One of my personal highlights from WPC in Denver was the night Canada hosted our regional Party, it is great to see many partners come together under one single roof from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal to Halifax, this is one of the few occassions when we get to see the entire country come together and celebrate.

I had the opportunity to give my farewell speech as President of IAMCP Canada and had the unique opportunity to also recognize some truly Outstanding Microsoft colleagues for their Excellence in Partnering, they were as follows: 

 

Microsoft Corporation

Allison Watson, Corporate Vice President

Steve Ballmer, CEO

Marie Huwe, General Manager, WW Partner Group  

Pam Salzer, Senior Director, WW Partner Group

Ernie Lou, Marketing Manager, EPG

 

Microsoft Canada

Eric Gales, Vice President SMS&P

George Kyriakis, Group Manager, Partner Marketing

Carol Terentiak, IAMCP Champ, MSPP

Sin Graham, BDM, EPG

Mary Peterson, Group Manager, SIs

Pierre Chadi, Regional Sales Manager, Quebec

Bill Evelyn, Regional Sales Manager, Calgary

 

The Partnerhsip with Microsoft works for Partners thanks to the incredible dedication of the thousands of Microsoft employees who truly care about our Partner community and make it their number one Priority to work with Partners.  I am very grateful to the hundreds of people I had the chance to work with over the last five years, it has been an incredible and exhilirating experience from day one.

 

 

It is the second year that Partner had the opportunity to listen to Kevin Turner as Microsoft's newest Executive, I must admit that he has been able to win the hearts of Partners only after such a short time at Microsoft.  I really like the focus he is trying to bring to Sales execution and trying to enhance the Microsoft corporate culture.  For me the highlight  about Kevin Turner is the fact he is also promoting Corporate Citizenship in a big way with our Partner Community, it is definetely getting the attention from our Partner Community, it is nice to be reminded that we are all contributing to good causes around the world, we are all making a difference!

I had the opportunity to attend a host a breakfast with my peers from Brazil, France, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada.  It was attended by both Partners and Microsoft and we had a great discussion around a new initiative to promote more (P2P) International Trade for our Partners and bring them to expand into the Brazilian market, my good friend Maurico Cacique Andrade, IAMCP LATAM President will be hosting us in September in the beautiful city of Sao Paolo, Brazil.  We are thrilled about this initiative that hope to become the global template for future Trade Missions for our Microsoft partners, we have alot of planning to do but are very excited to have full support from so many countries, if you are a Partner that wants to participate, please send me a note and we will add you to the list.

I attended the fourth annual IAMCP Golf Invitational at WPC, it was amazing to see so many Partners and Microsoft colleagues from around the world, the day was filled with many P2P connections giving a nice start to the week long theme of Partner Connections.  I spent the day with my friend Sandra and Per with the film crew trying to capture some candid moments that were used in the opening video on Tuesday.  The setting was simply expectacular and a must see for anyone visiting Denver.  Our local IAMCP Chapter were our gracious host for the event and welcome everyone to the wonderful state of Colorado 

I had an incredible time last night at the WPC Partner Award Ceremonies where we celebrated the achievements and success of our global partners and their innovations in technology as well as contributions to society.

 

I was glad to see that Kevin Turner and Microsoft are putting a lot of emphasis towards Citizenship and recogninzing the tremendous contributions our partners are making in the world, this was one of my highlights last night to see that we are changing the world and making  a better place to live, it was also great to see the enthusiam coming from the various countries represented.

 

I am honored and very proud to be part of such an amazing group of partners and see the power of people when we come together and work towards finding a path to success.

 

Cheers to all our Partner !  You are all outstanding !