A Year Ago Already - 2011 MVP Summit in Bellevue/Redmond, WA – Great Face-time with Fellow Speakers/Writers/Bloggers

The raincoast weather a year ago could have been a little better, but I was so very happy with the brain-filling load of sessions we had at Microsoft’s Campus in Redmond, and mostly in a building they call the ‘Mixer’ it made no difference. The first day, I managed to get out for a couple runs around their beautiful Soccer/Footy pitch just West of the Mixer building we are in. It is great to have recreation so close to the great office spaces.

Of course, I’d love to share loads of info, but since this is all under non-disclosure for now (unless you want to watch the Channel 9 videos MacGehee and Berry have posted), I’ll focus on the backlog of regular posts I’ve stashed to the side since taking the two months off posting.

Steve Balmer’s keynote that morning was very inspiring, and he is clearly holding the reigns well of the enormous organisation we know as Microsoft. I had posted on my Facebook account beforehand what questions my friends would like to have answered from him, and he managed to cover almost all of the questions and concerns during his long chat.  He clearly is leading the company in the right direction, from what I can see (even a year later, with Windows 8 release imminent, as well as SQL 2012), and wish him well, although I do not expect to see him handling the stress of such an elevated position past the next five years.


For all the MVPs that I finally met for the first time in person, like Kevin E. Kline, Thomas LaRock, Grant Fitchley, Brent Ozar, Greg Larsen, Shahriar Nikkhah (Nik), Kalen Delaney, Steve Jones, Erland Sommarskog, Gail Shaw, Patrick LeBlanc, Simon Sabin, Meir Dudai, Tim Ford, Bob Duffy and many others briefly, thank you for your time.

It is now a year later, and I have signed an official partnership with Microsoft as a Virtual Technical Consultant, so I really look forward to the challenges ahead.

More photos on facebook.