My Thoughts and Reflections on the MVP Summit
Thursday afternoon my first Microsoft Global MVP Summit officially came to an end, sadly. But that did not mean the experience ended. Even now I am still in Seattle on Saturday, taking a few moments out of my time at the Alt.net conference to document a little about the experience I had at my first MVP Summit. There is not one word I can think of that will adequately describe what I was able to experience, well maybe wow.
I thought I knew what being an MVP meant before I came up here, but I was wrong, in a good way. Before I really thought the MVP program was a program Microsoft offered to reward folks that not only were good at a particular technology, but were also active in the community. This means leading local user groups, maybe public speaking about how to leverage Microsoft Technologies, helping others solve problems through forums, etc. And the program has a lot to do with that, no doubt. But after my first Summit I realize more now that Microsoft hand selects particular experts in a technology because they want truly involved feedback from those that are passionate about what they do.
To me this means that Microsoft realizes they have limitations, despite how big and smart they are. Trust me these folks are very smart and I am glad it rubs off on me at times. But they realize other than maybe the operating systems and office folks they may not really use their applications and platforms in the 'real world'. They rely on MVPs and Regional Directors to provide qualified feedback on what has been released to the market and what they are planning on releasing to the market.
Things I was exposed to are things I cannot really talk about in a public forum, or with others outside of this summit for now. But I will say this, Microsoft knows they cannot make every perfect in each release, but they do make tremendous efforts to solve problems and pains that we all have. Things I saw this week often were solutions to problematic issues many of us have on a daily basis with their products. And yes, I think their will always be that cycle with any software product.
I am so glad I received the Microsoft MVP award this year. Not because it is something to brag about, but because of what that means in the overall process of having direct input on where things are going with things in Microsoft. I think this sort of program should exist with any large company that reaches out to the masses on the scale Microsoft does. Maybe I can become a Full Throttle MVP next year too! I think all companies would be stronger for doing so. Now if we could really get the government to have an MVP program....
But if you know someone who is an MVP and you know their discipline, for me that is ASP.NET, get to know them. We are typically some of the most passionate people you will find on a technology and will generally have some very intelligent discussions about it. We can take the feedback from you and talk directly to the Microsoft product teams. Those are the folks who write the code that you buy. Who knows the issue you bring up may be a much needed feature or a bug fix in the next version of the product.