Looking back on 2017

This post was originally published here

Another year has gone by, and looking back, it has been an amazing year for me. The year started with becoming a MVP, for which I am thankful and honored. I want to once again thank everyone who has helped me reaching this astounding accomplishment, with special thanks going out to my buddy Steef-Jan, who has been like a mentor to me.

Looking back on 2017, it was also a year of lots of traveling, including trips either for speaking or for attending conferences. Most of these trips have been together with some great friends, like Steef-Jan, Tomasso, Sandro, Nino and many more. Last year I have visited Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Gothenborg, Stockholm, Ghent, Lisbon, London, Oslo, Mechelen, Seattle, Bellevue and Dutch Harbor.

I love to speak, and in 2017 I got the chance to speak at a lot of different locations and events. This includes speaking at conferences, user groups and webcasts, which allowed me to spread knowledge, meet old friends, make new friends, and interact with people from all around the world. With the rise of Azure, I have spoken on various subjects around its great technologies and services, for example IoT, Logic Apps, Event Grid, Bot Framework and many more.

Last year we did the first Global Integration Bootcamp, for which I am one of the founders and board members. With a total of 12 countries, 16 locations, 55 speakers and over 650 attendees, it was a great success!

Over the past year I have once again written several blog posts, both on my own blog as well as a guest writer for BizTalk360. I love sharing this way, and have gotten a lot of great feedback from all of you, so you can certainly expect more to come.

Not only have I been blogging, but I also wrote another ebook together with Steef-Jan, Tomasso and Rob, covering modern integration, as an addition to the Global Integration Bootcamp.

Of course, becoming a MVP was the most amazing reward I have gotten last year, but I am also very honored to have received the BizTalk360 Product Specialist award for the third time in a row.

I also have gotten my TOGAF certification, continuing my path into architecture.

As I said, 2017 has been a great year, having spent time with old friends, made many new friends, traveled all over the world, and accomplishing many personal goals. For 2018, I intend to continue doing this, and keep doing all these things I enjoy most. The year 2018 is already starting great, with ny first trip will be coming up in two weeks, as I honored to be speaking in Helsinki at IglooConf.

We are also working hard on another Global Integration Bootcamp, so make sure to attend as well! I am in the works of planning more sessions and trips at the moment as well, so if you ever see me around, come and say hello. You are the ones who give me the motivation and opportunities to do everything I get to do, thank you!