MVP Global Summit day 1 for a newbie

Today was the first official day of the annual MVP Global Summit, a coming together of professionals from loads of disciplines, from nearly 100 countries in a week-ish of events.  Everything from the typical cheerleading sessions to deep dives with product teams to good ole networking with like-minded people.  As a fairly new MVP I have heard of this event from my friends and always wanted to go, but had not been invited until this year.  A very exciting week for me.

My “designation” is Dynamics CRM, a rather intimate group, less than 50 of us.  However, I’ve worked with INETA for years and spend loads of time in the developer community as well as the CRM community, so I know loads of people here.  Feels really nice seeing all these people I respect in this type of environment, as an equal to so many really smart people.  Surreal actually.

I will come clean with two things that have not pleased me so far.  For all the past summits that I have heard about, Steve Ballmer has been here to address the group, and he is not here this week.  He’s a pretty dynamic and inspiring guy and honestly should be here.  Second, I know I should be honored (and I am) that one of my accomplishments was featured on a  slide at today’s keynote (my work with the xRMVirtual user group) but it would have been so much better had they spelled my name correctly.  My name is not that tough and did you have to spell it “July”?  Now I am just waiting for the Miss July jokes.  I am a good sport, so go ahead.  Just make sure there’s a sash and tiara too.

We are all sworn to secrecy for the exact event contents and reminded often of that commitment and I won’t be spilling any details about any secret sauce.  But we are encouraged to speak about the “experience” we are having.  Key resources from within Microsoft are here seeking honest feedback from the folks out in the field doing the work, like us.  The week promises to be full of more of that.

I am having lots of conversations about the power of xRM and that it really is here to stay and a viable option as a solution for so many software needs.  It seems everyone has heard of it, but so few know much but are eager to learn more.

 

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Dynamics CRM MVPs (and one in training) at the Welcome Reception.

 

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Having fun with my friend Beth Massi (Senior Program Manager on the Visual Studio Community Team) as we do our best Charles’ Angels pose.

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Dynamics CRM MVPs Shan McArthur and Darren Liu at the opening keynote.

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Comments

Anne Stanton

You know that Miss July could have been part of the NDA ;).

When is the calendar coming out?

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