July 2014 #CollabTalk TweetJam on #WPC14 takeaways

Coming back from an action-packed Worldwide Partner Conference (#WPC14) in Washington DC, what better way to share our thoughts and ideas and takeaways from this great annual event than a tweetjam? I find myself already sorting through business cards and email threads, trying to piece together an action plan based on many of the great conversations I participated in, but also want to learn from others. I found that many of the sessions I had wanted to attend were double, triple, and quadruple booked against other great sessions – so hearing from other participants, with their notes and ideas – is a great way to dive into the layer below the marketing messaging, and find out what resonated with our peers.

Of course, not everyone attended WPC in person – but with keynotes being streamed live, and numerous presenters sharing their content via blogs, articles, and published presentations, the impact of WPC goes beyond those who attended. And on July 31st, we want to hear your feedback, no matter how you participated.

If you’re new to the tweetjam model, basically its an hour-long public conversation held on Twitter and using a shared hash tag, which is #CollabTalk. You can use your Twitter platform of choice OR go over to http://twubs.com/CollabTalk which automatically appends each message with #CollabTalk, and has a nice feature that allows followers to actually slow the dialog down to a readable speed (it can fly by fairly quickly). The questions we will be discussing are listed below:

"What are your takeaways from the Worldwide Partner Conference?"

• What announcements had the biggest impact on the week at WPC?
• What are the biggest changes you see happening with the Microsoft partner ecosystem?
• What are your thoughts on the maturity of Microsoft’s cloud story?
• What was the standout demo from the keynotes?
• What was the breakout session for the week?
• What stood out about Satya Nadella’s vision keynote – and what were you hoping he would say?
• If you could provide Microsoft with guidance on improving the value prop to partners, what would you say?

As always, we will have an all-star panel of experts on hand to participate in the conversation and to interact with you directly – but anyone can jump in and participate. So don’t be shy — share your own perspective and company or customer experiences, or just lurk. It’s all good. But be sure to mark your calendars, tell your colleagues, and get involved!

Our panel this month will include:

• Naomi Moneypenny (@nmoneypenny), cto at ManyWorlds
• Barb Levisay (@blevisay),  contributing editor at Redmond Channel Partner magazine
• Tiffany Wallace (@tiffanyWI), director of business development at New Horizons Computer Learning Centers / 5Point Enterprises
• Trevor Hellebuyck (@thellebuyck), cto at Metalogix
• Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), director of collaboration and social business at Rightpoint 
• Barry Jinks (@BJinks), founder and ceo at Colligo
• Paul Solski (@paulsolski), ceo and founder of AIM International
• Matthew Moalem (@mmoalem), corporate development executive at GoKube
• Jeffrey Schwartz (@JeffreySchwartz), editor at 1105 Media, including Redmond and Redmond Channel Partner magazines
• Nikkia Carter (@CarterMcGServ), ceo of Carter-McGowan Services
• Bradley Geldenhuys (@bradgcoza), SharePoint Jedi at GTConsult
• Jeff Shuey (@Jshuey), director of strategic alliances at Gimmal
• Adam Levithan (@collabadam), consultant and social expert at Portal Solutions
• Jordi Plana (@joplana), founder and ceo of Spenta and social platform Beezy
• Dan Usher (@binarybrewery), SharePoint MVP and lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton
• Harout Katerjian (@haroutkat), founder and principal at Emgage
• Jill Kunkel (@queenkunk), channel program manager at Fpweb.net
• Heather Newman (@heddanewman), founder at ContentPanda, marketing maven at ITUnity
• Jethro Seghers (@jseghers), Office365 MVP and  program manager at BitTitan
• and myself as your host and moderator (@buckleyplanet), SharePoint MVP and chief evangelist at Metalogix

We’ll be adding a few more names to the mix, but whether or not you’re part of the panel, you CAN participate. Please feel free to jump in. I am excited to once again have a lively debate, and look forward to the interaction on #CollabTalk. I plan to provide a summary of the discussion on the ITUnity.com site following the event, so watch for an update via my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn updates. See you online on the 31st at Twubs.com/CollabTalk