While my colleagues Jeff and Matt ably manned the Bamboo booth in the Partner Expo at the Washington, D.C. stop of Microsoft's Launch 2010 tour (of which Bamboo was a Gold sponsor), I spent the day attending the sessions presented in the event's Technical Readiness track. Since I took plenty of notes during the sessions, I'll be spending the better part of the day today referring to my notes and blogging what I saw and heard yesterday for the benefit of those who were unable to attend in person.
The Technical Readiness track kicked off with a keynote by Jack Branan, Microsoft Regional VP for the Eastern Region, who spoke on the topic of the "next wave of business productivity" (and, naturally, how Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 can help facilitate said productivity). Jack addressed one of the key themes surrounding Microsoft's messaging around the 2010 launch upfront, saying that with the unified business platform of the 2010 releases, Microsoft is providing the best productivity experience available across the PC, browser, and phone. Putting not too fine a point on it, Jack said that, "There is no other company on the planet that can serve up this experience."
Referring to Microsoft's investment in the business productivity infrastructure, Jack stated that, "Microsoft will invest $9.4 billion in research & development this year, up from $9.1 billion last year." By way of demonstrating how Microsoft's ongoing long-term vision for enhancing productivity is paying off in the 2010 releases, Jack cited several specific examples, including the cost-saving efficiencies provided as a result of the unified communications and ECM, and the ability to grow your business with self-service BI (creating reports in hours, rather than days or weeks).
Jack wrapped up his keynote with a very cool video which represents Microsoft's vision of productivity in the future, and the sort of devices that will drive that productivity, many of which are based on technology (and nanotechnology) which exists today. The version of the video that was shown yesterday was edited for time, but here's the full 5:49 video in all its glory. Check it out for yourself, and I defy you to tell me you don't think it's cool too:
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvA9lA7_5FE:725:0]
Read the entire Microsoft Launch 2010 Event in Washington, D.C. series:
- The Next Wave of Future Productivity
- A Day in the Life with Office 2010
- Planning for Office 2010 & SharePoint Server 2010
- Deploying Office 2010 & SharePoint Server 2010
- Configuring & Managing Office 2010 & SharePoint Server 2010
For further reading, the complete slide decks from all of the Launch 2010 sessions are available as free downloads under the "Presentation Materials" heading on the Office 2010 and SharePoint Launch resources page at TechNet.
