Good morning from Las Vegas! Keynote host Mark Jeffries is now on stage kicking off the morning with some Las Vegas advice (don’t walk… it’s farther than you think) and some networking/communications advice.

Surprise first speaker — Microsoft worldwide chanenl chief Jon Roskill takes the stage.

“You all probably know a little bit about Microoft already,” Roskill says. Apparently two thirds of HP partners are already Microsoft partners. I would have guessed that figure to be more like 90 per cent.

“An incredible opportunity for all of you,” with Windows 7, Roskill says. “It’s been the most successful version of Windows we’ve ever put out there.” But only about 25 per cent of the install base is already on Win7. Roskill urges partners to continue to drive the upgrade process as WinXP approaches end of life 16 months from now.

“And by the way….” Windows 8 customer preview launches on the 29th. (Leap year day. If they miss their window they’ll have to wait four years to do it again.)

Roskill talking through the Microsoft cloud strategy. Unlike other players, “we’re focusing on symmetry” — what’s running on premise will be the same as what runs in the cloud.

That lets partners focus on choice, Roskill says. Offering is the same for customer on-site, public cloud or private cloud.

“When we talk about cloud solutions, we tend to think about thins that are net new .. the majority of them in the consumer space.” Roskill expects to see using the cloud as an extension. Move just a piece of the whole solution to the cloud, or write an extension that moves to the cloud while the rest of the solution stays put.

“We give you the opportunity to choose. You choose where you want to play, and how you help your customers move to the cloud.”

Roskill’s asks of HP partners. 

1.  If you’re not in the Microsoft partner network, join it.
2. Don’t worget the XP and “classic” on-premise opportunity
3. The cloud – use the cloud to position for the future, even if you’re selling on-premise. Work with Microsoft and HP to transform your businesses to the cloud.

And with that, Roskill wraps up his session, and Jeffries is out to introduce HP IPG chief Vyomesh “VJ” Joshi.

Three key trends in IPG — first up, the “digital content” explosion. “A lot of content will be viewed, but a lot will also be printed, and we want to capture that content” whether it’s on PC, tablet, smartphone or eventually smart TV.

“When we think about where we want to go, for the last two years, every printer above $79 is Web-connected and cloud-aware, every printer has an e-mail address.” That ensures printing from any device that you can send an e-mail from.

Second key trend — mobility. More smartphones and tablets than PCs “and we want to make sure that as content moves to those devices, we can capture that.”

It’s hard to transfer data into information — moving from unstructured to structured data. “This is the reason HP did the acqusition of Autonomy. It is central to IPG’s strategy.”

“For the last 27 years, we’ve had a transactional relationship with our customers. We sell the printers, and we sell the supplies. ” But growth is going to come from moving to that transactional relationship to a contractual relationship through partners.

Printer + supplies has been the model “but we want to monetize that install base in a very new way.

Joshi tells partners to move from hardware, to supplies, to services, to solutions. “That’s something we need to work together on.”

Joshi describes “the Moore’s Law” of inkjets — doubling performance every 18 months. “It can really expand into the office,” he says.

“We both make more money if supplies grow. It’s in our interest to make sure we can continue to grow with supplies.”

And now, onto services. Namely, managed print. “We want to make sure we can manage the environment and reduce costs significantly.” Managed print customers have seen costs dropped 25-30 per cent and carbon footprint dropped 30 per cent, Joshi says.

And from there, Joshi says, partners can move onto helping customers manage and streamline all of their paper-based workflow and processes.

“We want to bring all of that to the SMB market,” where managed print is all partner-led.

Having the relationship with the customer “is the first step” to owning the full solution from the printer sales to document management, Josh says.

Joshi invites out Majdi Daher, founder of the Dnali Advanced Integration, an HP managed print partner, to talk about working with HP on managed print.

Three and a half years ago, they went into managed print, working with (since acquired by HP” Printelligent to ramp up without as much investemtn as building managed print services from scratch, Daher says.

“The partner community needs to get on this [managed print] bandwagon quickly,” Daher says, because customers want the basics of print off their table.

“I was a little puzzled when Printelligent was acquired,” Daher admits, but now sees it as a great way for HP to streamline the onboarding process of traditional infrastrcuture-focused channel partners into managed print.

Two hour response time is key to managed print services confidence from customers, Joshi says.

Joshi moving on into content digitizatoon. In the office, a $28 billion process in automating processes like invoicing and filing. “A lot of software companies have been talking about this stuff for 10 years … and it does not work. The only way this will work is to really build out with smart devices. Then you have a middleware layer where you look at information workflow, and then you build a verticalized solution on top of that.”

For the last few years, HP has been shiping LaserJet printers with FutureSmart and OXP, giving partners the opportunity to build those vertical applications.

On average, businsses move from paper to digital at least 11 times. “We have to streamline that,” Joshi says.

Now moving on into Autonomy and its ability to capture unsturcutred data. Between the various offerings, HP will launch “Smart Doc for SMB” solutions in fall 2012.

“We will help you to digitize is all, make it all searchable, structured data, and we will put it all on the HP cloud. That value proposition is going to be critical to driving solutions to small and medium business.”

By this fall, HP will also debut smart solution suite for cloud-based production printing.

And with that, VJ wraps up his presentation. Keynote host Mark Jeffires out to introduce HP PSG chief Todd Bradley, who it seems is going to introduce some new products, juding by veiled boxes on stage.

Bradley starts by thanking partners for sticking with HP and growing with HP in “what has been a very, very challenging year.”

“It’s fair to say that collectively, you are all one of the major reasons that we are number one and that we continue to win in the marketplace.” Partners are also a major reason PSG is still part of HP.

Being number one in share is simply a factor is having great partners, great products and a message that resonates with customers, Bradley says. “We continue to focus on how we arm you with the best products in the world, the best PCs and workstations in the world.”

PSG’s strategy “Deliver the best experience to more people across the planet,” Bradley says.

PSG will “set trends” rather than following them, Bradley says.

Bradley detailing how PSG is looking to build closer relationships with partners, make them “wiling to frankly pay more” and to attach services to products.

“We’re well in the way to design, and build the products that customers not only want, but desire” in terms of design, with the upcoming launch of the Folio and Spectre thin-and-light notebooks. “But wait until you see what we do with Windows 8, what we do with Windows on ARM.”

“We continue to look at areas beyond or core where we can grow,” Bradley says, for example, multi-seat shared desktops, digital signage and display, and retail solutions.

“But it’s not just about delivering great products, it’s making sure we differentiate with world-class service and support.”

“Great selling opportunities” for partners in HP configuration, implementationa and ohter services, Bradley says.

Talking to taking PSG products to more people worldwide, working with partners to partner with new solution providers in high-growth emerging markets.

Bradley talks about the Folio as the start of a campaign of “making things matter,” highlighting key differentiators for customers — in the case of the Folio, a TV ad mocking users of other notebooks for their short battery life.

“The focus is how do we regain that mindshare we had with customers, and how to we use that to grow results,” Bradley says.

“As exciting as the PC world is, our workstations have become phenomenal,” Bradley says, showing off the Z1 workstation, a 27-inch all-in-one workstation. “It’s as revolutionary a product as we’ve ever seen from our workstation group, and you’ll never look at workstations the same after today.”

Bradley invites HP workstations chief Jim Zafarana on stage, up to introduce said product, which apparently SHOULDN’T have been shown on the last slide. Oops.

Zafarana offers partners thanks for driving the workstation business and showing off the current flagship, the Z800.

And now, the debut of the Z1, as schedulded. Dubbed by HP as “the power without the tower.”

Zafarana and team showing off getting inside the Z1 — much like the rest of the workstation lineup, it’s a tool-free chassis. But really going in-depth on product feeds and speeds and technical detail for an audience of partner executives, I think.

And now they hand it over to Bradley. “I know that for some of you, Jeff and Jim just kind of geeked out. But that’s what we want them to do, that’s what we encourage them to do to produce great products that just kick ass.”

Bradley says HP will conitnue “momentum of great products and great services” throughout the year, and with that, sigs off for the day.

I believe that brings the keynote session to a close, and with that, this liveblog. Expect to see us back here with another liveblog for this afternoon’s Americas general session.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll catch you back here later!