I tend to look forward to January 1st each year, as this is my MVP Award renewal date. Woke up this morning and received the following message.
Thank you Microsoft, thank you to my wonderful MVP lead, and thanks to all of you. My goal this year is to try to do more blogging, and with Windows 10, Windows Server v.Next, and more on the way, that should be a relatively easy goal to achieve.
With just over 314 days until July 14th, 2015, it is time to transform the datacenter. If you are still running servers with Windows Server 2003, now is the time to migrate to Windows Server 2012 R2.
Myself and several other MVPs from across the country are hosting a roadshow event in a city near you and presenting on various topics including What’s New with Windows Server 2012 R2, what’s a hybrid cloud, how to upgrade and migrate from Windows Server 2003, and how you can enhance your investment in Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft Azure.
If you’re in one of the cities listed below, click the link to register for the event in your town and thank you in advance for joining us!
Cincinatti, OH – 9/20/2014 – Register Here
Tampa, FL – 9/22/2014 – Register Here
Chicago, IL – 9/22/2014 – Register Here
Bellevue, WA – 9/23/2014 – Register Here
Phoenix (Tempe), AZ – 9/24/2014 – Register Here
Denver, CO – 9/25/2014 – Register Here
Houston, TX – 9/26/2014 – Register Here
Detroit, MI – 9/27/2014 – Register Here
If you are a first-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional or this is your first time attending the MVP Global Summit in Seattle, then this post is for you.
This is my fourth year as an MVP and will be my third time attending Summit. I wanted to provide my tips and tricks to those who have not attended before.
First rule of summit – don’t talk about summit. But for real, remember your NDA. Don’t tweet, blog, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, or Snapchat anything you learn during summit week. There may be times that it is okay, but err on the side of caution and ask first.
If you’re arriving in Seattle, and you are looking for reliable transportation to / from the hotel and airport, I would recommend Shuttle Express. I have used them since 2008 and the service has always been superb. With gratuity (tip) you are looking at about $50 for round trip service.
When registration opened you might have heard some talk about the Hyatt. Why is the Hyatt so important? A) it’s centrally located to Lincoln Square / Bellevue Square, B) it’s a large hotel so a lot of activities take place here, and c) the rooms are really nice. If you missed out on getting a room at the Hyatt this year, remember, there is always next year.
In most years, registration has taken place across the street from the Hyatt at the Westin Lincoln Square so I would guess that registration will be here again as well. There are also side sessions and other activities that can take place here so keep an eye on the session builder tool to know where to go.
Once you get on the Microsoft campus, it’s like being transported to a whole new world. Yes, it’s a corporate campus, but there is a variety of building design, style, and tons of cool amenities. If you’ve never been on campus before, navigating can seem a bit daunting. I spent two summers in high school working at Microsoft on the main campus and I still didn’t entirely know my way around. But never fear! Here’s a PDF of the Microsoft Campus Map that should come in handy.
If you get lost or just want to know how to get to a different building, feel free to look for anyone from the event services team (typically red shirts in prior years), or you can go to any building receptionist and they can page a shuttle for you to get you to where you want to go.
While you are on campus, make sure to visit building 92. Building 92 is where the Microsoft Visitor Center (really cool museum displays and hands on stuff) and Microsoft Company Store (logo’ed gear and access to the holy grail of goodies that are provided with a VIP pass from the MVP program team) are. If you are an international MVP, make sure you take advantage of your company store reward, as you will not be able to redeem it online through the online store.
As far as touristy things go, here are some of my recommendations. Bear in mind that I’m not a big tourist but there are my personal favorites.
I am very pleased to announce that Microsoft has chosen me to be a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for the 4th year in a row. As many of you may know, I have been an MVP for Windows Home Server. However, with the discontinuation of Windows Home Server, I have been chosen to be an MVP for Windows Server for Small and Medium Business.
I am honored to have been chosen, and I look forward to all the amazing community work ahead in 2014.
Dear Tom,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2014 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Windows Server for Small and Medium Business technical communities during the past year.
Happy New Year everyone! I am pleased to announce that Microsoft has chosen me as a 2013 Most Valuable Professional. It is a real honor, I’d like to thank Microsoft for selecting me, and I look forward to working with the community and my fellow MVPs in the year ahead.
I’ve arrived in New York City for the 2011 Microsoft Imagine Cup. For those of you just joining us, the Microsoft Imagine Cup is the premier student technology competition. I tend to tell people that it’s the Olympics of technology.
At the Imagine Cup, the top students from around the world come together to compete against each other in categories such as Software Design, Game Design, Embedded Development, and the Windows Phone 7 challenge just to name a few.
I’ll be here covering five teams and their progress throughout the Worldwide Finals. My teams are as follows:
The Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals begin this Friday, July 8th and end Wednesday, July 13th.
For more on Imagine Cup please visit www.imaginecup.com, or search for #ImagineCup on Twitter. You can also follow me on Twitter, @tziegmann, to follow along this week as well.
(Disclosure: Like most things Microsoft related, I am attending TechEd as a guest of the Microsoft Corporation. Flight, hotel, meals, and conference pass have been provided by Microsoft.)
I’m writing this post from 10,000 feet above the ground using GoGo Inflight Internet as I fly from Phoenix to Atlanta. (So cool!) I’m on my way to Atlanta for Microsoft’s TechEd North America conference.
TechEd is one of the premier conferences for IT professionals and developers alike. Obviously since it is being put on by Microsoft, it focuses on Microsoft technologies. This year, Robert Wahbe and Jason Zander will be keynoting the event and as my friend Mary Jo Foley has noted on her blog, we’ll probably see some cool stuff around SQL Server, Visual Studio (I hear there is a Kinect + VS demo!), and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some more info about the future of System Center and its role in facilitating public / private cloud interaction as well as management and consolidation in the datacenter.
I’ll be spending most of my time in sessions this week and will do my best to update everyone with the highlights. Also, I’ll be bringing a preview of what will be seen at the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals this summer.
Are you an IT professional or developer that uses Microsoft technologies on a daily basis? Are you looking for a local community of fellow devs or IT pros? Look no further than the Microsoft User Community.
On Facebook, Microsoft has launched the User Community page, where you can locate User Groups and other community events in your area. The User Community page is designed to provide a central location for finding and organizing events and promoting the event to a large audience.
If you’re looking to get involved in any sort of user group (.NET, SQL Server, etc.) I highly recommend you “join in” and find the user group nearest you.
2011 sure has gotten off to a great start! I woke up yesterday to an e-mail in my inbox congratulating me on becoming an MVP for Windows Home Server.
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2011 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Windows Home Server technical communities during the past year.
It is an incredible honor to join the ranks alongside the other Windows Home Server MVPs, and I look forward to helping the community in the year ahead.
Tom on Tech 