Convergence Attendance Up Sharply from Last Year, Microsoft Expresses Ongoing Commitment to Show

If you're looking for Dynamics-related economic indicators, Convergence 2010 suggests the economy is in an upward trend.

With 8,500 attendees, Convergence 2010 in Atlanta beat initial projections of 7,500 attendees, says Craig Dewar, director of community marketing, Microsoft Business Solutions. And this year's attendance handily beat last year's recession-inhibited mark of 6,500 at the show in New Orleans; its 200-plus exhibitors is also well in excess of the number last year, he adds.

The economy still has a ways to go for Convergence to beat the high-water mark of 9,600 achieved two years ago in Orlando.  "Microsoft is committed to the event," says Dewar. "Next year it will be back in Atlanta," he adds, and his group is evaluating two possible sites, which he wouldn't disclose, for 2012.

The Microsoft Dynamics team has used this year's show to extend the alliance of its Community site (which includes responsibility for organizing Convergence)with the Dynamics user groups, run by Dynamic Communities Inc., an independent organization .  Dynamic Communities' user groups for the first time were integrated into the overall Convergence program, instead of running a separate group of seminars in advance of Convergence.

In addition, Microsoft has begun giving all new Dynamics customers this year membership in a user group. That has helped increase the user group memberships by "hundreds" of companies, says Dewar.

The Dynamics Community site now has 35,000 registered users, and more than 100,000 unique visitors each month, he said.