BREAKING NEWS
March 20, 2011 - MMS 2012 back at the Venetian. April 16-20, 2012
MMS 2011 Web site
Chat about MMS 2011Henry Wilson's MMS 2010 Cost Justification Document
What is it?
MMS is the premiere technical event of the year for IT professionals, covering the latest management products from Partners and Microsoft including the System Center family of management products. With next-generation products such as System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 shipping this year, MMS is the ideal opportunity to come listen to the technical experts, try out the new products and discuss solutions with leading experts and peers in the IT industry.
MMS has become the staple for Windows Management Administrators everywhere. Each year, Admins involved in managing Microsoft products make the journey to MMS and take back valuable information from the sessions and also from the labs. It has been said many times that 1 week at MMS is worth more (and costs less, I might add) than any training class you can take.
Along with the great information that MMS always provides, it also brings the myITforum.com community together in a real-world setting. Putting faces with the names and email addresses you see in the community is a huge plus. It provides the best networking available. And, the memories! Once you attend MMS once, you always want to go again, and again, and again. You will beg management each year for the budget money to attend. In the past, some folks loved it so much, after management turned them down for attendance, they decided to pay for it themselves and take vacation time to attend. That's how important MMS really is!
Each MMS brings great information that you can take back to your company and implement immediately. Each MMS also brings new memories, new friends, and a chance to catch up with old friends.
When is the next MMS?
The Microsoft Management Summit 2012 will take place April 16-20, 2012 | Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be located at the
Venetian.
The History of MMS
- The Computing Edge/Swynk.com conference 1998 was held in Newport Beach, California. Attendance was less than 100 people, but the content was great. Paul Thomsen spoke at the conference (prior to working for Microsoft), as did Stephen Wynkoop and Duncan McAlynn (Larry Duncan at the time). The conference was hosted by Computing Edge (now Altiris) and Swynk.com (now defunct).
- SMS User Conference 99 was held at the Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida. To this day, those that attended still favor this conference over the others. But, the good news was that there were simply too many attendees the following year to hold the conference back in Naples. The conference continued to grow in popularity and attendance every year. The 1999 conference was hosted by Computing Edge -- soon to be Altiris.
- SMS & W2K User Conference 2001 was held at the MGM Grand Hotel. The conference was hosted by Altiris. This conference introduced the very first myITforum.com party, hosted by Swynk.com and Intrinsic (now part of the SMS Alliance).
- MMS 2002 was held at the MGM Grand Hotel during the week of April 29th-May 3rd, 2002. MMS 2002 was the first year that the conference was labeled the Microsoft Management Summit. MMS 2002 was actually labeled as the 5th annual SMS & W2K User Conference. The MMS 2002 web site can still be viewed here on myITforum.com. MMS 2002 was still being managed and maintained by Altiris, even though Microsoft stamped their name on the conference this year. Most folks complained about the horribly long walk from the hotel to the conference center, but it was still probably the best location for MMS so far (well, except for the one in Naples, Florida). MMS 2002 brought about the terms "cones", "thongman", "witchdoctor", "hockeylady" and the phrase "how'd he do that?" among other things. MMS 2002 also introduced the very first myITforum.com awards at the myITforum.com party sponsored by Wise (now Altiris). This was also the first annual "changing of the shirts" between Chuck Young and Paul Thomsen. How important was the party? Rich Bentley, from Wise, counts it as one of his best memories.
- MMS 2003 was located at the Mandalay Bay. The Orchid Lounge became our meeting place. MMS 2003 saw two myITforum.com community folks tie the knot. Michael Schultz and Chuck Young were both married to their better halves. Wise, once again, sponsored the myITforum.com party, which included the second annual myITforum.com awards, and the 2nd annual "changing of the shirts" (once again by Chuck Young and Paul Thomsen).
- MMS 2005 was located at the Mandalay Bay. Mandalay Bay was our first glimpse of the Aureole as we walked the long storefront hallway to the conference center. It was also our first foray into the nightlife known only as the Rum Jungle. MMS 2005 brought about cool phrases like the "Quartermaster". Once again, The Orchid Lounge was our meeting place. This is also the year that the conference speakers stayed in the newly built THEhotel.
- MMS 2006 was the first conference held outside of Las Vegas since Microsoft took it over from Altiris. It was held April 24–28, 2006 at the San Diego Convention Center. The closing party on Thursday was at the SeaWorld Adventure Park.
- MMS 2009 - MMS 2009 took place April 27th-May 1st 2009 at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once again, the conference was a huge success, bringing together community members worldwide.
- MMS 2010 - MMS 2010 took place April 19th-23rd 2010 at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Attendance was huge, yet the number of attendees was severely impacted by a volanco eruption in Europe. Ironically, one of the overshadowing themes of MMS 2010 was "the cloud". Who knew that a REAL cloud would keep folks from crossing over to the US to attend? Despite the folks who couldn't make the conference, it was still memorable. As always, the "running of the bulls" (the rush to the myITforum.com booth on Expo opening night) was incredible. Henry Wilson disappeared one night only to show up in a Vegas emergency room to have his appendix removed. An eventful MMS, this was also the year that McAfee released botched signature files, causing SCCM Admins everywhere to have to help fix Windows XP computers that would not boot.
- MMS 2011 - MMS 2011 took place March 21st-25th 2011 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.
MMS Justification Documents
Do you want to attend MMS? Use these documents to help justify to management that MMS is a requirement for attendance.
- MMS 2005 Summary - From Henry Wilson, this great doc gives an example of how to show management how much value MMS provides.
MMS Downloads
MMS History in Pictures and Video¶
Attendee Notes and Stories¶
From
Wcox:
I just want to say that I' ve been a system engineer for 13 years. I' ve been to TechED since 1998. I got more out of MMS 2005 than in all of the TechEds combined. The quality engineers I met, the sessions I attened and the virtual labs were awesome.