MICROSOFT TEAMS HOUR: MULTI-PARTNER WEBINAR SERIES FOR FRONTLINE WORKERS
As Covid-19 accelerated digital transformation across industrial sectors, Microsoft faced a specific problem: their frontline worker audience needed guidance on which Teams-enabled devices were right for their workforce, but Microsoft didn’t have the partner ecosystem content or format to address this at scale. For RealWear, it was an opportunity to position the HMT-1 device within Microsoft’s device ecosystem narrative and reach a senior decision-maker audience through Microsoft’s credibility and distribution.
The question was whether Microsoft would back the idea, and whether competing hardware partners would participate in a format that put multiple devices in the same session.
Program concept and pitch development · Multi-partner recruitment and alignment · Speaker briefing and coordination · Asset development · On-demand content production · Vertical audience adaptation
Initiating the Program
I identified the opportunity and pitched the webinar series concept directly to Microsoft, proposing a panel-style format that would showcase the full ecosystem of complimentary Teams-certified frontline devices including RealWear, Samsung and BlueParrott, rather than a single-partner showcase. The pitch was grounded in a specific insight: Microsoft's own best practice for this kind of content was multi-partner and device-agnostic, which made the format more credible to a technical and business decision-maker audience than a single-vendor webinar would be.
Microsoft backed the concept. I then approached Samsung and BlueParrott to participate, negotiating their involvement and aligning all three external partners on shared objectives, messaging and format before a single asset was built.
Building the Program From Scratch
With no dedicated production resource and no existing template for this format, I created all assets independently: landing pages, registration forms, speaker briefing materials, promotional copy, email campaigns and the session framework itself. The panel-style interview format required a structured run-of-show that gave each partner meaningful airtime while keeping the narrative coherent and the audience engaged across five speakers from four organizations.
The Series
The program ran across three editions targeting C-suite, Business Decision Makers, Technical Decision Makers and IT Pros across automotive, utilities and a horizontal business track.
The sessions were recorded and gated, creating on-demand lead generation assets that extended the program's reach beyond the live audience.
What the Program Delivered
A repeatable, scalable webinar format that positioned RealWear within Microsoft's official device ecosystem narrative, reaching a senior decision-maker audience that would have been inaccessible through RealWear's owned channels alone. The series contributed to the broader Microsoft-RealWear partnership momentum that tripled RealWear's sales over the following two years.
The format also set a replicable template for subsequent industry-specific editions, with the utilities session proving the model could be adapted to vertical audiences without rebuilding from scratch.
Laura Farbo 