Microsoft MVP Global Summit 2013 November: Day 3

Wednesday, November 20

The Microsoft MVP Global Summit is come to an end, but I am going to finish up the series and as usual wrap up with some thoughts.

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Frankly, today I woke up dragging feet a bit. It's been 2 grueling days of intense sessions with a lot of material to absorb. Since I am leaving on Thursday with the 1:15 PM flight back to Atlanta, I figured I would pack the day with a bunch of sessions I am interested in. And so, I attended the following sessions:

BR078 - DevDay1: What’s Next for the Visual Studio IDE?
BR519 - SQL Session 11-EN: Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2014
BR296 - SQL Session 12-BI: Applications on SSIM Platform

Again, I cannot really disclose much of the content I gather from these sessions, but suffice to say the future of Visual Studio looks great and you can start seeing some of the UX

As for SQL Server, you should be looking into some of the content already being delivered by Microsoft in SQL Server 2014 CTP2 and especially its new In-memory OLTP feature.

As with all Microsoft events, it was time to start closing the curtains and this year, the MVP Summit party was being held at the Seattle Aquarium. The Aquarium opened in 1977 and located on Pier 59 on the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle surrounded by one of the most amazing city skyline views in the United States.

Upon entering the building, it was impossible to miss the big fish tank accessorized by a reflection of the Microsoft MVP logo.

Projected MVP Logo above the fish tank

As good geeks we are always in the look for some conversation, so it was not uncommon to see tables of people simply talking around appetizers and drinks. There was also a free photo booth that allow MVPs to take some really cool pics with their friends, wearing all sort of accessories to spice things up and make things really funny.

MVPs at the Seattle Aquarium

Microsoft also made available free passes to the Seattle Great Wheel, located directly across from the Aquarium at Pier 57.  With an overall height of 175 feet (53.3 m), it became the tallest Ferris wheel on the west coast of the United States when it opened on June 29, 2012. However, this title may not stand long with the upcoming High Roller ferris wheel being constructed in Las Vegas, NV.

Seattle Ferris Wheel

It was time to play some darts, so I teamed up with my friends Ronni, Gus, and Tanguy for a couple rounds where I came out on top - really didn't know I had much of a steady pulse for darts.

MVPs Ronni Haakon Hegelung (C# - Denmark), Gus Gonzalez (CRM - USA),  Tanguy Touzard (CRM - France)

It was time to get back to the hotel to pack and get some rest. I won't be attending any of the Thursday morning sessions so this was it for me.

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There will be no wrap up post to this series so here are my final thoughts about the MVP Global Summit:

1. This was my first ever MVP Summit and it's good to see that other individuals from around the world share the same (or probably even more sometimes) passion I have for helping the technical communities of users and partners. Some fellow MVPs spend countless hours on forum activities, presentations at events, and their day jobs that it always begs the question from others: what time do you guys find to do all this stuff?

2. I have new appreciation for doing presentations. I used to think that delivering presentations to the community was hard enough. Wait until you ever have to deliver a presentation to a room full of extremely smart people who do actually work with the products you build. So kudos to all Microsoft Program Managers for taking the time to put up with us over the past few days.

3. It's hard to coordinate an event this large and the MVP Award Program did an excellent job at making sure buses and staff were well prepared for this one. I am sure there may been a few hitches here and there, but if they were, I sure was not aware of any.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/