Microsoft Virtual Convergence 2010

Virtual Convergence 2010 is up now at http://vepexp.microsoft.com/convergence2010. It’s really slick looking.If you want to relive the moment, it looks the initial 50 Tips and 50 More Tips are up. You get  audio, PowerPoint slides and the live demos. You don’t actually get videos of my brilliant delivery. You’ll just have to imagine how good I looked.

The links to the full presentations with notes are up at DynamicAccounting.net on the right.

Make sure to watch David and Mariano’s sessions as well. They rocked!

Convergence 2010 Wrap Up

The last of the evaluations are due in today and I doubt that they will change much in terms of how the sessions are ranked after Convergence. When you’re at a 150 or so evaluations it takes a lot to move the numbers. So how did we do?

There are 2 overall measures of a session that get tracked. One is based on the Overall Satisfaction question scored on a 4 point scale and one is based on the  Presenter Effectiveness question based on a 5 point scale.

Overall Satisfaction

For the Dynamics GP track in Overall Satisfaction, Mariano and David’s session on the Support Debugging Tool comes in at number 1, my 50 More Tips is number 2, Mariano and David’s repeat is 3 and my original 50 Tips came in at 4. All of these sessions had more than 75 evaluations and most of them were over 150 evaluations. The minimum number of evaluation is 10. 150+ very positive evaluations is incredibly cool. The separation between #1 and #4 in the the GP track was 11/100ths of a point.

These are crazy high numbers of people who enjoyed the sessions. In all of my sessions more than 50% of the people who attended filled out an evaluation. Mariano and David had similar numbers. The fact that we finished this way shows the value of MVP’s and the closeness of bloggers to the community. We eat, sleep and breathe this stuff and the passion comes through. David and Mariano rocked.

Overall Satisfaction across all sessions is tied right now between Tips for Outlook 2010 and 50 Tips for SL. Apparently the 50 Tips in 50 Minutes concept is a hit across the products. I’ll have to do something creative next year to stand out.

Presenter Effectiveness

If you though that Overall Satisfaction looked good, we killed at Presenter Effectiveness. 50 More Tips in 50 Minutes is ranked  #1 for Presenter Effectiveness across all Convergence Concurrent Sessions and David and Mariano’s Support Debugging Tool session is ranked #2 across all Concurrent Sessions.

If you still can’t get enough tips for Dynamics GP after Convergence:

1) Sign up and attended Decisions 2010. This free, virtual conference is right around the corner on May 19 and 20, 2010. You can attend from your desk. I’ll be doing a session on closing the books faster at month end with Dynamics GP. MVP’s Mariano Gomez and Frank Hamelly are doing sessions as well. You don’t want to miss this.

2) Order the book. My upcoming book on Dynamics GP is now available for preorder. If you liked the 50 tips, you’ll love the book.

To everyone who attended one of my sessions, thank you for attending and thank you for the feedback. I’ve already got some ideas of how to improve things for next year.

Convergence 2010 from a Consultant’s Perspective

Wicked smart consultant Michael Johnson takes a look at Convergence from consultant’s perspective. I’ve learned an awful lot of GP stuff from him over the years, you should too.

Real Life Dynamics User Look at Convergence 2010

Real Life Dynamics User blogs about his Convergence perspective.

Convergence 2010: 50 MORE Tips in 50 Minutes

I told you today that the 50 More Tips presentation would be up tomorrow.

I lied.

It’s up now! Get 50 More Tips in 50 Minutes for Dynamics GP from this link or from the link on the right side of DynamicAccounting.net.

Reflections on Convergence 2010

I’m sitting at the airport exhausted after Convergence 2010 so I’m disclaiming responsibility for anything dumb that I say. I want to get these thoughts out before I lose them.

• The excitement around Dynamics GP 2010 was incredible. There was an electricity in the air that I’ve never seen with a GP release. Several clients who are typically one release behind are now pushing to go GP 2010 now. And I mean pushing. You know who you are.
• There was a surprising amount of excitement around the AX retail solution. I suspect that AX will see an uptick as manufacturers with some retail presence move in that direction.
• The Support Debugging Tool is officially top of mind for a ton of customers. David Musgrave and Mariano Gomez’s sessions were phenomenal. They did a fantastic job and looked like they were have a lot of fun. Well done gentlemen.
• At one point we had Mariano Gomez, Frank Hamelly, Leslie Vail, me and David Musgrave at lunch together. If the chicken had been bad the GP blogosphere would have been very quiet. Fortunately, the chicken was delicious.
• All versions of the 50 tips presentations were a big hit and it seems to have been a breakout year for the buzz around this session. I’m very grateful to Errol and Pam at Microsoft and Andy at I.B.I.S. for giving me the opportunity to do this. I’d  like the opportunity to come back and do something similar.
• Roughly 800 people saw EACH VERSION of the 50 tips.
• Please remember, attending the 50 tips sessions automatically makes you more attractive. Doubly so if you sat near the front.
• Presenting 4 sessions is more than twice as hard as presenting 2.
• I had the chance to meet Andy Nifong, Matt Landis and a host of other people that I see on blogs and twitter. How come all of you are better looking in person and I’m not?
• If you see any Facebook photos of me leaving the women’s restroom, assume that they were photoshopped.
• If you haven’t filled out your evaluations you still can. Hurry.

Redmond Channel Partner has a look at Dynamics GP 2010 and Convergence.

With Convergence 2010 coming up, Redmond Channel Partner takes a look at the Dynamics line and Convergence.

New Convergence Video

Make sure you check out the new Convergence video with my co-presenter from last year Pam Misialek of Microsoft. Pam owns the GP track at Convergence and she’s a blast to work with. Even better Pam has helped build an absolutely killer track of sessions for Convergence 2010.

(It doesn’t suck that she mentions my name and David Musgrave in there too!)

Don’t Be Lonely, Go to Convergence!

I’ve been saving a post around Bill Kennedy’s fantastic article 2 > 2 X 1 (Accounting Can Be Lonely) for Convergence. In it he talks about how associating with other like minded professionals can spark new ideas and remove those lonely feelings that you’re the only one battling through tough accounting issues.

Well, take heart, Microsoft’s Convergence 2010 will be filled with other Microsoft Dynamics users just like you. Some of them may have answers to your issues and maybe you’ll get to solve some of their problems. You’ll at least get a chance to get out of the office and decompress a little before tacking those issues again.

Read Bill’s article then go register for heaven’s sake.

Top 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Convergence 2010

I’ve got a new article up at MSDynamicsWorld.com. It’s titled the Top 10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Convergence 2010. Since all of you are smart, informed Dynamics GP users I assume you are going to Convergence 2010 in Atlanta so I thought I would share some ways to get the most out of your tip. If you are still undecided, check out the article to see how you could be adding value to your Dynamics GP solution.

CPE for Convergence 2010 Atlanta

If you are still on the fence for attending Convergence 2010 in Atlanta, don’t forget that the conference sessions also count for Continuing Professional Education credits. CPA’s often don’t do a good job of staying on top of this and have to scramble to find credits. At Convergence you can get credits and learn about Dynamics GP.

David and Mariano’s Convergence Sessions

David Musgrave has details on the sessions that he and Mariano will be presenting at Convergence 2010 in Atlanta.

Convergence Tip of the Week

The Microsoft Dynamics ERP Community Team blog is aggregating convergence tips from around the blogosphere into tips of the week.

Part 1 and Part 2 are up so far.

Mariano Gomez and David Musgrave at Convergence

It's official now so I can talk about it, Mariano Gomez and David Musgrave are doing a joint session at Convergence covering the various customization tools available for Dynamics GP. This is a variation of a longer session that they did at the GP Technical Conference. It looks like the session catalog ID is CSGP28 Microsoft Dynamics GP: Customization Tools Unraveled.

As I look over the session catalog, I'm impressed by the quality of the sessions. I think that this is going to be a great year to attend Convergence.

50 Tips at Convergence 2010

I've been told that because of the success of my 2009 50 Tips presentation I don't have to have a Microsoft presentation buddy at Convergence this year. As a result my sessions will consist of nothing but politics, religion and pirated South Park episodes. (Just kidding Pam, please don't pull my sessions!)

Seriously, in a new to you moment, I get to repeat last year's 50 Tips sessions along with presenting 50 brand new tips for Dynamics GP. That's 100 tips for Dynamics GP. Some of these tips can easily save you the time and cost investment of Convergence registration over the course of this year. Those of you who were there will remember that some of these tips are applicable way back to version 5.0. (If you're on version 5.0 we need to talk.)

If you want to Twitter during either of the presentations please use the official Convergence hash tag of #Conv10 and the #50Tips hash tag for tweets during and about the presentations.

Oh yeah, I'm still trying to convince MS that we need a t-shirt cannon at Convergence. Comment here, on Facebook or tweet if you agree.

Covergence 2010 Session Builder

I keep forgetting to blog this. The sessions catalog is live for Convergence 2010. New sessions are still being added but I'd like to draw your attention to sessions CSGP06 and CSGP07. Microsoft has graciously given me the opportunity to repeat my 50 tips in 50 minutes presentation from last year. Apparently close to half of attendees are new every year so this will ensure that all of you who missed will get to see it. Even if you saw it last year, did you really implement all 50 of the tips? Yeah, I didn't think so. Do you only see a great movie like Star Wars or Office Space once? Nope. This year you get to sit through the session and feel smart because you know all the inside jokes.

Even better, I've got 50 brand new tips for Dynamics GP in 50 new minutes. These sessions are fast, fun and informative and everyone had a blast last year. So put CSGP06 and CSGP07 on the list for Convergence 2010 in Atlanta.

Video: Community and Learning Center at Convergence 2010

Check out this video with coverage of the features available at the Community and Learning center at Microsoft's Convergence 2010 in Atlanta.

Volunteering at Convergence 2010

Do you want to help out at Convergence 2010 in Atlanta? Check out this video on how you can help.

Convergence 2010 Atlanta Registration Starts Today!

Registration for Convergence 2010 in Atlanta starts today! Convergence is Microsoft's premier customer event for it's Dynamics customers. This is one of the largest events Microsoft puts on every year. It's looks like I will get the chance to speak again at Convergence and I'm looking forward to the opportunity. I'm also looking forward to seeing you there so register now!


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