Microsoft Ignite moves to September 26-30 in Atlanta

Early word this morning was that Microsoft was going to make an announcement tomorrow about what’s going on with ignite, but the news slipped out this morning. Ignite 2016 will now take place September 26-30 in Atlanta. That’s a shift from May in Chicago.

I didn’t see it myself, but multiple people reported on Twitter and Facebook that the updated info was available briefly on the Ignite website this morning. By the time I checked, it was back to Chicago, but a link to a staging website on Azure was being shared. As the news spread, Microsoft finally went live with the info. The Ignite site now shows the new info and offers a pre-registration link. I’m not sure when they had planned to announce this change, but yesterday’s news from the Chicago Tribune obviously pushed that forward. If you go to the website now, you will see:

If you sign up now, you can reserve one of a limited number of passes for $1,920. No word on the full price. According to the Pre-Registration FAQ, full registration will be available in February and  discounted rates for higher education faculty/staff and students will be available at that time.

I’m sure we’ll hear more from Microsoft about the rationale behind this change, but for now at least we know the when and where. We were last in Atlanta in 2011 for TechEd, so it’ll be interesting to see how they cram all of Ignite into that area.

What do you think of the change? Comment below or let me know on Twitter (@Ladewig).