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Want to win Microsoft's cloudy love? Just spend $500

Partners: Take sky bridge to cloud conference and pucker up

Channel partners that want to cosy up to Microsoft at this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference have got the option to be an extra special pet – cough $500 and they could be within spitting distance of the event… literally.

The cloud-and-mobile-first fest is happening in Orlando from 12 to 16 July and costs $1,795 per pass, but for those who don’t register and pay their dues before this Friday, the price goes up another $200.

“You don’t have long to lock in this special price,” the worldwide partner group warned resellers last week.

In recent years, WPC has been all about selling technology as-a-service to grab as many channel partners as possible to sell its wares and platforms – in 2013 one-third of attendees were "born in the cloud".

Sadly for some, this trend isn’t going away and the event this summer will be all about “mobile-first, cloud-first”. Apparently, there’ll be more interactive session to partners get “hands-on and heads-down with new strategies”.

Exciting stuff, eh? No? Most channel partners continue to transact business with Microsoft in the traditional way and one told us he feels as though his company is part of a lost generation of firms still selling licences.

“I’m not going,” one told us, citing “cost but mainly because its all about the cloud, and they say they’ll teach us to sell more Office 365.”

For those who want to get to the front of the cloud class before other turn up, Microsoft is making available a Priority Housing Opportunity - spend $500 more and get put up in a hotel next to the conference venue.

The Hyatt Regency is a “short walk” from all WPM meeting rooms, and is “connected by an outdoor sky bridge” to the Orlando Country Convention Centre. Just imagine that – head in the sky, hob-nobbing with Redmond's cloud peeps. ®

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