I'm 30,000 feet above the Midwestern United States traveling to Seattle for a leadership offsite with my Global Partner Support colleagues. Together, we deliver support and services benefits for partners through the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) which include Tele-Presales Tech Support, Technical Service Coordination, Managed Newsgroups, Forum support, and of course, ISV Advisory Services. One way to look at it is that we provide services for almost every stage of the partner lifecycle.

It's been a while since we last had an offsite like this and I'm frankly quite excited. Last time was just after the 2005 Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis, but that was almost two years ago. Since then, we've seen steady growth, increased maturity, and aligned into the Customer Service organization. The relationship we have with our key client (Worldwide Partner Group) has been as strong as it has ever been and we are exploring many opportunities to provide an even greater difference for our partners.

One thing I am excited about is the creativity and brainstorming session scheduled for Thursday. For one day out of the 365 days this year, we get to shed our respective service delivery hats (and my ISV thinking cap) to strategize on the bigger picture beyond our individual businesses.