Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Wrap Up!
November 13, 2014
After a good 3 days of conference sessions (both attending and delivering), I have to say this event has been very special to me. Being able to catch up - yes, catch up! - with old (and not so old) time friends is probably one of the best experiences of this particular reIMAGINE 2014 event.
As I sat at Gate 1 at Hector International Airport, looking out at the snow dusting collected on the tarmac (a stark reminder as to why I don't live in these latitudes), I reflect back on days past to highlight the following:
1. You MUST begin learning about Service-Based Architecture in general, now! The truth is, I spoke to numerous developers during this event and the one question that kept coming up was, "Where do I go to learn all this stuff?". It took me some time to get acclimated to these style of services, but frankly, you need to build on your past experience. After all the current Web Services model (SOAP based), while different from the new one (REST based) still offers some of the underpinning architectural elements. If you are a newcomer to the game, then the MSDN library offers quite a few good primers on REST based services. One of my favorites is An Introduction To RESTful Services With WCF by Jon Flanders. In subsequent days, I will be posting a number of articles on the Dexterity service patterns and their implementation.
2. The Microsoft Dynamics GP partner community is alive and well, thank you! It's no coincidence that this event drew close to 500 partners and ISVs. The question that still lingers in my mind is, why not more? These events are not all about the kumbaya and to be honest, the wealth of information is simply overwhelming at times and I'm surprised that, despite the number of attendees, more partners are not taking advantage of the learning opportunities. I am willing to wage a bet: if we get to double the registration for next reIMAGINE chances are this event will need to move to another city not named Fargo as there may not be any venues large enough to host such crowd.
3. The jury is still out on who throws the best event parties, but I must say there are only two clear competitors, so far: FastPath and eOne Solutions. If I'm going to be put in a position to choose... you know what? I will just continue to enjoy the parties, so go on boys and girls! Just let me know when and where I must show up to the next one.
4. Last but not least, this partnership between Microsoft and Dynamic Communities is probably the best darn thing to happen to the Dynamics GP ecosystem after Microsoft's acquisition of Great Plains Software. With Microsoft technologies and products and Dynamic Communities understanding of the user and partner ecosystem, these events just seem to have been catapulted to another level. What I would like to see is more collaboration at the session level, between Microsoft Dynamics GP development team members and partners. It would make for a very interesting perspective, from both the technical and the practical applications of the technology.
I also wanted to thank each and every single person that made this event possible - you know who you are! It's (fairly) easy to show up to these events as an attendee and sometimes as a presenter, but putting a partner event together is no easy feat, so kudos to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management and Product Development teams and the Dynamic Communities team for a great event.
Coverage from this event appears in the following posts:
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Getting Here
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 1
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 2
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 3
Conference material can be downloaded from
http://1drv.ms/1xQMLlD
See everyone at Microsoft Convergence 2015 Atlanta, my backyard. Register now to take advantage of the early registration rates and get some great accommodations here in town.
Until next post!
MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Intelligent Partnerships, LLC
http://www.intelligentpartnerships.com/
After a good 3 days of conference sessions (both attending and delivering), I have to say this event has been very special to me. Being able to catch up - yes, catch up! - with old (and not so old) time friends is probably one of the best experiences of this particular reIMAGINE 2014 event.
 |
| At Hector International Airport (FAR) Gate 1 |
1. You MUST begin learning about Service-Based Architecture in general, now! The truth is, I spoke to numerous developers during this event and the one question that kept coming up was, "Where do I go to learn all this stuff?". It took me some time to get acclimated to these style of services, but frankly, you need to build on your past experience. After all the current Web Services model (SOAP based), while different from the new one (REST based) still offers some of the underpinning architectural elements. If you are a newcomer to the game, then the MSDN library offers quite a few good primers on REST based services. One of my favorites is An Introduction To RESTful Services With WCF by Jon Flanders. In subsequent days, I will be posting a number of articles on the Dexterity service patterns and their implementation.
2. The Microsoft Dynamics GP partner community is alive and well, thank you! It's no coincidence that this event drew close to 500 partners and ISVs. The question that still lingers in my mind is, why not more? These events are not all about the kumbaya and to be honest, the wealth of information is simply overwhelming at times and I'm surprised that, despite the number of attendees, more partners are not taking advantage of the learning opportunities. I am willing to wage a bet: if we get to double the registration for next reIMAGINE chances are this event will need to move to another city not named Fargo as there may not be any venues large enough to host such crowd.
3. The jury is still out on who throws the best event parties, but I must say there are only two clear competitors, so far: FastPath and eOne Solutions. If I'm going to be put in a position to choose... you know what? I will just continue to enjoy the parties, so go on boys and girls! Just let me know when and where I must show up to the next one.
4. Last but not least, this partnership between Microsoft and Dynamic Communities is probably the best darn thing to happen to the Dynamics GP ecosystem after Microsoft's acquisition of Great Plains Software. With Microsoft technologies and products and Dynamic Communities understanding of the user and partner ecosystem, these events just seem to have been catapulted to another level. What I would like to see is more collaboration at the session level, between Microsoft Dynamics GP development team members and partners. It would make for a very interesting perspective, from both the technical and the practical applications of the technology.
I also wanted to thank each and every single person that made this event possible - you know who you are! It's (fairly) easy to show up to these events as an attendee and sometimes as a presenter, but putting a partner event together is no easy feat, so kudos to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management and Product Development teams and the Dynamic Communities team for a great event.
Coverage from this event appears in the following posts:
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Getting Here
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 1
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 2
Microsoft #reIMAGINE 2014 Conference - Day 3
Conference material can be downloaded from
http://1drv.ms/1xQMLlD
See everyone at Microsoft Convergence 2015 Atlanta, my backyard. Register now to take advantage of the early registration rates and get some great accommodations here in town.
Until next post!
MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Intelligent Partnerships, LLC
http://www.intelligentpartnerships.com/
Comments