News
Registration Opens for Microsoft's New Summer Partner Event
- By Gladys Rama
- June 17, 2024
Microsoft's flagship partner conference, Inspire, may not be taking place as usual this year, but the company is launching a new event in its place.
Registrations are now open for the new MCAPS Start for Partners virtual event, scheduled for July 10.
In a recent blog post, Microsoft channel chief Nicole Dezen described this new event as an extension of Microsoft's existing MCAPS Start event that takes place at the beginning of every fiscal year. The original MCAPS Start event is meant for sellers in the global Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions group (or MCAPS for short).
This year, however, Microsoft is extending the invitation to partners at large.
MCAPS Start for Partners is designed to be a "partner-focused digital readiness event," wrote Dezen. "By involving our partners in our go-to-market strategy from the beginning of the fiscal year, we can create synergy and drive collective success."
The agenda for MCAPS Start for Partners is as follows, per Dezen:
- A live-streamed keynote scheduled for July 10 headlined by Dezen, as well as Microsoft Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff and President of Industry & Partner Sales Nick Parker. The three will discuss "how we can accelerate AI opportunity and growth together."
- On-demand breakout sessions that will go live after the keynote. These will cover a variety of topics, including "the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, Microsoft commercial marketplace, co-sell, investments and incentives, and Go-To-Market."
- Live "Ask Me Anything" sessions with Microsoft executives to take place after the event, throughout the week of July 15. The gap is meant to give partners time to watch the keynote and breakout sessions, as well as to prepare questions.
The 2024 Partner of the Year winners will also be announced during the event.
Partners can register for MCAPS Start for Partners here.
Earlier this year, Microsoft signaled that Inspire 2024 wouldn't be happening in its usual format. In a blog post in February, Microsoft wrote that Inspire was "evolving." To take its place, Microsoft proposed that partners attend Ignite, its annual developer and IT mega-conference, instead. Dezen reiterated the Ignite invitation in her blog.
"For the first time ever, this year's Microsoft Ignite event will have partners join key customers and leading industry executives for an in-person experience in Chicago, Illinois on November 18-22, 2024."