Registrations open Tuesday for Microsoft WPC in Toronto

Toronto SkylineMicrosoft is throwing open the doors for its summertime super-conference in Toronto a little early.

In a blog post, Karl Noakes, general manager of worldwide partner strategy and programs at Microsoft, announced registration for July’s Worldwide Partner Conference will go live today (Feb. 28) at 1:00 pm Eastern, 10:00 am Pacific.

That’s four weeks earlier than last year’s registration opening, Noakes notes.

“I’m personally excited by the plans in place for WPC 2012 as well as the setting, the cosmopolitan city of Toronto,” Noakes writes. “The WPC Business Owner team has been laboring for months to make this the most exceptional WPC yet.”

Jon me after the jump for some more thoughts on WPC in Toronto, as well as a bit of a trip down memory lane to the issues the channel was facing when last Microsoft brought its partner community to Toronto.

I’ve previously written about how the 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto was indirectly responsible for creating the event now today known as WPC.

And I chatted on the ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast with Microsoft Canada president Eric Gales about the Canadian organization’s plans to make this year’s biggest and best WPC in history.

And in the near future, you can bet I’ll be checking in with the Microsoft Canada team on how those preparations are coming.

But the anticipation of WPC coming back to Toronto has me thinking about just what was on the agenda last time WPC was in town. I may not have been writing for ChannelBuzz.ca back then, but thanks to the long memory of the Internet, I do remember what I was writing about:

All in all, it was a pretty eventful Worldwide Partner Conference.

What will Microsoft have in store to make WPC 2012 even more eventful? Well, of course the company’s not going to tip its hand too far at this point, but with summer timing of WPC means we’ll probably hear the drum banged pretty strong for the expected fall launch of Windows 8.

This will be Microsoft’s last chance before the big launch to get together with a few thousand of its best allies, so chances are, Redmond will have a lot planned for its stay in Toronto.

And of course, we’ll be there to bring you all the news, both as it happens and after the fact.

I’m looking forward to it.

Robert Dutt

Robert Dutt is the founder and head blogger at ChannelBuzz.ca. He has been covering the Canadian solution provider channel community for a variety of publications and Web sites since 1997.