2003 Microsoft MVP Summit Review by Tiffany K. Edmonds

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Microsoft MVP Summit

As a first year Microsoft FrontPage MVP (Most Valued Professional) who has participated with other MVP’s in the FrontPage community over the years and understands some of the frustrations shared by the misperception that being an MVP gives them an inside track to Microsoft; I am thrilled to report about this years exciting “MVP Summit”.

From February 9-12th, Microsoft Corp. invited nearly 900 MVP’s worldwide to participate in a 3 day event packed with executive keynotes, technical sessions, product group meetings, and even some social networking with fellow MVPs. The turn out was exceptional with approx. 685 MVPs in attendance representing 55 different countries! Highlights of the summit included keynotes from Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation CEO, Steve Ballmer and meeting with the product development teams. We learned about new Microsoft products due to be released mid 2003 and new technologies for the near and semi near future. Perhaps, even more exciting was to learn first hand the vision Microsoft has as a company and for all of us in the internet/computer technology community! I don’t know about any one else, but I have always been extremely foggy when it came to understanding Microsoft’s big picture. With so many software products and such a fast pace growth and upgrade schedule, I haven’t been able to decipher what the big picture was, or if there even was one. It was a thrill to walk away from the summit with a much better understanding of how various software products work together and compliment each other.

More exciting, in my opinion is the clear message from each executive speaker and technical group meeting that Microsoft Corp. as a whole has a renewed dedication and commitment to reaching out to the community, to better their products and user experiences. Over the next year I believe that we’ll all be realizing many new avenues for getting our individual experiences and feedback heard by the people that make it all happen at Microsoft. New avenues of communication are also being opened between product development teams and MVP’s, this is a huge step in the right direction that will directly benefit product users. It should help fill a missing gap between software developers and actual user experiences, and we hope to have opportunities to communicate both positive and negative experiences with each Microsoft product development team. Ever notice that some upgrades lose features, functions, conveniences and menus that we actually like?

On the local front, the product that interests us the most: FrontPage! Brace yourselves; this is going to be the best upgrade of them all. I am sure that you have read a few of the reviews out on the net with some initial ideas of what is coming already. It was of particular interest to me to meet the other FrontPage MVPs! I have had the pleasure of corresponding with a couple of them prior to meeting them in person; Kathleen Anderson (whom we all know here), Paul Colligan, Tom Rowe & Jon Spivey. Meeting Kathleen in person was really great. I am so impressed with her, and I might add – so was the FrontPage product development group. Kathleen, as you may know is not only a FrontPage expert and great with the Database Results Wizard tricks, but a real world, full-time accessibility issues advocate. She spoke clearly and concisely about a few of these issues during a product group meeting and piqued the interest of the product developers. As a result, a dedicated meeting was scheduled to address accessibility importance with regard to FrontPage – my hat is off to Kathleen and to the entire product development group for listening with such great interest to everything we were able to bring to the table. Can you believe that Kathleen skipped Bill Gates’ presentation to bring these important issues to light for the people that develop FrontPage? Now, that is dedication well deserving of kudos! It also reinforces that the rest of the FrontPage MVPs are pretty sharp for bringing Kathleen Anderson in the FrontPage MVP group!

On a personal note, meeting Dave Berry, Stefan Rusynko, Dave Beauchemin, Kevin Spencer, Greg Beamer, Tom Lee, Jr., Paul Colligan & Kathleen Anderson was:

Nerve wracking
Totally awesome

What a diverse, talented, creative & seriously down to earth group of professionals. After reading all of their books, articles and helpful posts on the newsgroups and other online forums, it was great to put faces with names and learn a little about their personalities too. The summit schedule was fairly packed with keynotes and technical sessions, but we did have a couple dinner events where we got together and had a few laughs.