INTEGRATE 2016 will be Live Streamed

The preparation for INTEGRATE 2016 is in full swing, the event is turning out into a global one.  The event has received a lot of attention recently, being highlighted on the home page of Microsoft Integration and various high profile people like Scott Gu mentioning about the event.

Integrate 2016 conference being held in London in May. Details here: https://t.co/TDUZLmRvmk

— Scott Guthrie (@scottgu) April 19, 2016

Currently, there are close to 370 attendees, when we looked at the statistics we were astonished to see people from over 150 companies across 25+ countries are going to attend the event. We gradually increased the speakers and sessions count, as a final freeze, we have 24 sessions presented by 27 speakers. We have full representation from Microsoft product group all the way up to senior management level. Frank Weigel (Director of PM) will present the keynote “Microsoft Integration Vision” followed by important sessions like “BizTalk Server 2016 announcement” We received a lot of emails from people across the world expressing their disappointment not able to physically come to London for the event. There are various reasons, mainly budgeting reason for people in other side of the world like US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The other main reason we heard was some of them couldn’t commit for 3 days of event + additional days in travel. Most of them suggested arranging for a live streaming. We were looking into the option for sometime made few inquiries with some of the top live streaming specialists and finally decided to go ahead after looking at the interest level. It’s a big ask and big commitment, but we are happy to take the plunge.

How does it work

Due to the additional cost involved in arranging for the live streaming (AV crew + Live Streaming onsite editing/set up, CDN bandwidth charges and high speed internet), we need to charge a minimum fee for people to watch the live streaming. Based on our feedback survey and the number of people who expressed interest, we worked out the price to £150 per person. You can visit the event home page http://www.biztalk360.com/integrate-2016/ and now we have the option to register for “Live Streaming” Once registered you’ll get you account with username + password, you simply login during the event to watch the telecast live. You’ll also have the option to watch the videos on demand after the event using the same login.

Will it upset existing registered attendees

Few of our event team members raised concern, will it upset people who have already registered. In my opinion, it shouldn’t upset people who are physically coming for the event. It’s a completely different value proposition. There are lot of advantages coming in person to the event The networking opportunity you get by hanging with speakers and attendees for 3 days, you generally get more value from the conversations you have during coffee breaks, lunches and dinners. Generally, you’ll be focused and concentrate on the sessions when you are physically present, if you are watching online chances are you switch between tasks back/forth and don’t get the same intensity. I personally prefer attending the event in person if there is bandwidth if not then I just choose and watch the sessions that of interest to me.

INTEGRATE 2016 Agenda

INTEGRATE 2016 Speakers Line up