Convergence 2008 Miscellany

Convergence 2008 was a mammoth affair, with dozens of classes, hundreds of exhibitors, and thousands of attendees. Here are a few lasting impressions, in no particular order:

--This was the largest Convergence event thus far, with some 9,700 attendees—just short of the 10,000 Microsoft was shooting for, but well over the 8,000-plus of last year’s session in San Diego, which was itself well in excess of the 6,000-plus of the prior year.

--Dynamicx AX attracted the lion’s share of the show attention, by virtue of the introduction of AX 2009 (code-named AX 5.0), and related demonstrations, in preparation for its actual shipment this spring. 

--Dynamics CRM and GP weren’t far behind. That was due to Microsoft's commitment to finally making CRM Live a reality after building it up at last year's Convergence, and many months of beta testing with 500 organizations. GP users were introduced to a new tool set to improve usage, and told to expect GP 11 next year sometime.

--Orlando, the site of this year’s event, has made a huge transition to a convention town. The Orange County Convention Center is an mammoth modern facility--last week it hosted another major convention along with Convergence, with both conventions only barely aware of the other.

--The pre-convention user-group sessions on Tuesday were extremely well attended—in some cases over-subscribed. A few sessions had to move their locations to larger rooms to accommodate all the attendees.

--One-on-one instruction sessions between users and representatives of Microsoft partners were also well attended, in rooms ...