May 8, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Microsoft's (microsoft.com) Hosting Seminar Series (msattend.com) kicked off in Toronto last week, after a day packed with several information sessions and a hands-on tutorial lab enabling attendees to really get a taste of what the Windows Hosting Platform is all about.
Toronto was the first stop on the 25-city agenda, where Microsoft's presentation was received by a room packed with approximately 60 Web hosts, IT specialists, and other industry-related professionals.
The event kicked off with Paul Kaczmarczyk, Microsoft's Hosting Services Manager, outlining the goals of the day, and introducing a team of specialists presenting throughout the seminar.
Donovan Deakin, senior solution product manager for Windows hosting, and Rob Kent, a hosting tech specialist, ran the seminars for the rest of the day, jumping through topics like "What's New with Windows Hosting," and "Marketing Your Windows Hosting Services." A lot of the focus was put on why attendees should make the switch to the Windows platform, the basics and updates behind SQL Server 2005, IIS 7.0, and of course demystifying Microsoft's Service Provider Licensing Agreement. Deakin also announced the upcoming release of version 4.0 of Microsoft's Solution for Windows-Based Hosting, expected to be out in July.
Attendees said the seminars were smart, and the Microsoft solution for hosting was convincing. However, some attendees, like Steve Main of Active Web Corporation (activeweb.net), felt the event could have focused less on selling attendees on the virtues of Microsoft.
"I find that today's seminar had a lot of marketing, which a lot of us here already know about because we're already with Microsoft," says Main. "I already more or less know about how to sell it, so I want more of the technical stuff. There are some parts of the seminar where they're just informing you about the latest, greatest technologies, but there are other times when they're just trying to sell themselves to you. For a lot of us, we're already sold on Microsoft. That's why we're using them."
Though some attendees felt this series of seminars was perhaps too business and not enough tech - a balance that Deakin says is very hard to create without putting together two sets of seminars - all of them agreed that being at this event could only benefit them in the future.
"If you're sitting on your rear-end and you're not aware about where the industry is going, you're dead in the water," says Sean Kearney, an independent IT specialist. "That's one thing I've learned with going to events like these, you've got to be adaptive to changes in the industry. Right now Microsoft's on top, and you go where the top is. Go with number one."
Chris Robb from Merit Solutions (meritsolutions.ca) says that attending the seminars also sends a message to Microsoft.
"These free seminars are a great way to communicate with Microsoft and get in touch with what they're thinking," says Robb. "I've seen a big shift of this sentiment where I'm really appreciated as a hoster. Microsoft is really paying attention to things like security, shared environments and to Web hosting in general, which is really cool because it wasn't there before. It just didn't exist. That's mainly why it's important to come here today, to show that this stuff is important, because if these seminars were empty, Microsoft wouldn't be paying attention."
The show wrapped up with an active Q&A session where attendees had the opportunity to ask questions to Microsoft experts and fill out a questionnaire, which gave them the opportunity to win three months free use of a dedicated server pre-loaded with Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition.
If there's anything Deakin wants attendees to take away from this conference, he hopes the seminar shows them that Microsoft is a reliable choice for a hosting platform.
"We want them to see that there's an opportunity to make money, grow their revenues, and to increase their customer base," says Deakin. "If they don't make money, we don't make money, so we want to make sure that our partners are enabled to succeed and grow in the marketplace. We hope that they leave today knowing what resources are available to them to be effective and have a very compelling Windows offer."
Microsoft's seminar series has a variety of other stops scheduled throughout Europe, Asia, and North America.
