Looking forward to the 2014 Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference!

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imageIn two short weeks, thousands of Microsoft partners from around the world will be gathered together with Microsoft in Washington D.C. for Worldwide Partner Conference 2014. Since WPC is my favorite conference of the year, I am filled with anticipation once again, looking forward to the opportunity to not only connect with the many people and partners from around the world that I have had the privilege to get to know and work with over the years, but also for the opportunity to meet many new people and partners that I have not yet to date. I absolutely love hearing all of the amazing stories of success that partners share, and I look forward to putting together this year’s “The Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference” once again, filled with several of those amazing people. Will you be one of them?

For those of you not familiar with The Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference, let me introduce you to it. As I mentioned, one of my favorite parts of Worldwide Partner Conference is getting to see partners from around the world in person that I have the pleasure to work with online throughout the year, as well as the opportunity to meet so many new partners that I may never have met in person or online before. Because I enjoy this so much, I started building a collection of photos of partners and media/press I had the opportunity to meet or see while at Worldwide Partner Conference and then shared a handful of them online one year in a post called Connecting with others – A HUGE value of #WPC10 (Look who I found). As it turned out, the post was very popular and many partners pinged me about it to say “Thanks” for putting faces with some names, for sharing pictures with them, for meeting and talking while at WPC, and asking how could they be a part of that in the future. As such, I expanded the approach in 2011 to proactively offer up the opportunity to be a part of the picture post, and the “Fantastic People of WPC” tradition began.

Over the years, there are some familiar faces that can be seen across the collections, and each year there are several new names and faces that become part of the tradition:

As I mentioned, I am going to be putting “The Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference 2014” collection together again this year, and as always, I am offering up an open invitation to anyone at WPC who would like to be a part of this year’s collection, and participation is completely optional on your behalf. If you would like to be a part of “The Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference 2014” collection, there are many, many ways to participate:

  1. Ad-hoc: Throughout WPC, I am always floating around the WPC venues, attending sessions, etc., so please if you see me around WPC, please do not hesitate to come up to me, say, “Hi,” introduce yourself (if I don’t know you already), and let’s have a chat and capture our picture together.
  2. Partner events and/or tweet-ups: Often times throughout WPC, there are several partner events that they host and/or tweet-ups that happen throughout the week. If you’re having one and would like me to stop by, please send me the information and I’ll try to attend. If you’re at one and I’m there, please do not hesitate to come up and introduce yourself and let’s chat and grab a picture.
  3. At the WPC receptions, such as the WPC Partner Celebration on Wednesday night, I am always floating around, so we can connect there. In fact, there have been several times that partners have tracked me down via Twitter to give me their location at the reception so that we could meet and grab our pictures together. It’s like a “Fantastic People of WPC” treasure hunt. Smile
  4. Via WPC Connect. For those not familiar with WPC Connect, it allows you to schedule meetings with people throughout WPC at pre-assigned times and locations.
  5. Social Media: As I mentioned in bullet #3, there have been several partners who have connected with me via Twitter or other social media means during WPC to setup a time to connect, and there are also several times throughout WPC that I will be sharing hints or flat out stating when/where I will be somewhere for anyone who wants to connect. Please feel free to reach out to me during WPC via social media and let’s connect and remember that you can always see my posts from my blog and Twitter in the People section of my Microsoft Info Partner Mobile App. Here’s another quick hint: I always make several stops at any Starbucks that are inside the venue throughout the conference and will often tweet out when I’ll be there from time to time.

As I mentioned, I love hearing about successes partners are having and their upcoming plans for future success, so I thought I would share one example from a past “Fantastic People of WPC” post.  One of the people in my The Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference 2013. Thank you for joining us! post was Gaston Zelerteins (@gzelerteins) of Perception Group S.A. (@perceptiongrp), whom I had the opportunity to meet at a partner event one evening at WPC. He shared with me about his partner organization, what they were doing, and his plans for future growth (and he had some big plans for the upcoming year). Recently, I received an email from Gaston where he shared a milestone he achieved, his first post up on the Digital WPC site, which is the first of many to come:

“Cannot believe that my first post is now online… and it was my first in my future life as writer Smile Have a look at: Your corporate strategy will be (em)powered by the cloud

Thank you very much! It was not possible without your support! See you soon in DC!”

Congratulations, Gaston, on your post and the success you’re having over at Perception Group S.A., and I’m looking forward to seeing you again this year at WPC!

So to all of you heading off to WPC 2014 in Washington D.C., feel free to introduce yourself to me or just come up and say “Hi” at Worldwide Partner Conference 2014, and let’s grab a pic together to share with other partners around the world. If you’ve been in the Fantastic People of Worldwide Partner Conference posts before, let’s continue the tradition and grab another picture this year too. After all, we’re all part of the big Microsoft Partner Network family, and I’d love to help build and maintain connections with and between as many of you as I can.

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Thanks again for being a reader of my blog!

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and Facebook
Senior Sales Excellence Manager
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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