What happens when hundreds of Microsoft enthusiasts fly into town for several days of confidential presentations and meetings? Last year, thanks to Twitter, the company's MVP Global Summit was a field day for reporters and bloggers seeking inside information and clues about the company and its products.

Well, the 2010 summit started today, and the chances of a repeat are looking slim. The company is going out of its way to remind the approximately 1,300 Most Valuable Professionals in attendance about the customary non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that they sign as part of the program. Signs outside summit sessions display the Twitter logo with a red "x" across it, according to this recent post on the MVP Summit blog, which reiterated, in detail, the meaning of the NDAs.

And just in case attendees still don't get the message, Microsoft employees will be wearing blue stickers with the friendly reminder, "Please remember your NDA," according to the post.

"With all the deep dive technical sessions and opportunities to engage with Microsoft product groups and executives, a lot of highly sensitive and confidential information is shared at the MVP Global Summit," the post said. "If that information gets out, it can be damaging to Microsoft and the MVP community."

The MVP Summit has been going on for years, of course, but social media have made it difficult to keep a lid on things in general, and particularly when they're shared with hundreds of people.

This year's summit is only now just gearing up, with the first keynote getting under way this afternoon. But so far, at least, attendees appear to be paying attention to the NDAs, with lots of tweets but no obvious spoilers yet in the #mvp10 and #mvp2010 Twitter streams.

Microsoft gives high praise to its MVPs, early adopters and technical experts who participate in its forums, help its customers and give critical feedback that helps shape its products. As a group, they're an enthusiastic bunch -- which helps explain their eagerness to tweet all that juicy information. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once called the MVPs his favorite group of people to address. The MVP designation is a coveted award for many of them, and the annual pilgrimage to Redmond is often a highlight of their year.

The company says the MVPs this year will take part in about 700 technical sessions, and hear from executives including Microsoft Research executive Dan Reed, Online Services R&D chief Satya Nadella, and Business Division President Stephen Elop.

Microsoft has allowed press to sit in on selected MVP Summit sessions in some past years, but our request was politely declined this time. Guess we'll just have to keep a close eye on that Twitter stream.