I landed in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon with huge excitement about next weeks PDC. For the last year or so I have been working on our Software plus Services initiative within Microsoft and have had to stay tight lipped about lots of the things I’m involved in. After next week that’ll all change as more of our S+S jigsaw falls in to place. I’ve been waiting for this week for a long time and decided I’d take a look back at some important indicators of what is to come.

One thing I have said to a lot of folks recently is to go back and read Ray Ozzie’s talk at our Financial Analyst Meeting from 2007. If you want to be prepared for next week, that is a great place to start. On Monday morning you’ll hear Ray deliver what is in my mind one of the most important keynotes in the history of Microsoft and probably the most important in terms of S+S. Ray’s Wharton Interview is another good place to get some context for the week ahead. The image above tells you what the focus of Day 1 is and here’s the keynote lineup for the week with two 300k streams in the links:

The long wait for me is almost over. I really hope you think it’s been worth it.

hat tip to my pal Richard for the title inspired by a tweet