Microsoft Ignite 2019 happened this last week (November 4-8) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fl. Ignite is Microsoft’s annual user conference aimed at developers and IT professionals.
Attendees have the opportunity to speak with Microsoft experts, have hands-on experiences, network with hundreds of vendors, and 25,000+ other attendees. There are also thousands of learning sessions (on everything from development, to security, to A.I.), which most people fill up their week’s schedule with.
As a first timer at Ignite, it was quite impressive. The venue was nice, Microsoft goes all out on space, food was better than most events like this, and the end of week “celebration” is second to none.
The Venue
Orange County convention center was nice, though spread-out amongst a few buildings, which may or may not matter to you.
I was honestly doing booth duty all week, in the West building, which meant that I didn’t attend any sessions, or wander around the other buildings. But from what I heard some people struggled to reach sessions far apart, while others had no problems.
The vendor floor was pretty amazing, with hundreds of vendors on site, and Microsoft taking up thousands of square feet themselves.
Transportation to and from the venue was fairly decent, with buses providing transportation for hotels even up to a few miles away.
The area designated for buses and rideshare programs to drop off however, was bit cramped. I had more than one experience waiting 10 to 15 minutes less than a block from the venue.
And while my first instinct was to jump out of my Uber ride and say thanks I’ll walk from here, I’m not sure it would be prudent in this traffic.
That and I came to the realization that this in no way would help my driver out of the situation, and so I decided to keep them company.
Veeam Booth
I heard multiple times this week that the Veeam booth was the coolest one on the floor. I do have to admit that it is pretty visually impressive as well as technologically impressive.
There were five controllers on every panel controlling hundreds of LED strips which create alternating designs and text. This leads to some awesome, Matrix looking effects on the back, while the front is displaying Veeam information.
There is also a little theatre area, in the middle, with a large Monitor and individual cushioned seats for viewers to sit on. On the far-left side of the booth are the demo stations.
The stations are setup in a back-to-back format, which is nice because then each demo tower is actually two separate demo stations.
Working the booth was also quite the experience. I believe I was able to help a number of people learn new things this week, and others were also able to help me learn new things as well.
Being a Microsoft event, obviously there was quite a bit of Hyper-V discussion (a lot more than usual), as well as Azure Stack HCI (rebranding of storage spaces direct), so I was able to sharpen up on those skills, and I am still continually learning.
Overall, this was probably the best event I have been to in terms of receiving personal development from the other show attendees.
The Legendary Veeam Party
If you’ve ever been to one, you know Veeam knows how to throw one heck of a party! Never to disappoint, they utilize good venues, provide good party food, and always have great performers. This time the event took place at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Pointe Orlando.
It’s a nice large inner area with a stage, dance floor, a couple of bars, as well as various tables and chairs for sitting. There was also an upstairs balcony area with another decent size bar and additional seating with tables. In addition, there was an outside patio area which was nice, as well as another outdoor “room” with another large bar.
All of this was completely open to Veeam’s guests. Also open to Veeam’s guests were food and beverages including, a deep fried something I can’t remember right now, assorted fruit, and some BBQ type sliders. There were also assorted finger snacks, and like I said before it was good party food.
The band is known as The B.B. King’s Blues Club All-Star Band feat. Kris Thomas – I hope I got that correct, because they deserve it. They were very entertaining and very good! I believe that the first three songs all featured a different singer, and all were on point.
A quick Google search tells me that the lead singer Kris Thomas is previously of The Voice fame. Whatever it is, they also did not disappoint, and I say bravo and thank you!
Microsoft Ignite Celebration
Ignite celebration is unlike any I have ever been too! Most will rent out a venue, club, etc. and throw a party, possibly with a well-known band as the headlining attraction.
Microsoft? They rent out both parks at Universal Orlando Resort for the evening! The park literally closes to everyone in the evening, save for Microsoft Ignite attendees.
And not only are attendees treated to a private night at the park, but the food and drink stands that were open (many of the restaurants and larger venues were closed) were also on the house! Butterbeer or turkey leg anyone!?
Now, I say private night in the park, but I heard there were around 26,000 attendees at Microsoft Ignite this year, and I think the vast majority went to the celebration. That and the Wizarding World likely being the most popular area, we waited upwards of 90 minutes to ride the new Hagrid ride (read about that here).
Still, that number of attendees appears to be about half the average day for Universal. The parks were open to attendees for about four and a half hours. Overall it was a great experience, and I am glad I stayed around to attend the celebration!
Wrap-up
From the thousands of sessions, to the hundreds of vendors, Ignite always had something going for it. If you work anywhere around the IT field, I would highly recommend you push to attend Microsoft Ignite.
Not only will you get to attend the celebration to cap off the week, you will also gain a lot of knowledge from sessions, and relationships from networking. Hope I make it next year, and hope to see you there as well!
Great write up, that Veeam booth was on point!
Thanks Peter! Veeam does a great job with their conference booths.
Loved the write up Veeam is great!