OSBC 2009 and Microsoft

by Peter Galli on February 27, 2009 12:57pm

Microsoft is once again a Platinum Level sponsor of the annual Open Source Business Conference, which is being held at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

As part of this sponsorship, Robert Youngjohns, the president for Microsoft North America, will also be delivering a keynote address to attendees on Wednesday, March 25 from 09h00 to 09h30.

As the leader for Microsoft's sales, services and marketing efforts in the United States and Canada, Robert is passionate about connecting with customers and partners on various topics, including our Open Source initiatives. A Silicon Valley native, Robert brings more than 30 years experience in sales, marketing and strategic business development.

Prior to joining Microsoft, he served as president and chief executive officer of Callidus Software, Inc., a publicly traded company and leading provider of sales management software based in San Jose, CA. Before that, Robert spent 10 years at Sun Microsystems, where he was last executive vice president of Global Sales, responsible for Sun's worldwide sales organization. He also spent 18 years in various roles at IBM.

In addition, we will also be holding the third annual Open Source ISV Forum, on Monday March 23. This event is also an opportunity for open source ISVs - both large and small - to discover more about how Microsoft is working with their communities.

As this is a Microsoft BizSpark event, several of the seminars will focus on open source startups, and there will be the opportunity to meet a number of BizSpark Network Partners, including venture capitalists, angel investors and incubators. The event is also part of Microsoft NXT, a program that helps open source ISVs extend their products to the Windows environment.