Microsoft has announced it will hold one conference for IT professionals in May 2015 that will combine the content in the company's previous TechEd, SharePoint, Project, Lync and Exchange events.
The announcement didn't offer much in the way of details, other than the conference will be held May 4-8 in Chicago. More information about the conference will be revealed sometime in September, according to the company. Hopefully that will include the event's actual name.
Microsoft did offer a reason for this decision to consolidate its IT conferences, stating:
As we took stock of the past conferences and looked forward to the next year of conferences, we decided we can do better – better for our technical communities, better for our business customers, better for our partners, and better for Microsoft. Part of this is a recognition that as our industry continues to evolve, so must our approach to creating valuable experiences for all of you. Part of this recognition is feedback from attendees across the past conferences asking for more content and product team engagement across Microsoft versus just within one product area. And, part of this is a recognition that Microsoft's own cloud first, mobile first strategy must carry through to our conferences for all of us to be successful together.
Microsoft has not offered an update on if they will continue to hold their BUILD Windows development conference as a separate event in 2015.
Today's reveal comes just a few days after Microsoft announced plans to restructure the company, which will include laying off a total of 18,000 workers in the next year. What do you think of the decision to consolidate all of Microsoft's IT conferences under one roof in 2015?
Update Microsoft Corporate VP Steve Guggenheimer has posted up a note on his Visual Studio blog that clarifies a few things about this new event:
To be clear, TechEd lives on. This event will be a part of TechEd, co locating with that event to ensure the world of IT gets optimal access to all of the resources in one place.
