WPC Connect and the long road to Microsoft 2.0

I've registered for WPC next month in Denver and finally responded to the email prompts to get myself profiled on WPC Connect. This is much, much better than RIO (the networking tool offer up at past events). Now if people would only use it.

If you have attended past Microsfot events and are anything like me, you might have just skipped the use of RIO and just gone for a different approach..cell phones.

Me: Sorry I'm running late. Man did that Q&A drag on far longer than it should have. Sure wish they'd actually answer the questions. Is this time still good for you?

You: Yep. Where are you now?

Me: I'm near the entrance to the expo hall.

You: Ok, I'm heading that way now.

Me: I'm wearing a shirt with a big Google logo on it and I have on an Oracle hat (you know, just to draw attention).

You: Ok. Just walking into the Expo, don't see you yet

Me: Right in front of the SAP booth.

You: Um...

Me: I'm the one jumping up and down and waving

You: There you are.

Then we always exchange another line or two over our phones, even though we're looking right at each other and will be standing face to face in about 5 second. Why do we do that?

Anyway, this year we have something new, WPC Connect, and it's very cool. It's not just a scheduling tool. It's actually a social networking tool, with blogs, chat rooms, RSS and email alerts, etc. And based on the questions I answered when I registered I'd guess the company providing it has its sights on providing a Microsoft partner collaboration tool on an ongoing basis, not just around this event. Yes, it's missing some things, but is a huge step forward from the way we used to do this (and it's got a better name, too).

I've found the groups that users have created for discussion around the individual Dynamics products, the country specific groups, and also those oriented around specific topics, like Saas or Duet. It's all good. But for a conference with thousands of attendees (isn't it something like 7,000?) that is less than a month away, why have so few people joined the groups. Why do the groups have only a few posts? And how come the majority of those posts are marketing messages (discussion board spam), not on topics important to the attendees?

Makes me wonder....what do Steve and Hugh think of all this?