I'm in Denver at Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference, and I find it strange. The conference itself is not strange, but it's strange for me. I'm a developer/architect and not a sales guy. I'm used to devcons where the primary purpose is not to interact with as many people as possible, but to get your hands on as much information as physically possible. Here it's a total different game. The sessions are just not the most important. Making connections and meeting up with people you've been matched with by the conferencing tool is!

The first day I was the only attendant from my company since our COO arrived later that day. Because of this I was supposed to set up some meetings with potential partners. I just have to admit that this is so not me! So this brings up the question; what am I doing here really?

When I first got the opportunity to attend this conference my first thought was that this was not for me, but when I looked at the agenda and started to read a bit more about the conference I changed my mind. This was really an opportunity to get a different view of Microsoft technology and set it in another perspective. I think most devcons focus on the how, but at the partner conference its more the why.

Another difference with this conference is that there are actually women here! We tech guys are not spoiled with having many women on our conferences and I think that is really bad. I notice right away that this conference has a different tune to it just because of the mixed gender.

To sum it up I (surprisingly) can recommend this conference for tech people as well because of the overview you’ll get of the technology, but be prepared and bring your social skills! And don’t expect 400 lectures...