There is a lot underway for Adlibbers at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) here in Washington, DC. We’re having meetings with partners, and getting the chance to give feedback on the formation of life science partner-related activities for Microsoft’s FY11 plans.

Jon Roskill, Microsoft's new Channel Chief (VP Partner Channel) who walked us through the "A List" - a compilation of cool new technologies from Microsoft and their partners.

The "A List" included Spin, a hip new technology for social media hounds. The technology incorporates additional info available from Bing, such as maps to flesh out the specifics intended in a brief tweet and the location of the person tweeting. Spin also helps you filter the tweets to make better sense of it all.

Also cool on the MS “A List” was a digital camera with a built-in projector: no need to crowd around the tiny camera screen or to wait for printed copies when sharing pictures with friends. Another technology was a visual pivot tool for metadata tagged information on Silverlight. Imagine selecting the relevant filters and seeing the data rearrange itself on the screen instantly - awesome.

Today’s keynote speakers included President Bill Clinton and Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, who discussed cloud services. (You’d have to be dead to not hear the word "cloud" once every 30 seconds at this conference!)

One thing Kevin Turner noted that I was personally excited about is the "Microsoft Signature Build" which is a configuration available on new laptops free of annoying third-party software.

Here at WPC, I’ve also had a 1:1 session with a Microsoft staffer to optimize our profile on their PinPoint community. (Watch for our profile in different country PinPoint sites coming soon.) PinPoint has gone through some substantial changes, including the ability to appear on more than one country's pinpoint site, the ability to draft your profile in multiple languages and more.

Back to this very international, busy event – aisles full of chief executives, IT directors and techies-at-large!

Riley O’Brien Wolff
Microsoft Alliance Manager
Adlib Software