Microsoft annual SAS summit kicked off with a party

Global - Microsoft this week hosted the 8^th annual Strategic Account Summit (SAS) in Seattle, an event which explored how online advertising will evolve as the digital landscape continues to transform the way advertisers reach their core audience.

Opening the event the evening before - 7^th May - the digital giant hosted over 1,000 leaders from advertising, publishing, media and technology fields at a Welcome Reception at downtown Seattle's Benoraya Hall.

The numbers that turned up this year were the biggest the event has seen - when it first started, it only involved about 20 senior industry-types and was held at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters a half hour from the city.

This year's summit was themed ‘Inspire', which according to Microsoft "reflects its commitment to transforming how the internet connects people to information, entertainment and each other, inspiring them to better understand their world and discover opportunities through technology".

Company chairman Bill Gates delivered the first presentation of the conference, which was one of his last few public speaking engagements as chairman. It was reported on 15 June last year that Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as of July 2008. After that time, he will continue to serve as Microsoft's chairman and an advisor on key development projects.

The one and a half day event also saw presentations from other industry luminaries such as Yahoo's chairman and CEO Terry Semel, GM North America's VP of marketing and advertising Mike Jackson, Product RED's CEO Bobby Shriver and MSN's corporate VP and chief media officer Joanne Bradford - who was also the host for the summit.

Reports on the highlights of the individual sessions at the event will follow this.