The 2007 Microsoft AMP Summit came to a close on May 25th and marked a serious step forward in our evangelism efforts to the music industry. We received a large amount of both positive and constructive feedback to help us learn what went well, and what we can do to improve down the road.
We were pleased to see over a 50% increase in attendance from last year's Vista Audio Summit that included 172 total attendees representing over 70 partner companies and organizations from around the world. The timing of the Summit was tricky as it occurred during a busy time in the trade show season, but the attendance numbers proved the value of doing the Summit in the first place.
Out of a range from 1 to 9 (1=worst, 9=best), attendees gave an 8 as an average overall event rating. The highest rated sections of content were the Software and Hardware Breakout sessions that were moderated by Noel Cross and Hakon Strande, respectively. Attendees reported the biggest takeaway was Networking with a specific focus on getting connected with the right people at Microsoft to help them moving forward. That makes sense, given there were over 40 Microsoft employees in attendance representing over 20 product & service groups. The Summit was an amazing coming together of these groups within the company, all uniting and working together towards a common goal.
Clearly, due to the high percentage of attendees from technical-related fields, we found that the porting labs were a big success. Several partners came to the labs with specific technical hurdles, and left with the information they needed...even if the news wasn;t what they wanted to hear. It was a chance for partners to get some quality one-on-one time with members of the Windows Vista dev and test teams, allowing them to focus on specific issues facing their particular situation. Moving forward, we are planning on hosting additional porting lab events, opening them up for a wider range of partner technologies and providing even more resources with which to collaborate, learn, and improve.
And now for the dirty stuff...you need to look at what didn't work so well to improve for the next time. Clearly, the timing and late announcement of the Summit schedule made it difficult for more partners to attend. There was a bit of "content overload" in which the volume of content superceded the depth of content. It was clear that attendees would have enjoyed more time to dive deeper into the various silos, and left some of the broader topics off the table for this Summit...which is great to know. Also, since networking came back as a key takeaway, more effort needs to be put towards creating a social setting in which attendees can mingle freely with each other, and have their own discussions at their own pace.
As the principal driver of the Summit, here are my conclusions....to which you are welcome to agree or disagree:
1. I am in favor of the porting labs being a recurring event/resource for partners rather than an annual Summit. The timing of a technical-relatd event such as the Summit is more effective when held closer to a major software release or service patch that poses potential changes to developer's workflow and planning. Until those times ocur, this site is the best way to proactively connect partners with MSFT resources, programs, and people.
2. We need to grow our market focus vertically and horizontally, the former going deeper into the music enthusiast/consumer business and the latter pointing at the broader, Digital Content Creation market as a whole. Growing our scope of the market and size of the audience only increases the financial importance of what creative expression means to the computer industry. The result could be some type of DCC Summit that includes partners from music, video, and imaging markets and builds upon what we learned from the AMP Summit.
3. Regardless of opinions, the AMP Summit was something Microsoft needed to do…an overwhelming piece of feedback we received was gratitude that we were paying attention to this market space. Whether or not every piece of content was applicable for every attendee, the Summit embodied our desire to know how we can help our audio & music partners more. As such, the AMP Alliance will continue to serve that function and incorporate more active content in the site and start generating some brand identity for the family of audio & music partners around the Microsoft platform.
Overall, I was very pleased to get the ball rolling this year towards audio & music partners, and the months ahead are a great chance to build upon what we’ve started. The best way to go after the large goal is by setting smaller, more attainable goals as stepping stones. The AMP Summit was one, and the launch of this site is another. With our partners' help, we will make a difference in the way the PC is perceived in content creation.
Special thanks to those who helped make the AMP Summit a success:
Rob Bernard, Liron Shaked, Dan MacFetridge, Don Petersen, Avi Sagiv, Wayne Smith, Arif Gursel, Brian Schmidt, Johnny Bregar, Keith Toussaint, Tim Muscott, David Miles Huber, Eric Schmidt, Jaime Rodriguez, Bruce Kasrel, Noel Cross, Alexandre Ferreira, Elliot Omiya, Ken Cooper, Frank Yerrace, Larry Osterman, Hakon Strande, Chad Siefert, DJ Sisolak, Cheng-mean Liu, Mitchell Rundle, Jeff Robertson, Allen Marshall, Aseem Datar, Jason Seuss, Christina Calio, Evan Ilias, Brett Graham, Oliver Scholz, Justine Smith, Mark Hopkins, Todd Landstad, Darek Mazzone, Yon Nuta, Jennifer Hall, Glenn Podany, Steve Rowe, Steve Ball, Patrick Azzarello, Rick Senechal, Jan Bricker, Bob Heinemann, Rob Knop, EMP, The W Hotel, and Ben London.