Well I’m making my way back from the MVP Summit and we got to spend nearly 2 days
bending the ears of the BizTalk product team – the correct term now is The
Connected Services Division (CSD)
which includes todays technologies of: BizTalk,
WF, WCF, .NET Framework and Orcas
– so all these things are just ‘going’
to work going forward.

Here’s the things that I’m allowed to talk about….

MVP Summit Day 1 – Registration

  • for the previous 4 days I had been skiing up and around Whistler in some fantastic
    snow with my cousin. What an experience!!! First time there.
  • Seattle, cold and raining but it’s fantastic to be here as there’s a buzz in the air.
    A thought did cross my mind of “How are we going to have a conversation at this Summit
    if there are more than 1 MVP in the room?” – if you’ve ever been ‘lucky’ enough to
    have 3 or more MVPs in a room….I’m sure you’d be able to finish all your lunch before
    you could get a word in edgeways.
  • Met up with some great fellow BizTalk MVPs (Alan Smith and Charles Young). Charles
    and I worked together when I was back in the UK and it’s great to hear that he’s stalking
    his 12 yr old daughter boyfriend and the deeply troubled when the words “I love you”
    came out during a phone call he was listening in on. 🙂 – looks like I’ve got all
    that ahead of me 🙂
  • Caught up with MVP Borty and
    the crew and we went to our APAC regional dinner that evening.
  • One of the highlights of dinner was all the Korean MVPs did a Taekwondo demonstration
    (I’m sure it’s on YouTube by now) of breaking boards. There was also some karaoke
    going on in Japanese (I think) – this one guy was great. It was sort of a ‘Red Faces’
    night. We then crashed the Windows Mobile MVP Party at Gamesworks…..get’s fuzzy
    from there

MVP Summit Day 2 – KeyNote + Joint Sessions

  • what an experience! Bill Gates gives a keynote on MS and all things, then opens up
    the keynote to 1 hour of Q&A to all the MVPs.
  • Bill copped a couple of Salvos from MVPs (who I reckon wouldnt be MVPs next year 🙂
    but in true Bill style put his poker face on and smiled and answered the questions.
    Not flustered at all.
  • The group all called him “Bill”, some called him “Mr Gates” and the Japanese MVPs
    called him “Mr. Bill” during all the Q&A.
  • He fielded questions like “What’s your favourite product?”, “What hasnt performed…”.
    Something that sticks out in my mind is when a guy came to the microphone and thanked
    Bill for enabling him to have a career in computers so he could provide for his family
    (I’m thinking where’s the question..). He then says “while cleaning out the garage
    he came across a computer manual that his dad had when he was 8” – the manual as it
    turned out was the very first manual for the pre-cursor to MSDos that Bill’s then
    company had created. You could even get Bill on a support number in there! (I’m thinking
    that’s gotta be worth a fair bit) The MVP then ASKED BILL TO SIGN his book!!!! Bill
    couldnt refuse and $$ just turned into $$$$$ for the book – very funny.

Gotta dash to catch a plane – more soon.