So what exactly was it like to be one of 16,000 people gathered together in Washington to talk about the future of Microsoft? I'll tell you, it was relentless - even for a Dynamics recruiter.  

But not in the negative sense of the word, quite the opposite in fact. #WPC2014 (to quote its Twitter hashtag) was for me:

Relentlessly on message - whether during a Keynote speech, in a product breakout, or over pre-dinner drinks it was made clear that Dynamics solutions should be designed and implemented with a great mobile user experience in mind. It is central to the future success of the business (and the partner community).

From a cloud standpoint, it was all about using and integrating with Office365 and demonstrating the power of Azure as a platform for Dynamics CRM and NAV, for example – the expectation is for “exponential growth in 2015”.

Relentlessly positive - the Microsoft team could not do enough for the partners that were there, whether it was making sure you weren't on your own at a keynote, to making sure you knew where the party was in the evening.  Or the after party.  Or the after, after party.

Relentlessly energetic - I'm not sure if anyone slept for more than a couple of hours every night but a diet of coffee, excellent food and plenty of fruit and veg kept people upbeat and positively engaged for the entirety of the conference.

From keynotes delivered by the likes of Kevin Turner and Phil Sorgen through to the brilliant Gordon MacDonald, and the UK subsidiary session on the last day – everyone made every minute with partners and customers count.

Scale baby, scale

The scale of the event was awe-inspiring too; I knew there would be thousands of attendees but being part of the sea of people moving the half mile between the Verizon Center and Conference Center, was to be at the heart of a Microsoft hive.  Head Downtown at noon and every restaurant was filled with people actively networking - it is not the place to be if you're shy and retiring.

What's next?

Well aside from following up on the connections that I made and taking some time to really think about what’s in store for the future of Dynamics CRM, NAV and AX, and how that will impact the Dynamics community, I think I might be in need of a holiday…. before I book up again for next year.

As first impressions go, it was definitely one to last.