It won’t be impartial, but it may be informational: Microsoft hosts a week-long virtual conference starting Monday the 19th. Get details here for the free online Small Business Summit. If you’re afraid you can’t concentrate watching a computer in your office, you can view feeds from the conference at some Regal Movie theaters and CompUSA stores. The majority of speakers have Microsoft in their job title, but that’s to be expected. Besides, Microsoft knows more about their new products than most other people do, so it makes sense they could make presentations with some useful information between marketing pitches. The good news is that when you get tired of the marketing pitches, you can play Solitaire or answer e-mail. No one from Microsoft sent me any inside information about this, so I’m not making claims this virtual conference will save you money or bore you to tears. But at least Microsoft consistently pitches to small businesses, something not all large companies do. The schedule for Friday the 23rd seems the lightest on Microsoft employees.
Only two of the 11 sessions planned that day include people from Microsoft proper.
