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DMC recently hosted a special IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) event at our Chicago office where we hosted approximately 40 Microsoft Partners. The keynote was presented by Microsoft Windows 10 executives from Redmond, including Nic Fillingham (Worldwide Windows Team – Sr. Partner Marketing Manager), Jenn Pettit (US SMB Windows Team - Sr. Audience Marketing Manager) and Annie Jonas (US Windows Team - Product Marketing Manager). We heard a great update on the progress of Windows 10 (over 110 million computers are running it), learned about new devices running Windows 10, and enjoyed some Partner-to-Partner networking. DMC is a proud member of IAMCP, which recently featured an interview with DMC on the value of developing relationships with IAMCP.

John Nicolau, President of the Chicago IAMCP chapter and Vice President of ZLan Partners, kicked off the event at 5pm with a general welcome, introduction, and announcements. Presentations from members of the Windows Team then covered Windows 10 from top to bottom with a focus on what its release means for Microsoft Partners and the innovative new features the operating system has to offer, including OS upgrades and hardware refreshes to new devices and improvements to security, manageability, and productivity. The presentations were followed by a Q&A session and then networking on the DMC roof deck with food, drinks, and plenty of socializing.

It was interesting for us to hear directly from the Windows 10 team about their vision while developing all of the new features. Some of the new features that have impressed me include:

• The ease of in-place upgrades to Windows 10
• The new Microsoft Edge browser, which is fast and supports web page annotations
• Faster boot times
• Biometric authentication (a.k.a. Windows Hello)
• Virtual desktops for quick access to groups of applications you commonly work with
• Snap Assist, which makes it super easy to position applications side-by-side
• The much-touted return of the Start menu
• Cortana, the personal digital assistant

To me, the highlight of the event was networking with other Microsoft Partners. We had quite a diverse group with many different areas and levels of expertise in the room.

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