Similar to previous events, Microsoft offered seminars discussing business best practices and technical overviews of its solutions, all in an effort to help its audience integrate Microsoft's solutions with their offerings.

In an opening statement to attendees, Microsoft expressed its intense focus on Web hosting and its commitment to the market it sees becoming the main channel for delivering software as a service. The company is particularly keen on helping partners of different types - ISVs and hosting providers - make the connections that will help to drive the business model

"This is our third annual hosting days and we're constantly evolving our hosting solutions, so we're continuing to show the latest and greatest versions, as well as a roadmap on where our solutions are going," says Paul Kaczmarczyk, manager of hosting partners and solutions group for the communications sector at Microsoft. "The difference between this year and previous years is that we're trying to connect ISVs with hosting companies as we foster these important partnerships in a software and services world.

"Web hosts have built their business around service delivery and bring a lot to the table to help ISVs deliver their application as a service. They enable ISVs to focus on their core competency, developing great applications. To that end, this year we're discussing the full range of services Web hosts can provide to their customers using our solution, from SaaS to hosted Exchange and collaboration to Web and data hosting, all in one exciting day."

Throughout the day Microsoft discussed its solutions: the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting, Internet Information Server 7.0, Hosted CRM, Service Provider Licensing Agreements, Windows SharePoint 3.0 and Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5.

According to attendees, the business and technology seminars were more focused than in previous years, and were split into two separate tracks. The Microsoft representatives, they said, felt more accessible and helpful than in previous years. There was a casual panel held over lunch, enabling attendees to ask questions that may not have been addressed during the seminars.

"The event has been great so far. The presenters know their stuff and they can answer our questions, which is really useful because we have a lot of questions," says Pierre-Olivier Descoteaux, director of marketing at Solutions SherWeb (sherweb.com). "We're a small world compared to the big Microsoft world and it's tough to get some answers sometimes. But it's good that there's a team out here in Canada that can accommodate us and it's good to see that they're growing as well. It means there are people out here that want these services and the team is growing to fulfill those needs."

Marc-Henri Lauzon, president of ITUtility.NET (itutility.net) says the event was useful for introducing himself to ISVs that might be interested in his services, but he thought the presentations could have been more detailed.

"We were one of the hosting providers being highlighted today and basically we wanted to say hi and see if there's anyone our there that we can help out," says Lauzon. "It's actually been really good for us today and we've met some great contacts. Next time I would like to hear more about what it actually costs to implement all this stuff because in the end it's actually kind of an expensive endeavor. It cost us about $200,000, so that's a lot of money upfront. It would be great to have Microsoft highlight that a little more."

Although a majority of the attendees felt the two separate tracks were a significant improvement, some attendees like Joe Cammisano, market development manager at Mendax (mendax.com), felt that even this format could be more accommodating.

"We enjoyed the event but saw the two tracks as kind of difficult as we found we wanted to be on both sides of the wall," says Camissano. "In the end, we just ended up putting one of our guys on the technical side and the others stayed on the business side, but as a business person, I feel it's important to know the technical details as well. So it was good, but it would be even better to be able to see sessions from both tracks, with a multi-day event, perhaps."

And Bill McVicker, program director at TriVenture (triventure.com), expressed an appreciation for Microsoft's open approach this time around, a sentiment that was reflected by many of the attendees.

"We really felt like these Microsoft folks cared about the people they were talking to and this event felt more intimate in the sense that it felt like they were speaking to us as individuals," says McVicker. "They were also more informative than usual, and we didn't get as much fluff this time around."

Although Kaczmarczyk says the turnout for the event was better than in previous years, he had hoped that more ISVs would have turned up for the event.

"I think we had a bigger audience than we've historically had and this is indicative of the hosting industry's rapid growth in recent years. I'm very excited to see this," says Kaczmarczyk. "I would've liked to have seen more ISVs than we had here today - a 50/50 split would have been great, as one of our main focuses was on educating ISVs on what it takes to take their on-premise applications into the world of hosted services. To attract more ISVs, it looks like we need to tweak the messaging around the event a little bit."

Microsoft makes its third North American stop in Redmond, Washington on March 8.