The first day of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is over and it was a frenzied day. Microsoft knows how to put on a good conference. There were great key note presentations, a LOT of breakout sessions to dive down into the details of too many topics to count and a lot of Creole hospitality and food. The people of New Orleans are very nice.

To give you an idea of how big this conference is, there are more than 9,000 attendees from more than 125 customers. In the lead off key note by Allison Watson, Microsoft outlined 3 key success points of companies during an economic situation like the one we are in now: Company Vision, a Belief in themselves and Marketing that Vision, and the ability to Sell. Okay - no real secrets there. To Microsoft's credit though, they followed that up with something I did think was worth noting. They clearly wanted to send a message that Microsoft is not going to stay the same company we have come to know. They showed lively "commercials", a fresh young approach to their marketing and most importantly of all they stressed that "people" come first in their product design and marketing. They used the phrase "Life Maximizers" to describe the kind of customer that is beginning to make up a large part of the buying market. They described this as someone that values their work life balance - but also mixes their lives. They do work during their personal lives and personal things during their work time.  This is something I firmly believe. Not surprisingly - Mobile makes a big part of this message. In the following picture they are making the point that the market is at an inflection point.

The combination of price (getting lower), technology (the devices and infrastructure can now deliver what people demand), and the user experience (something people actually like using - not just the cutting edge or techno-geeks but the majority of people). On the last point they stressed the user experience that is required to reach these users and of course couldn't resist from dropping the IDC stats that there are more than 1.3 Billion cell phone users in the world today and a predicted 400-500 Million Smartphone users by 2012. Knowing that Microsoft values the Mobile market this much also validates Maximizer's emphasis in the Mobile CRM market.

Some of the main announcements Microsoft made include:

• Windows 7 to be released to customer this September
• Office 14 to be released as an early preview shortly, followed by a general Beta later this year
• Windows Phone - the new name for the Windows Mobile 6.5 release - and the statement that they are taking a more active role in defining the brand that users will see
• The newly revamped Partner Network - a version 2.0 of the Partner Program
• They surpassed Michael Jackson as the most active Twitter conversation