Can you believe we are just a few days away from WPC 11?!!? In case you haven’t seen, we have passed the 15,000 registered attendee mark which makes this a record-setting Worldwide Partner Conference attendance!! Speaking of records, not only is it the largest attendance we’ve had, but do any of you remember what the president of LA INC., the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau said about WPC coming to Los Angeles? “Microsoft 2011 WPC will be the largest citywide convention in the history of Los Angeles.” Woohoo!

With this many WPC attendees this year, the networking opportunities for all of the partner attendees are going to be greater this year than ever, and you already saw how well it has worked for others in the example that Jon Roskill shared a few weeks back. For me personally, like every year, one of the items I love most about Worldwide Partner Conference is the opportunity to re-connect with partners I know from around the world, but also to meet so many others that I have never worked with before or that I have worked with online but have never met in person. For instance, here are just a few of the pictures I shared last year of people I met up with while at WPC 10. Do you recognize any of them? (click image for full size)

If you need a quick cheat sheet on the pics above, or want to see some of the other pics from last year, you might want to take a quick look at these posts:

• Connecting with others – A HUGE value of #WPC10 (Look who I found)
• WPC10 – Connecting with people to build business!

This year, I look forward to seeing and meeting a bunch of you and want to grab many more pictures than I did last year, so here is my ask of you. If you happen to see me around, please don’t be shy. Don’t hesitate to come up, introduce yourself, tell me about you and your company, and if you’re open to it, I’d love to grab a picture with you to share with the community. Oh, and if I come up and say, “hi,” before you see me, don’t be alarmed, I don’t bite. I’m just on my quest of making some additional contacts with WPC 11 attendees.

Oh, and if you are looking for me, here are a few quick tips of how to find me:

1. On Sunday during the day, I will be at the Day of Giving during the day and then at the Welcome Reception afterwards
2. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I will be hosting the MPN Live Video Chat sessions at 5:00 pm in the MPN Booth in the Expo (Solution Innovation Center) at the LA Convention Center. In addition, I will be at the MPN Live Video Chat sessions at 1:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday
   
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3. Every morning I will be at the keynotes
4. On Wednesday, I will be at the B2B Social Media Partner Panel in room 153AB from 3:00 – 4:00 - Why not come join us? After all, what better place to be social than at a social media partner panel?
5. Thursday night I will be at the closing celebration
6. If you are an SMB PAL, I’ll see you Thursday at the SMB PAL Rountable & Lunch
7. In the evenings, I will be floating around several of the receptions, so I don’t have a set time/place I will be
8. The rest of the week I will be floating around the convention, WPC Connect meetings, and sessions, so just keep an eye out.
9. Oh, and if you’ve been following me during any WPC before, you know that I often do contests, etc. at WPC for those who can find me during certain times. I give out my clues through my Twitter account and my Blog. This year, you have another way to keep up to date on all of that an more with the Microsoft Partner Info mobile app that brings this and much, much more right to your phone, so I’d highly recommend installing that. Here’s how:
   • On your Windows Phone, go to Marketplace, click search, type in “Microsoft Partner Info”
   • On your PC, you can add it to your Zune Marketplace for download to your phone by clicking here
   • If you own an Android phone, you can install it from the Android Marketplace by clicking here
   • If you own an iPhone and want the Microsoft Partner Info app, help me let Apple know!

Here’s looking at another FANTASTIC WPC together and I look forward to seeing you all very soon!

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. Plus, you can now get all of the latest Microsoft Partner Information right on your phone!

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