Microsoft Convergence: The beginning of the last day

The last day of Convergence and I must admit it has been quite a conference. What has been interesting, to an old timer like me, is that the whole feel of the event has evolved.

With 8,500 users, a great green bent and the economy considerations it is amazing how things change.

The sessions I attended yesterday were good interactive events. In fact during one hour I double dipped and attended two and still got a ton of GREAT input from each. Now given I was only in each session 50% that is saying a lot. (Perhaps next year technology will allow the true multi-tasker in me to watch one while I participate in the other. (yes, I can do that don't argue) )

I have to reach out and give kudos to Ben Vollmer who managed to not only present a technical, non technical with just the right amount of each session (and no canned koolaid) but who also did it from 4:30-5:30 before drinks/dinner, after a long three days with his usual sense of humor. And although I will probably regret posting this - he also allowed me to paradigm shift back into a real appreciation for senior CRM developer mindset.

Thinking CRM successfully is a hard skill to master and should never be underestimated if and when you are ramping up any new staff. (no matter how young, old, experienced or what their background)

The other sessions I attended yesterday included

• IDCRM05 Marketing Automation
• IDCRM06 Integrating with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
• CSCRM11 Driving Business Success with xRM
CSCRM08 Extending CRM to fit your business

and I presented with IDCRM03 Is the Customer Always Right? with Heather Thigpen from IHS

After sessions it was the more traditional vendor, partner customer and/or prospect appreciate night. I started over at the Core Motives cocktail meetup because I have been meaning to get to their booth and spend some time with them. Thanks to Scott Sewell from Customer Effective for alerting me to where they were. Not only was it a great place to connect with other CRM peeps and get answers to tough technical questions, but I even managed to get to see an informal, impromptu demo on the product. Usually a big (what at a party!!!) but handled so well I was appreciative. Thanks Rhett!

Heading from Slice to hook up with an old associate, Joe Stuckey, a couple of us went over to the Client Profiles event. Kudos to Client Profiles for encouraging knowledge sharing even with those not directly in their prospect or customer audience. Client Profiles is the company behind CRM4Legal, a Microsoft Dynamics xRM product that meets all the CRM needs of the big legal firms.

Time for another full day!! Hopefully my voice will hold out through the time I am presenting later this afternoon.