Community Events FAQs ** Updated Oct 3rd, 2018 **

Community Manager

How do I get my event listed in the event directory?

Thank you for your interest, at this time we are not accepting events for submission into the events directory. We are a new team who have taken over the Microsoft Technical Community members and so we are now taking some time to consider how best to support the former members of this space and help them promote the vital grassroots events you organize to help support adoption of Microsoft Products and services. 

 

Some members have taken to posting their events in the public Community Events discussion space and, although not what this discussion space was intended for we have decided to allow that to continue unhindered until we have identified a suitable alternative. 

 

How do I apply for event sponsorship?

We were hoping to be able to communicate more on this at the start of the new year but it's taking a little longer than we intended. We are currently looking at ways to fill the gap while we work out our final offering in this space and we will communicate more on this as soon as possible.

Unfortunately this is not something we are going to be able to offer in this fiscal year, we will be doing a root to branch review of all benefits that were previously offered under the previous Microsoft Technical Communities program in 2019 with a view to making sure that these are still fit for purpose and that we can support them going forward.

 

How do I renew or extend my Office 365 trial?

We will be offering a portal to do this shortly, stay tuned. 

 

The office 365 E3 Trial has come to an end with the former Microsoft Technical Communities, we will not be in a position to support this program in 2018 and we will undertake a review of all benefits provided under the previous program to ensure they are still appripriate and that we can support them in 2019.

 

Stay tuned for updates. 

 

21 Replies

Ok, 20th November is over. Where can we post our community events now???

@Robin Sedlaczek

 

Thank you for calling me out on this - I need to apologize that we have not been able to provide additional clarity yet. We are continuing to work through some last remaining details and I will share an update shortly.

 

In the mean time feel free to share the events in the Community Events discussion board, I see some community members have already been doing so.

Ok, looking forward. Will there be news regarding sponsoring as well?

 

However, sponsoring is working quiet good here in the German community program with your local colleagues. :)

Glad to hear it.

Yes I will have information on sponsorship, O365 E3 Trials and posting events to the community event directory.

The subway deal was great... once upon a time... ;)

So WHEN will the "updated instructions" be available for posting events?

When will we hear back?

I apologize, but we do not have a specific date available for this yet. We're still working out the details.

 

We promise to post here as soon as we have more information.

Hey @Allen, when do you expect to havemore details on the community events and the Office 365 update.

Allen and I work closely together on the community management team and unfortunately we do not yet have a timeline for this yet. We promise to share it here as soon as we do!

How's Life?

 

  What is the status of the Office 365 subscription for user groups?

 

  I received an email at 3am this morning that our subscriptions ends in seven days when they normally end mid year

 

  I sent an email this afternoon to techcoms@microsoft.com and have not heard back yet

First of all, feel free to reach out through email, but the appropriate email to reach us is techcommunity@microsoft.com. If you get a chance, please let us know where you found that other email address so we can correct your source.

We have not been able to continue that particular promotion offered by the previous team that hosted community events.

While we haven’t ruled out restoring the program at some point in the future, we have no immediate news to share at this time. We will update this FAQ as soon as any new information is available.

How's Life?

 

  I have been using techcoms@microsoft.com for quite a while and just found it listed as a contact email in the LAST email i even received regarding MSTC over a year ago on 10/30/2017 titled:
"Announcement: Microsoft Technical Communities (MSTC) is moving!"

 

  Seven days notice is not enough, what are our options for extension? three months, six months?  Email only account?

 

  As my groups do not even have any monies to spend on food there is no way we can pay for Office 365 E3 Subscription that we have had for over five years, use for the email, use for business cards and meeting topics.  The food has been coming out of my pocket and my wife would kill me if I paid for the Office 365 on top of that.

 

  I will forward my email I sent to the techcommunity@microsoft.com email

When will we have information about extending our User Group O365 Subscription?

This was a benefit as part of the Microsoft Technical Communities. The Microsoft Technical Communities is a program that no longer exists (not to be confused with the Microsoft Tech Community which is still thriving). We are doing our best to extend these trials on a one-time basis.

 

Please complete the form here: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=v4j5cvGGr0GRqy180BHbRx5GJT5S0_ZPnFZy2USDTD1UQThC... to apply for an extension.

Excellent. Even a one-year extension will give us time to locate a suitable alternative set of resources. I'm guessing that most User Groups will, most unfortunately, migrate toward Google -which continues to support communities with free tools and resources.

 

It's a bit sad that MS doesn't see the value in continuing to support Local Communities.

We’re exploring options on how we can extend this or offer an alternative in the future, but as of now we can’t say with 100% confidence either way.

@Eric Starker 

 

How's Life?

 

  Is there any update for the Office 365 program for user groups via Tech Community "exploring options on how we can extend this or offer an alternative in the future".

 

  Current subscriptions end in only four months :(