Microsoft Tech Summit 2018

(This post originally appeared at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-tech-summit-2018-duncan-k-g-campbell)

Last year I attended and wrote about the 2017 Microsoft Tech Summit in Singapore and was rather disparaging in my comments with just the slightest hints of sarcasm.  How does this year's Microsoft Tech Summit at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre compare?

The keynote's theatrics and orchestration were, thankfully, toned down a level this year.  Yes, there was the ghastly thumping music, but the coloured spotlights were toned down and the house lights were up as we entered the auditorium.  There were still the ushers with their illuminated batons like aircraft marshallers on the airport apron directing us into the chairs that were again arranged too close together for comfort.  Fortunately it was not a full house, so I could decamp to seats further back where there was a civilised degree of space for one's comfort.

How was the keynote itself?

It wasn't actually one keynote this year but two: one for Microsoft 365 and one for Azure.  The toning down of orchestration had spread to the clothing, and the tech summit corporate presenter uniform of jacket and jeans was barely evident.  Not everything was toned down from last year, as there were still the meaningless statistics presented at the start.

Sitting through the speeches in such keynotes one does wonder how to separate "predictions" from a company's product roadmap.

We also got to hear IT directors and CIOs on the stage tell us in person that using Microsoft services such as Azure were good business decisions for them, that security and flexibility were important to them and that Microsoft's offerings provided security and flexibility, etc.  I'm glad I was there to hear these insights first-hand.

It was a bit confusing at one point when one of the speakers was talking about jifs, but I did not dwell too long on that peculiar word.  I'll try to look it up later...

Each presentation was accompanied by surtitles, but the transcriber appears to be rather slow and hard of hearing.

Do Microsoft's speakers all get the same coaching?  It's truly amazing!  Is it just USAians in their ranks?  How awesome!  Or do Microsoft only select those with a certain style for public speaking?  That would be so massive, so powerful!

There were the usual videos of people (usually young and hipsterish) working on the move or from any comfy chair in their New York converted loft offices.  What they don't show are the people checking their e-mail on the loo, writing that presentation in bed just before they turn off the light, then waking up to check the spreadsheet over breakfast - with the right device you could even continue being "productive" in the shower.

Are these the images of the bedraggled, over-worked (hence unproductive) worker, or are they just people finding the times and places to do their work because their "work" hours are full of non-productive activities and are in an non-productive environment?

I do wonder about corporate videos these days: the flashy, corporate-cliched presentation; the over-loud music to remind you that something is happening even when someone's not speaking; the lack of attention paid to the audio mixing of people's voices so that you can tell what they say and they don't sound distorted.  Who approves them?  Who approves of them?

But was there any interesting content?

OK, one can now spend less time on the style of PowerPoint slides because it can automatically give you a series of corporate professional looks.  Will that mean people putting more time into the content of their presentations rather than the style?  Time will tell.

Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn has paid off: people's LinkedIn profiles are now linked to Microsoft 365.

The Azure Stack is pretty good - consistency across on-premises solutions and in-cloud solutions (so long as those are on Azure).

Last year I noted that there was only one Azure region in South America and none in Africa.  This year there's still only one in South America, but two are planned for South Africa.  So, I'm looking forward to more services coming out of Africa.  Though the location of the planned Australia "Central" region is geographically questionable.

How was the Tech Summit app this year?

It was a smoother experience this year, but who on Earth thought that dark blue text on a dark grey background was a good idea?

Can you spot it?

Do the name badges still reverse themselves?

Yes.