Directions US lies behinds us all .. and yet again .. A GREAT convention with a lot of info, a lot of enthusiastic people, and a lot new information to come home with.
Besides the fact that I'm jealous about all the people that bought a Microsoft Surface (I decided to wait for the "Pro" .. and I regret already …), I'm glad I attended the convention. For me, it wasn't so much about "what's new in NA2013" anymore, but more about .. "how to handle it in a strategic way of thinking" - thinking about the CfMD regulations, the fees, the new license model, the (new?) focus on SMB, .. let's say: we - as partner - are going to have to change. So I want to be prepared .. .
My sessions
I think I can say that my sessions went quite OK. I'm not used to do Chalk Talks, and I didn't have the opportunity to visit other CT's, as mine was scheduled on the first day .. . I had to "moderate" about 1,5 hour of interactive talks about "Tools" in NAV. And it ended up in quite a good discussion in my opinion. I mostly remember this:
Even, part of the discussion we had, he decided to start blogging about Dynamics NAV and Source Control with TFS. You can read his blog here: http://mibuso.com/blogs/sorenk/ (he even mentions my session :-)).
The other session I had was about Partner Ready Software. You know .. with Mark Brummel and Gary Winter, where we talk about new ideas, new concepts, .. design patterns for Dynamics NAV that we think are "innovative" and can be used for making the software "repeatable" .. let's say the "new" focus of Microsoft. If you want to sell volume, to sell more, and loose less time on implementation .. then also let's make the software and product itself ready for that … .
The session went quite well, I think. We had lots of congrats and good comments after the session .. which makes you confident for the next.. :-). I talked about the design of an eID-reader solution that is (or at least should be ;-)) extendible, flexible and repeatable.. . And yes .. I'm going to blog about it :-). But all in time…
The Location
The location of the convention was good nevertheless: it was in Phoenix, which means: nice, hot, good weather.. . It was on a Golf Course, which means: luxelicious :-). Who doesn't love that?
And it gives some nice after-convention-opportunities. I heard people going to Vegas for Poker-fun .. or for Halloween. Other people were going to the Grand Canyon. Me? I went with my good friends Olga en Gary for a few days to Sedona .. and we had a great time!
Next Time
If it was up to me .. I would be there next time again! Of course. But I must say .. somebody is making that quite hard. Next year, Directions EMEA and Directions US are - about - the same time. Not like it always was: EMEA in March/April, US in October/November .. which makes more sense in a planning way of thinking.
So, if you want to attend both EMEA and US, it takes up too much time in a row. In my opinion, people are going to have to choose which one to go to. Furthermore, ISV's have about all their marketing-exposure in only one month time. What about the rest of the year? I sure hope this doesn't break up the US and EMEA communities.
Nevertheless: you still got 2 great options to go to .. and with the announced yearly-release-cycles it's for the best that you attend at least one of them :-).
I seem to have figured it out.
Apparently, they did mail it (twice) to the attendees. The last mail was the one with the survey winner .. it also mentioned how to get the presentations:
elog.rttr5.com/.../elog2
I'll do my best :-)
Waldo, every year we are promised the PowerPoint presentations from Directions and every year we never receive them (OK, I did get 1 this year from Freddy). I'm thinking you may know someone who has the power to pull these together so we can have them?
True about the presenters. And what we might end up with .. is solely Microsoft speakers. Now, as much as I like listening to MS speakers .. I also appreciate non-MS speakers sharing thoughts, doubts, experiences, .. with the community.
I doubt about the food though (but that's the only thing ;-) ).
One comment I heard from someone else who just went to the US version: The food and booze is better! Normally that's not what I would select a conference based upon, but when the presenters and presentations are almost the same, then this is important too. The US conferences typically are more fun! :)
I would go to the US version always.
Don't think that it matters too much if they are both in the fall, at least not for the participants. Besides MVP's and presenters, then not many really consider going to both.
The bigger issue having them both at once will be getting the presenters there, especially the PG, you know they don't like to lose them all at once for too long. The decision of US vs EU may simply come down to who is presenting at each one.
In the end though if it is a choice between one or the other, then it really is a no brainer to go to the US.