So the Lync Conference 2014 is over. And man did I have a blast attending :) The conference was held in Las Vegas and hosted at the Aria hotel and Casino. The venue suited the conference well where the expo area and breakout sessions where not far from each other. Here is some comments on my experience, it is really a small part of the entire conference and the expo floor was huge. These are my highlights

The Keynote

• Watch the keynote here: http://www.lyncconf.com/
• My main takeaway from the keynote is
  • Updates happens faster now and a lot of new features are released in Cumulative Updates
  • The product evolves more than having big revolutions like what you had between OCS and Lync
  • Lync for Enterprise Voice is now mainstream and Gurdeep stated its the #1 choice for voice deployments
  • There where no big news regarding future features, those that made an impression where
    • P2P Video with Skype, coming summer 2014
      • Will be available of existing Skype integrations, no need for a version next server
    • Lync Mobile for Android Tablets
      • Will be tested on a subset of tablets and made available for all tablets on Google Play
    • Third party video endpoints will be able to join Lync meetings
      • This will be possible due to a new role in Lync version next
      • Jamie disclosed on The UC Architect live recording we did that it will be like a mediation role
        • Can be collocated on FE or installed on a separate server
      • The capability is video, application sharing from Lync is not in the roadmap
      • I am looking forward to play with this role and I am excited to see how third parties like Pexip and Acano can work with this role and add their existing features like application sharing into a Lync meeting
    • jLync, web based Lync API to create full featured Lync clients for websites
      • Lots of customers are going to look into this
      • Will require the same plugin as the Lync Web App
      •  jLync Proper Name Should Be Universal Communication Javascript API or UCJA
  • Microsoft wants to take UC to the next level and renames it to Universal Communication where the phone knows who you are going to call next based on the people you have recently lynced, looking forward to how that will manifest in future iterations of UC

The UC Architects Live Recording

• We did a live recording of the UC Architects Podcast where Jamie Stark and Lauren Husum from Microsoft attended
• Great dialogue and a good take on the conference
• Go check it out at http://www.theucarchitects.com/1335

My Level 400 session on Lync Phone Number Management in Lync Server 2013

• I had a great time talking phone number management in Lync
• I took part in launching lyncnumbers.net to collect phone number management tips and scripts in preparation for the talk
• Got some great feedback from my talk and it is available to attendees for download today
• All sessions will be available to the public around may
  • MVP Tom Arbuthnot has created a script to download all sessions
• I really recommend watching all the level 400 sessions, the product has been around for over a year and it shows in the depth of these highly technical sessions
• Below is some pictures from my experience of the conference
• Thanks to all who attended my talk!

Cool Pictures