Last month I put up a post here on the blog to let you know that Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 Awards submission opened up to partners around the world as well as sharing what the various awards are, how to submit your nomination, as well as links to tips and information about award nominations, etc. Since that post, the original submission deadline has been extended from April 15th until April 29th; however, in the event you haven’t looked at a calendar recently, that only gives you until the end of tomorrow to get your submission in! As mentioned in my earlier post on this topic, we all know that things come up which take up time we have allocated to other things we want to do, so please do not put off your submission saying, “I’ll get to it tomorrow afternoon,” because let’s be real, you already missed the original deadline for one reason or another and do you really feel confident that nothing will come up tomorrow as you try to wind down the week that will cause you to be delayed and miss the deadline? Take the time right now and get your submission in.

A really exciting part about the Worldwide Partner Conference Awards this year is that there is the opportunity to be the very first winner ever for some of these awards, and how exciting would that be?! Here is a quick example of just one of those awards that you could be the very first winner ever of:

	This year will be the very first time we will award the Sales Specialist of the Year award at Worldwide Partner Conference 2011. The Sales Specialist accreditations are offered for the following solutions:
Business Intelligence Customer Relationship Management Data Platform Enterprise Resource Planning Identity and Security	Unified Communications (Voice or Exchange) Virtualization Server Platform Systems Management

You can find out more about the Sales Specialist accreditations HERE and be sure to submit your nomination to be the first ever Sales Specialist of the Year award winner!

Now here is what I need you to do if you have not submitted your Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 award nomination yet:

	Click on image for full size:
1) Head out to the WPC11 Awards page on the Digital WPC site and select the category or categories of awards you want to nominate your organization for:
2) Once you have chosen the category of an award that you want to nominate your company for an award in, select the actual award that you want to nominate your company for from the list of awards in the left-hand column: (I’ll use Sales Specialist of the Year for this example)
3) Now that you have selected the specific award that you are going to nominate your company for, choose the “Submit your nomination” link in the “Award Resources” section to begin your award submission process. One thing you will notice, there are several additional resources available to you in this section as well, such as FAQs, Judges Tips, and Award Rules.

Once you’ve completed your submission, just repeat the process for any other awards that you want to nominate your company for. The most important step in this whole process? Getting started! With that in mind, please head out to the site and get your submissions in so that you do not miss your chance to be considered to win one of the Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 Awards this year.

Good luck to all of you and I look forward to seeing you all at Worldwide Partner Conference 2011!

Did you find this information helpful? If so, you may want to make sure you are utilizing all of the areas I share information online, such as: my Facebook page, my Twitter account, my LinkedIn account, and my blog.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and RSS and see “What I’m thinking”
Director, Worldwide Partner Experience
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights