Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Summit 2008
The upcoming summit, April 14-17, will feature a keynote from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and closing by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, in addition to several sessions, including topics ranging from social media for peer-to-peer support to new developments such as Silverlight mobile to Skydrive. Nearly 1,800 MVPs are planning to attend.
In conjunction with the summit, the Code Trip (www.thecodetrip.com), which launched from MIX and has been traveling around the western U.S., is an RV housed with Microsoft developer evangelists spreading the word about new technologies and meeting MVPs at each stop. The final destination of the 21 city trip is the MVP summit.
As an MVP, I'm looking forward to attending the event. I am sure that it will be great, and I can't wait to meet other attendees, including technical experts from around the world and people from Microsoft product groups.
P.S.
Data points the significant role MVPs play.
- Worldwide there are more than 100 million participants in technical communities.
- Of these participants there are only 4,000 MVPs located across 93 countries, spanning more than 30 languages and more than 90 Microsoft technologies.
- There has been a 10 percent to 15 percent MVP audience growth in countries such as China, Russia and Korea.
- Over the past few years new regions with MVPs include the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Nepal, Macedonia and Macao
- In recent years, a handful of MVPs have been awarded in new categories such as MSN, Xbox, Visual Studio Tools for Office, Microsoft Dynamics and Visual Studio Team System.
- MVPs are a diverse group that includes accountants, teachers, artists, government workers, engineers and technologists.