MVP Summit 2007 - A Footnote

It was an enriching experience to meet software experts from around the world as well as professionals from Microsoft that make the company go round. Among these were members from the technical community - Codeguru - that I help moderate in addition to contributing technically.

In this happy photo below, you see Codeguru MVPs that this event help bring together...

Left to Right: John Cz, Bradley Jones, Marius Bancila, Guido Stercken Sorrenti, me and Arjay Hawco

The Summit had more to offer than just technical meetings. It was also about parties, and a lot of fun...

Guido and me playing Table Soccer against formidable rivals from France. The round went to Germany.

More photos and stories can be found on Codeguru, in this thread.

En route to Seattle Airport for my return flight, I got to spend some quality time with fellow MVP David Ching at Seattle Airport. It is strange how people from two different cultures, from two different parts of the world can meet at a conference and find so much in common!

Among the Microsoft-techies I interacted with were Steve Teixeira and Ayman Shoukry from the Visual Studio Team whom I had previously met at Microsoft TechEd 2006 in Barcelona. The non-techies (yet, as elite!) were Candice Pedersen, Karen Young, Paulette Suddarth and Sean O'Driscoll from the US, Mohammed Seedat from South Africa, Evelyn Ruf and Florian Eichinger from Germany - all belonging to the MVP Award Programme.

I hope to meet some of these again during the MVP Open Day in Munich on the 11th of May!

Bill Gates at the MVP Summit 2007

The morning started with a speech by the Chairman of Microsoft.

He spoke in length about the "Digital Age" and the opportunities it provides - often delving into topics such as developments in multi-core processing, and the evolution of technology that has made online video et al possible.

Bill Gates captured in an animated moment

What impresses me most about Bill Gates is his modest demeanor and the comfort with which he addresses an audience comprising of people from every walk of life.

It was my privilege indeed to see the most successful software architect in person!