I saw there, next week two monkeys are in charge of producing a competitive matrix and 2 year cost efficiencies of using Vmware on Linux vs. Windows/Hyper-V. If Microsoft tried so desperately to make a case against Vmware (and not for Hyper-V) then I have to think there are things we aren’t aware of about Vmware and owe it to check it out.

Small Business. Man. I am not going to name the partners and Microsoft employees I watched that presentation with but let’s just say that the disbelief was uniform across my row.

Lessons Learned

Undershirt, dress shirt, tie, suit jacket is no way to walk around the streets of NOLA.

British can get really aggravated when they haven’t had their “proper” tea.

This space is changing… always, changing…

Chris Rue, ESI: Enlightened Self-Interest.

Microsoft SMB’s focus on VAR’s may have jumped the shark at this point. “Thanks for building the LANs boys, we’ll take it from here.” Try the Windows Foundation Server / Home server.

Cost cutting. You could feel the ghosts of the 5,000 laid off Microsoft employees roaming the quality of the conference this year. There have been massive cuts in just about everything. However, Microsoft employees more than made up for it all and really put on a great show. As much as I would have liked more elaborate parties, I am even more impressed with their ability to restrain themselves and focus on fiscal responsibility.

Comfortable shoes. I’m a Bruno Magli / Timberland fan myself. But last week I decided to give a shot to something that a sales rep at Macy’s couldn’t say enough about: Johnston & Murphy. Cheap, look OK and feel like butter. I think these shoes are just about the best pre-WPC decision I made. I know, reading Vladville for shoe advice is a bit of a reach but I recommend what I like 😉