Microsoft’s Ignite conference takes place in Chicago from May 4-8. I will be presenting twice. During the first session, I’ll examine the path taken to move workload from Exchange on-premises deployments to Office 365, including a discussion about the bumps and thumps that can occur along the way. This session is scheduled for 1:30 pm on Thursday, May 7. Rooms have not yet been allocated to sessions, possibly because Microsoft is waiting to see what demand for the various sessions are indicated by people adding them to their personal Ignite schedule. If you’ve registered for Ignite (the session is now sold out), you can create your schedule online.

Nirvana – maybe!

The second session is at 10:45 am on Friday, May 8. There are many downsides in having a session scheduled so late in a conference. First, people are tired after four full days of chasing around a conference center going from session to session. Second, people are even more tired because they will have attended the various parties and other after-hours events that occur at major conferences like Ignite. Third, those who do turn up to panel Q&A sessions like “The Journey to Microsoft Exchange Online” often come equipped with questions that no one else has been able to answer during the rest of the conference, which then leads to some entertaining “ohs” and “ahs” from panel members.

MVP panel session

Speaking of after-hours event, I am not a huge fan of attending these events because they tend to be noisy, crowded, and feature pretty poor food and drink (calculated to a low price point). So I avoid most of these events. However, I will be attending two at Ignite. The first is the UC RoundTable organized by MVP Jeff Guillet (who is technical editor for the Office 365 for Exchange Professionals eBook) on Wednesday night.

Before then, on Tuesday night I’ll be at the “ScheduledMaintenance” party, which is organized by ENow Software and sponsored by a group of other companies, including Kizan Technologies. Apparently ENow might run the final of their Exchange Trivia Quiz in front of a drink-crazed audience, which might be fun, especially as I hear that there will be quite a few dollars at stake for the winner. I also hear rumor of some interesting guests at that event, so we’ll have to wait and see.

I’m not sure about the Ignite Attendee party. It might be good – then again, it might be more of the same ‘ol conference hang-around-and drink bad beer kind of gathering that I don’t like. But in any case, I shall have to be early to bed because I have that Office 365 nirvana session to give on Thursday afternoon.

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