When you travel to as many tech conferences as I do, you get to know two things very well: Regrettable room service orders and the industry’s best speakers. So, I dedicate this blog to those people every attendee should try to hear at least once, not to that pint of Häagen-Dazs vanilla that ends up as a melted puddle in your bed covers.
Here it is, my personal list of the top 5 speakers at #MSignite in Orlando Florida September 25 – 28 that I always get a front row seat for (and by that, I mean 8th row because what kind of nut sits in the actual front row?)
Jeffrey Snover – @jsnover has been a fan favorite for more years than either he or I care to remember. This year, you can find Jeffrey waxing poetic on all things Azure and Azure Stack. Jeffrey is a technical fellow at Microsoft and is responsible for bringing us such developer hits as PowerShell.
Julia White – @julwhite is another fan favorite at large tech conferences. But don’t let her title — Corporate VP Azure + Security Marketing — fool you. This speaker brings serious technical chops to every session she leads (I have already added her Office 365 security session to my agenda). Intelligent security… it makes me feel smarter just having it on my calendar.
Brad Anderson – @Anderson, CVP of Enterprise Client & Mobility, is also hitting a few sessions of his own. In between filming his hit series, Brad Anderson’s Lunch Break, he is wowing audiences on topics, such as modern deployment practices for Office 365. Seriously, he is to the tech industry what Jamie Foxx is to entertainment: A triple threat.
Paula Januszkiewicz – @paulacqure Security expert and penetration tester. If you want to break from @Microsoft speakers then may I suggest the CEO and Founder of CQURE Inc. to cleanse your attendee pallet? Per her speaker bio, she is also one of the top-rated session speakers at Ignite and RSA.
Michael Niehaus – @mniehaus has been one of my favorite TechReady speakers since my first days at Microsoft. This year at Ignite, we find him sharing his deep expertise on Windows 10 deployments. Trust me on this, Michael has more experience deploying Windows than I have trying to figure out room service tipping. I mean, who understands that?
And of course, my team and I will be at Ignite in full force! Look for Citrix on the expo floor, we will be hard to miss since we are a Platinum sponsor so our booth (#745) is, well, HUGE. We will have about 8 in-booth sessions per day by famed speakers on subjects ranging from Office 365, Hybrid cloud, and, of course, Windows 10, Security and more. Stop by and learn how you can deliver your superpowers.
With 6 demo pods, you are sure to find the hands on experience you are looking for. Or win a Citrix X1 Mouse, Lego Minifig or a Flybrix drone. Yeah, I’m not sure what that is either, but I know everyone wants it.
Oh, and if you happen to be free Thursday morning at 09:00 and are near room S320 A- D, you can catch Yours Truly presenting “The Microsoft & Citrix Files – Declassified”. I am presenting 3 real customer stories that bring real value using real solutions. As the kids say, “For realz!”
And remember, what you order from room service stays between you and the metal plate cover.