Microsoft Ignite Tips & Tricks

Microsoft Ignite 2019 is coming, the Microsoft Event for Tech Pros will be held November 4-8 In Orlando, personally, it will be my fourth Ignite Conference, so I learned a few things to try to get the most out of it and wanted to share with the community.

If you went to the past Ignite Conferences, you experienced the same as me, you can not get to all the sessions, the conference center is HUGE, big enough to walk an average of 12 kilometers a day (nearly 8 miles) and, I am not joking, it’s true, Google Fit told me every end of the day, so, the first day you get a little frustrated walking really fast to go from one place to another, but the second or third day you realize the truth, and start to watch some sessions from hangouts place or just sit anywhere and get the streaming using headphones.

Lessons learned

• As I told, you can not get to all the sessions, do not try, you will get frustrated.
• There is an excellent place to watch sessions, it's called hangouts, it is a place with 8-10 screens showing specific sessions, where you can seat and listen with headphones provided by the conference
• Try to avoid sessions on Expo, is a little difficult to hear the speaker as people walks by around you.
• Partner lead sessions are good to have real life situations.
• Sessions lead by Microsoft Gurus like Jeffrey Snover and Mark Russinovich are a must-attend.
• Do not waste time trying to take a picture of slides being displayed on sessions, they will be available online shortly after conference ends. (the whole session with audio will be available too!)
• Use tennis/sneakers, you will have to walk A LOT, again, use comfortable shoes!
• Do Networking, it’s an excellent opportunity to share experiences and maybe do business! use the breakfast hour to seat with people you don't know.
• Go to the night parties that the expo companies throw, not only for the food and drinks but to know other people, stay tuned on twitter to know when and where.

Hope anyone attending Microsoft Ignite for the first time will find this useful, and, if you, like me, have experience attending this conference, share your own tips & tricks, will be glad to include them!