Virtual Microsoft Inspire To Last 2 Days; Registration Opens in June
Microsoft's annual partner conference, Microsoft Inspire, will be packed into two online-only days this July with registration opening next month.
Microsoft Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster provided a video and blog update on Friday about Inspire, which Microsoft had already announced in late March would be changed to a virtual event due to COVID-19.
The official dates for Inspire are Tuesday, July 21, and Wednesday, July 22. The schedule of events has not yet been released.
Normally the conference consists of senior executive keynotes, networking events, parties, award ceremonies and hundreds of individual sessions covering technologies, partner programs and business practices. Originally, Inspire had been set for five days from July 19 to 23. Regularly held in Las Vegas for the last few years, the event routinely draws more than 10,000 attendees.
Schuster, whose official title is corporate vice president of One Commercial Partner, emphasized that as a free and virtual event, many more people at individual Microsoft partner companies could attend. Normally, Microsoft partners would only be able to send one or two employees, if any, to the event.
"That means you can invite as many people from your organization as you'd like so they can be a part of this very special experience," Schuster said in a video recorded at her house in Washington state.
Meanwhile, companies hoping to be recognized at Inspire with a Microsoft Partner of the Year award got an extension recently to submit their applications. The deadline moved from April 21 to May 12, and Microsoft also introduced a new Community Response award.
Posted by Scott Bekker on May 01, 2020