If you haven’t attended Commsverse before, this article will explain the benefits of attending and hopefully convince you that we are an event that is valuable to you.
History
Commsverse was founded in 2019 by 3 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), Mark Vale, Randy Chapman and Martin Boam. Our primary objective was to create a tech conference specifically aimed to appeal to IT professionals with a desire to improve their knowledge and skills around Microsoft Teams.
2020 was supposed to be our inaugural year, but like the rest of the world, we were forced to postpone our plans. Instead, we put on a global virtual event attracting over 2,000 people and pioneered the adoption of Microsoft Teams and the Metaverse as a virtual event platform and medium.
In 2021, when the world reopened for business, we were able to run a hybrid event, again using Microsoft Teams to connect virtual and in-person audiences and speakers together.
In 2022, we successfully grew our in-person event to 500 people and gained over 1,000 subscribers to our Youtube channel where all our content is uploaded for free post event.
Who Is Commsverse For?
If you are like us, where mainstream mega conferences are too focussed on exhibitor sales pipelines that the content is just not appealing, then Commsverse may be for you.
Commsverse is a community sourced conference, but what does this actually mean? Depending on who you speak to, it can mean different things. However, to us, community sourced simply means supported and promoted by technology evangelists and influencers for the benefit of everyone with a like-minded interest in the technology we advocate.
As a result, Commsverse has one of the best technical content schedule in the world. Based on real-world experiences of normal people who want to share their knowledge with you. No sales rhetoric, not all happy path. Just down to earth, honest and practical information aimed to improve your understanding and experience with Microsoft Teams.
Our community speakers are not paid to speak at our events. They do so out of their own free will and expense. Their motivation to share their experiences with you for your benefit is what drives them to travel thousands of miles to our event.
So, if you are an IT Pro, Power User or even an end user of Microsoft Teams, you can get valuable tips and ideas that can make a real impact on your usage of Teams.
What Does Commsverse Offer?
Unlike other conferences, community or corporate that have a wide focus area, Commsverse is specifically targeted to appeal to people with a vested interest in Microsoft Teams. This means that everyone shares the same interests and goals and this really generates much of what makes us special.
Commsverse offers a safe and inclusive environment for like-minded people to come together and share their experiences with Microsoft Teams. This can be through our comprehensive sessions or simply the chance meeting of people within the venue.
We attract the best vendors in the business to exhibit at Commsverse from all over Europe and the USA who are their not solely to sell you their product, but to introduce you to their solution and discuss the challenges you face and maybe offer a solution.
Commsverse is very informal and relaxed. We work very hard to create a friendly atmosphere that feels more like friends coming together at a family celebration than a corporate conference.
We are a half-board conference. This means when you are at our event, all your drinks and food is included in your ticket purchase. All you have to consider on top is your travel and accommodation.
Types of Content at Commsverse
We try to cater for all experience and user levels. We concentrate on quality of session content rather than the quantity of sessions on offer. Our event typically has around 60 sessions in total over the course of two days.
This means that there are no more than 5 sessions being delivered at any one time. Sessions are categorised into content tracks. We try to ensure that there is only ever one session from a particular content track being delivered at a time. This ensures that if you want to follow a single content track from start to finish, you can and limits the chances of you missing a session you really wanted to attend.
In addition to content categorisation, we also weight the sessions to appeal to different experience levels. This is to help you determine if the session is right for you. Our weighting system covers 4 levels.
Level 100 – is a high level, introductory session that has limited technical depth. Instead focusing holistically on the subject on offer to give you a flavour of the technology.
Level 200 – is a light intermediary session that will assume that you have at least some understanding of the underlying technology and seeking to improve your knowledge in the area. It may have some technical content with the use of some common acronyms that you may or may not be familiar with.
Level 300 – is an intermediary session that will assume you are very familiar with the technology area and looking to advance your understanding to a deeper level. Level 300 is usually the entry level for highly technical sessions that will appeal to IT Pros.
Level 400 – is an expert level session where you will be expected to have a proficient understanding of the subject and are seeking very specific clarifications on its subject or element within the subject. You will be proficient in all acronyms and terminology throughout the subject
Why Should I Come To Commsverse?
This is a personal question you need to ask yourself. People attend Commsverse for their own reasons and motivations. We like to think it is because they share a common interest with us all and are coming to help contribute to community sourced knowledge transfer.
Commsverse is run with a not for profit ethos. We cannot say that we are a non-profit organisation because of our legal business status. However, we, the organisers do not take a salary or dividend from the event. We organise Commsverse in our spare time, as a hobby and because we want to create an event that anyone who shares similar interests would want to attend. All proceeds from sponsorship and ticket sales is invested into the event.
It is because of our love for wanting to create a space for people to come and share their experiences without the pressure of corporate marketing that makes Commsverse valuable to people.
We are an apolitical event. This means we do not advocate or promote one movement or ideology over another. We welcome everyone at an equal level and focus on delivering a high value, technical event on Microsoft Teams.
