The MVP Summit 2009 is over, yet the message still echoes in my ears … NDA!! ;-) The key word if you followed the summit by using Twitter search at #mvp09 was NDA and none of the MVPs violated it. Microsoft shared their technology and future vision of their products with the MVPs and took feedback on those. Four days pack of knowledge and technology. Disneyland for people like me.
I met old and new friends at the summit and twitter without any doubt was the big tool used by all to socialize and discover. To completely enjoy any conference I highly recommend to use twitter and learn how hash codes work. The best way to ensure you don’t miss a thing.
There was not violation of the NDA
Mary-Jo Foley wrote on her blog:
Microsoft officials are really trying to crack down on MVPs who are flouting their NDAs.
I’m happy to announce that as far as I know, no MVP violated their signed NDA with Microsoft, not that I was expecting any violation, at least not on Twitter or on the blogs. MVPs are professional people that will not put in jeopardy their close relationship with Microsoft.
Also I would like to thank Mary-Jo for the great link she provided me about when back in 1999, Microsoft almost pulling the plug on the MVP program. Very interesting how long the program has been into place.
Twitter was there too.
The hash code for the MVP summit #mvp09 became number one in Twitter until #nascar took over. People prefer to tweet about a car only going left than a technology summit ;-)
Something that I thought was pretty neat, was how many tweets got collected, in memory of an MVP that died recently, Frank McCallister. Steve Ballmer wrote a long message on the book that will go to Frank’s family. I didn’t know the guy, yet I was a friend of Frank.
Steve Ballmer was as good as always.
Steve Ballmer was again this year a presenter on the keynotes, great presentation with so much energy, if I only had 50% of his energy on my presentations. Amazed that he brings it every single time.
In my modest opinion many of the questions from the MVPs to Steve Ballmer were a little poor, for a better word. In front of us was the opportunity to ask the CEO of Microsoft anything and I believe the questions were just a little embarrassing. One MVP went as far as asking him to put a Windows Home Server sticker on his bold head? Of course he kindly agreed. Not all the questions to him were as ridiculous yet for the first time I was a little disappointed on some people in the MVP program.
There were lots of highlights, for instance the Scott Guthrie’s presentation on Silverlight and the Pattern and Practices team presentation. Thanks so much for that book. Looking forward to read it.
Many funny moments of course we had, the first day, somebody was messing about with the close caption system that produced great laughs at the presentation.
What about the food?
Of course when talking about the MVP Summit, we always need to comment about the food, kind of a tradition. Another highlight was the lack of Salmon on the diet, many finger food dinners were serve with plenty beer. This year dinners were more dynamic, no longer a sit down dinner in a restaurant with table cloths. Finger food and beer for you to interact with product teams. I found myself talking to the PMs of the CLR and getting into the old argument of the IL supporting method signature by the return value, yet is not on C# nor VB.NET. Who hasn’t heard my rant by now? I profusely would like to apologies to the CLR team for patently listening.
Party with Palermo.
My favorite party was the one organized by Jeffrey Palermo, an MVP that convinces a few companies to sponsor those kind of parties for MVPs. Is normally a nice small group of MVPs that meet in some big bar and enjoy a few free drinks and finger food while talking geek. If you are going to the PDC or MIX, I would recommend for you to go, its free for you and you’ll meet very interesting people.
Hard times for the big software company as well.
There were some changes this year to save money, cannot blame them with this economy, yet the loudest feedback from many MVPs were the new policy of two people per hotel room. Having a room mate makes the experience a little more difficult, as I personally prefer to work in the evening to catch up with all the work from my employer. I really hope that policy changes in the future years when the economy improves.
Where was the ASP.NET MVC?
At every MVP Summit I find that all the sessions I like are schedule at the same time, this time was no exception as I found Phil Haack presentation at the same time as another I wanted to see. So I completely missed the new features in the MVC project. Phil’s presentations are without any doubt my favorites, he is a developer that likes to show code instead of power point presentations. Those are the presentations I personally like.
Microsoft Going Green
Something new in the campus that catch my attention immediately were the new cups, plates, forks, spoons and knifes found all around the campus. All those disposable items are completely biodegradable disposables and they will dissolved after use reducing the Microsoft garbage to almost half the size. That’s something that all companies should adopt to reduce their carbon footprint. Big companies as Microsoft can really make a big difference in the environment by a little change like that. In another words, drink your coffee faster before the cup dissolves and if you forget your plate overnight at your desk, the next morning will be gone ;-)
If you want to make a difference is time to talk to your respective companies to start buying those instead of the paper cups for the coffee machine or the plastic forks.
Where to go from here?
Now that is all over, will take me some time to process all the information and I already have a list of items and technologies I would like to explore further. I found myself, like the previous year, finding very difficult to keep myself grounded on the market with all this opportunities to play with new APIs after the summit. For me a new API is a new Xmas present, there is nothing that I enjoy more than learning new technologies, maybe that’s why I can never be an expert in any of those. I would try to stay focus to the current technology instead of downloading all the new bits available. Like last year, I may fail again in that commitment.
I don’t want to finish this post without thanking my MVP Lead Suzanna Moran for her hard work coordinating and taking care of everybody’s need. She spends so much time making sure MVPs are inform and connected with Microsoft, she is the bridge and the glue that makes the program so special, she normally goes beyond her duty to make all that possible, never meet anybody so dedicated to the program. Thanks Suzanna for the coffee as well.
Cheers
Al Follow me in twitter | bookmark me | Subscribe to my feed
Microsoft ASP.NET Most Valuable Professional.
Related post and pictures.
http://alpascual.com/blog/al/archive/2009/03/02/at-the-microsoft-mvp-summit-2009.aspx
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2009/03/01/it%E2%80%99s-the-microsoft-mvp-summit-2009/
http://geekswithblogs.net/sdorman/archive/2009/03/01/mvp-summit-2009-twitters.aspx
http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/03/03/sqlauthority-news-mvp-summit-2009-day-2-most-contributing-mvp-of-year/
http://www.insidethecircle.net/2009/03/mvp-global-summit-2009-oh-and-one-more.html