Thinking Big in SMB (re: WWPC)

My more eloquent half from UK sent me IM today asking if I had read Chris’s blog. Haven’t, so I asked what’s up? Apparently, Chris isn’t coming to WWPC because his business isn’t coming to WWPC because (paraphrasing quite a bit): “it’s about Microsoft and (his) business doesn’t come from Microsoft”. The rest of this post isn’t about Chris but rather about the statement above which I think will lead many of you to get the wrong impression about what Microsoft conferences are really all about.

So if you’re in a happy place, don’t read this. If you’re an SMB consultant thats happy with what you’re up to, don’t read this. If you think you’ve got the world figured out, excellent, don’t read this. I feel thats a sufficient warning for the reality check I’m about to offer you:

Conferences are all about what you make out of them. Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference is not about Microsoft. Microsoft TechED is not about Enterprise. Yes, if you’ve got an attention span of an ant and can’t get the picture beyond the conference tagline then by all means, enjoy your rut. If you think the conference is for you just because it has words SMB in it, you deserve to be robbed blind and charged $899 for a crappy vendor festival pretending to be SMB community content. I always beg my SMB partners to consider the big picture, and to think more than 2 fiscal quarters down the road.

So allow me to let you in on a little secret. Microsoft events are expensive because they keep the crud out. They keep amateurs, hobbyists, those Hair Salon action pack subscribers and Jimmy Joe Bob experts out of the loop. They let you talk to the leaders in the space, and set a conversation at a meaningful level, one beyond “Microsoft licensing is too hard” and at a level of “we all know it sucks, now how do we succeed despite the limitations”.

Finally, Microsoft World Wide Partner conference is not about Microsoft. It is about Partners. And if you’re one of the partners that allows themselves to be cattled into the mindnumbing and pointless keynotes thats your own sheep fault. The real conference is in the networking section, which is bigger than the keynotes, lectures, sessions, labs and lounges put together. Wonder why? Because THAT is the real conference. Not getting dunk with your friends. Not watching 6 hours of keynotes a day. Not playing labs that you can get for free on the net. Not distributing your memorandums or voicing your complaints. Not about the community.

It’s all about you. What WWPC is really about is building your business. It’s about finding solutions, about talking to other partners, about getting advice, about arranging deals, about talking to the best, about learning from the successful, about making connections, about keeping connections, about making your presence… so when you need something you visit all of the above and you pull it off inside your business.

Let go of your pre-conceptions, let go of the limitations you have in your own mind, let go of the ignorance that is keeping you where you are – otherwise you have no hope at all. When you realize that the only thing between you and success, in whichever terms you define it – is just the set of roadblocks you put up for yourself… wonderful things happen. But what do I know, I’m just a guy with a blog.