Microsoft Obsesses Over NDAs At MVP Summit

At the MVP Global Summit 2010, which took place this week in Redmond, Microsoft drilled home the NDA message to partners with unprecedented zeal, going so far as to include an NDA reminder slide -- asking attendees not to blog, tweet, or take photos -- in every slide deck shown at the event.

One conference attendee relates an anecdote that shows how Microsoft sought to keep MVPs from inadvertently leaking confidential information.

"We were about to get some product insight, and the team from Microsoft had taken the NDA slide and made their own version of it, enforcing it by calling it the 'Super Duper Secret NDA,'" said the source, who requested anonymity. "They jokingly, and in very good spirits, threatened to hunt people down personally."

Judging from the soporific official Twitter feed from the conference, MVPs have heeded Microsoft's requests: The vast majority of the tweets cover such scintillating subjects as local area slang, area restaurants, and the weather.

One of the many hard lessons Microsoft learned from Vista was not to overpromise with regard to features and release dates, and this is one reason why NDAs were such a major theme at this year's event, according to one attendee.

From Microsoft's perspective, the MVP Summit is one of the most valuable events on its calendar, as it gives company engineers a chance to get unvarnished feedback on products and services under development. Now in its 17th year, the event brings together MVPs from 96 countries and spans 94 Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once called MVPs his favorite group to address within the Microsoft channel, and MVPs seem to relish the special place they occupy on the software giant's radar.

"This event is really intended for Microsoft developers to get some honest feedback on the stuff they're working on, and we're happy to help," said one attendee.