Insights into the Microsoft Project Conference 2012

Few days ago I’ve attended the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 in Phoenix, AZ. This had been a full week of presentation, information, great talks and social events.

Conference Center

Day 0 was dedicated to the partner network. Jan Kalis organized the sessions this day, kicked-off by Chris Crane, Marketing Manager for Microsoft Project. During the sessions, we got bunch of information on partner structures, the quite clear licensing model at Microsoft and business cases of EPM implementations.

Day 1 - Keynote

The day finished up with a great session by Adrian Jenkins and Brian Smith on troubleshooting issues in EPM.


The first official day kicked-off with an awesome keynote of Kirk Koenigsbauer, Corporate VP Office Division. We got insights into Microsoft’s view on the market and how mobile technologies increase nowadays.

Day 1 - Keynote

Later that day, Eric Schott and I had our session on resource management: ‘3 Steps to Cut the Gordian Knot in Resource Management’. The room had been fully packed with approx. 70-80 participants. Great to see how many people had been attracted by this topic. Even better: All the requests right after the session. It took me about an hour to track all of them down.

Session 1 by Eric and Ingo

After a few other sessions, the evening started with ‘Pool PC’, a social event at the Renaissance Hotel. The DJ ‘The Kameleon’ heated up the crowd and even got some of us to dance (here’s the mix). Later that night we ended up in a restaurant top of Hyatt Hotel with our friends from CPS in UK.


The second day’s keynote was held by Ludo Hauduc, General Manager of Microsoft Project. It featured a great live demo by Pradeep GanapathyRaj and Chris Fiessinger on the integration of Microsoft Project Server with Team Foundation Server. Best of this session: Ludo answerd questions live, asked via twitter with #askludo and #mspc12 hash tags.

Day 2 - Keynote

After the keynote, Eric Schott and I prepared for our next session: ‘Deliver Successful Program Results in Matrix Organizations’. This one had been packed with 40-50 attendees, agian followed by a great Q&A part.

Session 2 - Eric and Ingo

During the rest of the day, I attended few more interesting sessions. Unfortunately it was not possible to watch all speeches and demos. I am really looking forward to watch them online, once they get published.

The day ended up at the Phoenix Science Center – a sponsored event by one of the US partners. While getting back to the hotel, we met a part of the Microsoft Project product team and they invited us for a beer (or two…) We had interesting talks and a great time! Thanks a lot!


The last day had been quite short for me. My plan to stay up quite late last night in order to better sleep on the plane worked out fine – but had one shortcoming: this next morning. However, the exchange with Pradeep on the mobilization of products and his view on future technologies inspired me with lots of ideas! Thanks again!

Goodbye Phoenix

The 18hrs ride back to Germany had been quite long and now, a few days later, I finally got over my jet lag and was able to follow up all contacts!


Thanks to Vincent Capitaine, MVP for taking most of those pictures and letting me publish those!

Ingo Meironke, PMP – Manager at Campana & Schott@meiroTweet