What Can Microsoft Dynamics Partners Expect From WPC 2016?

Microsoft expects more than 15,000 participants from over 150 countries at this year's Worldwide Partner Conference. This event will be held from July 10^th to 14^th in Toronto. For the first time in the history of the event, the Worldwide Partner Conference is sold out. That is a pretty remarkable shift, since last years' WPC in Orlando had moderate attendance.

The Dynamics eco-system is traditionally well represented in this event, but what can the Dynamics partner community expect from this new WPC edition? This year, it's neither the various Dynamics products, nor the cloud delivery model that will take all the partner's attention. Instead, it's probably the direction and the speed in the business transformation, both for Microsoft and for the partner organizations themselves, that will be one of the central Dynamics themes.

First of all, we see some interesting changes at the corporate level.

Many partners look forward to hearing CEO Satya Nadella's keynote presentation, most likely scheduled for day 1. Since taking on his new role some two years ago, Nadella has changed Microsoft from a company that was perceived as defensive, always too late, and lacking vision, into a sexy company that operates in the front line of the ICT industry.

Nadella recently succeeded in executing the acquisition of LinkedIn - the largest business network in the world. It reflected a strategy that was in line with the failed attempt to buy Salesforce.com last year. In the meantime, Nadella had to deal with the negative (financial!) consequences of Ballmer's failed Nokia acquisition just before he resigned.

The second eye catcher is the upcoming departure Chief Operations Officer Kevin Turner, who was often named as ...