Industry Solutions University For You (ISU4U)

Dear community,

The "Industry Solutions University For You" (ISU4U) is an industry readiness program that provides targeted industry training for Microsoft's sales people. I started the MACH program around a year ago working as an Inside Sales for Government customers. Therefore, I was given the opportunity to attend the 2-day ISU4U conference for Public Sector in November.

The event was held in Amsterdam and I participated together with a colleague from my team. As the program of the first day did not start before 9.30am, we decided to catch an early flight and thus arrived at Amsterdam around 9.00am. Both, our hotel and the event location were situated only a stone's throw away from the airport. Unlike me, my team colleague knew the airport and its surroundings like the back of her hand. For this reason we had more than enough time to deposit our luggage at the hotel and get a first glimpse of our hotel rooms before registering ourselves at the event location. There was even enough time to grab a coffee before the first session started ;)

Although it was not my first international training event with Microsoft, I was once more overwhelmed by the size of our company. There were about 200 sales people from various Western Europe subsidiaries as well as partner organizations! During the first day we learnt a lot about Microsoft’s strategic initiatives concerning Public Sector and how our solutions add value to our customers. At the same time, there were numerous opportunities to become acquainted with the other participants and exchange experiences from our daily work. In the evening, I joined a group of people for dinner at the city. In fact, the group became so large that somebody hired a bus to get us there :)

The second day was dedicated to theme-specific workshops every participant could choose according to his needs. As Public Sector customers are very heterogeneous, different streams covering Government, Public Safety & National Security, Health, and Education were offered. It was fascinating to hear so much about the latest activities and projects that were taking place all over Western Europe. Therefore, by the time I boarded the plane back home I had not only become friends with a lot of like-minded people, but also gathered many new ideas to share with my team!