Microsoft Project Conference 2006 impressions

It's been two weeks since the Microsoft Project Conference was held in Seattle, so it's WAY past time for me to post some of my impressions from the event. Without further ado:

The conference was an excellent event in just about every way that matters. I liked the content, the execution, the venue, the attendees, the food, even the weather and the chairs. I have no major complaints of any sort, and only a few little quibbles to honk about.

Some specifics:

First and foremost, Microsoft Office Project 12 looks like an enormous improvement in just about every major area of the product. The desktop client is still with us, and some usability improvements (multi-level undo and highlighted schedule changes being the biggest) make this the easiest-to-use version of the venerable MS Project product ever. The communication between Project Pro and Project Server looks to be much better thought-out and more efficient, although I really want to see it working - I have concerns about keeping info synchronized between the desktop and the server. PWA does a heck of a lot more than it used to, is much cleaner, and is easier to modify - all thanks to it's newfound status as a legit SharePoint app. Better reporting, more configuration changes, and more-solidified time reporting make the product finally (I think) ready for prime time.

EVERYONE in the tiny, incestuous world of EPM was there. I ran across folks I've worked with, customers, contacts from Microsoft, bloggers, MVPs, contractors, VARs, partners, competitors, and others from all over the EPM ecosystem. It was tremendous to connect/reconnect with so many people in the field.

Microsoft usually puts on a good show, and this was one of the best that I've seen. The Westin in Seattle is a first-rate hotel, rooms were scheduled correctly, signage was omni-present and helpful, the Westin staff was omni-present and helpful, the food was plentiful and, for the most part, very good (although I wound up having a salami sandwich for breakfast one morning - what's up w/ that?).

Speakers and sessions were uniformly good and appropriate. I have to complain a bit about how jammed the schedule was. I counted at least 5 breakout-slots where I wanted to be in at least two different sessions, and in some cases three or more. There was EASILY enough content to justify a four-day conference. We'll get all of the material on a DVD in the next few weeks, but my experience w/ conference DVDs is they are usually good cures for insomnia. We were all there, and I think a lot of participants would echo my thoughts on extending the duration of the conference so we could get to more of the content.

INS was well represented both in attendees and visibility. We had an appropriate number of people at the conference, although more would have been OK too. We were a Gold Sponsor of the event, so INS signs were everywhere. Sandy Sharma (my hero) did a couple of breakout sessions and did a masterful demo on-stage w/ Steve Ballmer during the keynote on Thursday. Even your goofy correspondent got into the action, presenting w/ my pals at Project Hosts during one of the breakfast sessions.

To sum it all up, the Project Conference was a great experience, in large part because the news from Microsoft is all good with regard to the product, and in smaller part due to the planning and execution of the event itself, and the response from the EPM community in terms of attendance and participation.

You can read more about the conference from Dieter, Dr. Porkchop, MPA, Jack Dahlgren, Brian Kennemer, and probably a bunch of other places I don't even know about.