Microsoft Blends 5 Conferences To Create The “Unified Microsoft Commercial Technology Event”

Apparently the team that handled the Windows Vista version naming framework still works at Microsoft.

This morning, the software company announced that it will end several of its standalone conferences, including its confabs for SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Exchange, along with its TechEd event. The five events will be replaced, and I promise that I am not making this up, the “inaugural unified Microsoft commercial technology event.”

The gist is that Microsoft is bringing its wider enterprise-facing events together, which is worth noting. The event will take place in May of 2015, in Chicago.

The company released a blog post on the change, essentially noting that its former conference structure had become dated — with increasing integration across products categories, having separate events was simply too siloed an approach.

As ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley notes, there was talk of Microsoft axing TechEd, “the same way that the company discontinued the Microsoft Management Summit.”

I confirmed with Microsoft that the decision has no impact on Build, the company’s other developer event. That’s hardly surprising. It would have been odd to see Microsoft lower its load of developer outreach at a time when it is scrambling to grow developer mindshare in certain product categories, and preserve where it already retains buy-in.

IMAGE BY FLICKR USER ROBERT SCOBLE UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN MODIFIED)