SYS-CON Media West Coast Bureau Chief Roger Strukhoff writes: As word comes that Microsoft “Longhorn” has been officially christened Microsoft Windows Vista, a major sales meeting is being held by Microsoft in Atlanta.

SYS-CON.TV's Roger Strukhoff reporting live
from Georgia World Congress Center

Longhorn, or Vista as it is now known, is scheduled for release in 2006. No specific details of the release date have emerged from the Atlanta meeting. Furthermore, there was no mention of the word “Vista” in the event collateral available at registration, and no direct connection drawn in the collateral between Vista and the aims of the MGB conference.

But it is clear from this event that Microsoft has started gearing up its effort to deploy and market its latest OS strategy in the near future. Local hotel executives told us that “Microsoft has taken over Atlanta” for this meeting, and a squadron of buses was shuttling event attendees to a major party that preceded the event’s opening.

SYS-CON has learned many other significant details concerning the meeting.

Stay tuned for the full coverage of MGB 2005 on SYS-CON.TV

Called MGB 2005, with the tagline “Going Beyond,” the meeting features several major tracks, being presented to Microsoft managers and partners from throughout the world.

The name “Microsoft” is not in evidence on any of the event’s signage or collateral relating to the meeting, clearly indicating the company’s concern for secrecy regarding the event’s proceedings. There were signs indicating an “MGB Dry Run” at one of the local hotels, and a satellite broadcasting truck stationed outside the Georgia World Congress Center.

According to event schedules, there are tracks about Developer and Platform Evangelism; Small, Midmarket Solutions and Partners (SMS7P); the Worldwide Public Sector; and Mobile and Embedded Devices (MED).

The Developer and Platform Evangelism features an Enterprise Keynote entitled, “One Microsoft in the Enterprise,” featuring Eric Rudder, Rick Devenuti, Gerri Elliott, Sanjay Parthasarathy, Simon Witts, and Maria Martinez.

The SMS&P features a keynote entitled, “Sustained Double Digit Growth,” presented by Orlando Ayala. So-called subtrack keynotes are being presented by Mark Lee and Steven Guggenheimer, Kurt Kolb, John Lauer and Orlando Ayala, and Kevin Wueste and Richard Flynn.

The Worldwide Public Sector keynote is being presented by several people as well, as is an Enterprise Shared Keynote in this track. The MED track features an overview by John Traynor, David Camp, and Jove Levy.

The overall agenda is extensive, and features subtrack and breakout sessions over a two-day period. Some other highlights include “The Office 12 Opportunity,” presented by Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of the Information Worker Product Management Group; “Addressing the Unlicensed PC Challenge,” presented by a number of executives; and “Going Beyond the Competition: Accelerating Business Solutions Opportunity Through Marketing Excellence,” presented by Orlando Ayala, Tami Reller, and Craig McCollum.