This is the final part in a 3-part series about Microsoft Inspire. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
We’ve all had colleagues who have gone to conferences, and yet we question the value when they return. There is huge value in Microsoft’s Inspire, and demonstrating it when you return is part of the deal for us. This is what we do...
1) Follow up on our commitments
It’s very easy as business-as-usual to take over on your return to forget / not think about your conference experience. Assuming that you’ve been ruthless in what you have committed to, and your commitments still make sense, then diarise your activities and do what you say you’re going to do. We run through these on our daily team stand up calls.
2) Share internally
If you’re focused on Microsoft like we are, then share what you’ve learnt. Each Friday we run a “Power Half Hour” to allow anyone from our organisation to take the floor and present followed by a Q&A session at the end – part of the deal for our conference attendees is to take part in this.
3) Communicate with our customers
Your customers look at you not only to solve the problems they have right now, but also for your perspective on the direction of where Microsoft is headed.
It is likely they have made significant investments in their Microsoft technology stack – what does this mean for them this year, and in the future? What opportunities does that create? As well as empowering our sales and marketing teams, we also use newsletters to point our customers back to our blog articles to share our learnings.
4) Communicate outwards
Choose not to limit your learnings to your closest audiences: position yourself as a thought-leader through platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter to raise your profile in front of prospects and your current customers.
Look at posting in the Microsoft Partner Community forums to raise your profile in front of your peers – particularly if you’re looking for partner-2-partner relationships.
5) And finally...
By demonstrating the value you have gained, when that conversation comes around about asking for investment to attending Inspire next year – that conversation should be an easier one.
If you’ve already made the decision for next year, which we believe is back in Las Vegas, then there is no harm in booking now, the conference pass prices never get any cheaper than the launch price.