On June 20th we held our annual Microsoft community conference in Switzerland for the 3rd time. The goal of this conference/platform is to deliver a high quality event where people can learn about the latest Microsoft trends, make new connections and share their knowledge. To keep the community character and family-like atmosphere, our goal is to keep this event relatively small and make participation more exclusive. The feedback we received from speakers, sponsors and attendees was overwhelming. But see yourself.
Quick Conference Facts
- 140 people
- 1 welcome session
- 1 keynote
- 15 breakout sessions
- 3 tracks
- 1 closing session
- 17 tech and community experts from Switzerland
- 10 sponsors
- 8 conference sponsors
- 1 coffee break sponsor
- 1 networking apéro sponsor
Welcome Session
The day started with a short intro session where I welcomed the audience and tried to energize them a bit for the day. I always do this kind of session because I think it’s a good ice breaker and attendees should have a positive start into the day with some facts and fun elements. I also want to make sure people get informed about the most important happenings of the day so they don’t miss anything of interest.
Keynote
The upcoming keynote was delivered by Stefano Mallè, the CTO of Microsoft Switzerland. He talked about the journey to the cloud and how organizations are impacted by it. And he shared some information about the new Swiss Azure Datacenter Regions that will be available later this year. When exactly? That secret was not revealed unfortunately.
Breakout Sessions
After the keynote we started delivering the breakout sessions. Because of the 3 parallel tracks, attendees were not able to see all sessions. This is why we recorded them and made the recordings as well as the corresponding slide decks available on the official conference website.
Food, Beverages & Networking
Beside high quality sessions, food, beverages and networking opportunities are all key elements for a successful conference experience. We are investing a lot in this area to make a conference attendance as comfortable as possible. As I mentioned already, we try to deliver a quality event with a great 360 degrees experience. This is an important part of that.
Closing Session
At every conference people try to take home some swag. During the closing session where we enjoyed beers, wine and snacks, we had lots of prizes to give away from our sponsors and we had many lucky winners. But unfortunately everything comes to an end and the conference organizers (Isidora and myself) officially closed down the show with again thanking everyone who was involved in the event. What happened at the speakers apéro afterwards is not an official part of the conference and therefore not covered here 🙂
More Experts Live Switzerland
You can find more information (pictures, slide decks, recordings etc.) about the 2019 conference on the official conference website. If you want to make sure you don’t miss any important updates about the 2020 conference (yes, we will start the planning phase soon), then follow us on these channels.
Experts Live Europe 2019
If you don’t want to wait a full year to attend our next conference in Switzerland, we have something for you: The same team that is behind Experts Live Switzerland is also organizing the regional conference Experts Live Europe. Curious what the difference is?
- 1 pre-conference day with 4 tracks
- 2 full conference days with 70+ sessions
- 40+ Experts from all over the globe – from the US, Europe down to Australia
- Attendees from all over Europe (normally from more than 20 different countries)
- 400-500 people (capped at 500)
- VIP networking parties (for VIP ticket holoders)
- Attendee networking paties (for all ticket holders)
- Many side activities (ask the experts area, community theater etc.)
- November 20-22 2019
- Prague, Czech Republic
Sounds promising? Check out these channels for more details:
The Swiss delegation at the conference is normally very large and therefore not only allows you to connect with international experts and attendees, but also with representatives from Switzerland.
That’s it for now. In case you have any questions about Experts Live Switzerland or Experts Live Europe, feel free to get in contact with me. Hope to see you there!
Cheers
Marcel
marcelzehner.ch 