Behind the scenes from the VIP Microsoft E3 ExpertZone party!

Every year, Microsoft does E3, one of the largest gaming expos in the world. Lately, they have also been throwing a private party at their ginormous Xbox booth.

However, this party is not for the elite or the famous. It is to give thanks to their retail staff. This group is part of Microsoft's ExpertZone. These are the people who train staff at retail locations, employees at Microsoft Stores and more.

Ben Rudolph, who you may be familiar with from the 'Smoked by Windows Phone' challenge, oversees this program. Likewise, our former managing editor, Sam Sabri is now working there as well. You can read Sam's bigger write-up about Microsoft's ExpertZone here when we covered this event last year.

Microsoft flies in nearly 300 ExpertZone people for exclusive access to the new games, try out that HoloLens and Halo experience, enjoy food, and win some prizes for a three-and-half hour shindig.

It is a very cool thing and Windows Central was on-hand to cover it. So sit back and enjoy your tour of the Microsoft E3 2015 booth!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.