Powers Unfiltered

Thank you, Margo Day!

Margo is moving on, from VP of US Partners to Western Region VP of Sales.  She’ll be missed by the US Partner community, but as a Western Region partner, we’ll continue to work with her. 

Last night, she (and the Microsoft US Partner team) threw an awesome party.  I hope this tradition of good parties continues after Margo moves on; she understands that this stuff matters.  This is not a night to skimp or hold back; for a year, Microsoft and its partners work together.  For a night, we play together.  Period.  As we arrived at the venue (at the Roxy here in Boston, a converted theatre), a hundred of Microsoft’s marketing / partner staff lined up in two rows to form a path along the sidewalk and cheered and high-fived each of us as we ran through to to the club entrance.  This is such a positive signal to partners, and so much fun, that we thought about sneaking out the back and doing it again.

Now, if I say “the band was the Gogos, and they were great,” there’s a good chance you  will snicker.  But “great” does not begin to convey the level of energy and FUN in the room last night.  Dan Ciruli is not the only one with a long-running crush on Belinda Carlisle. 

Corporate gigs must be a special kind of hell for rock acts.  (On the other hand, I think it’s a lucrative hell.)  I’ve seen rock bands try to excite crowds of IT geeks at 8:30 in the morning (nearly impossible), or in outdoor venues better suited for a game of ultimate frisbee (where crowds wander away), or where they were competing with multiple stations of video games (good luck).  But the Gogos came out and rocked hard, and the crowd got into it quickly and stayed into it.

Add decent food and free beer, and the party was on.  So — thanks, Margo!