Microsoft MVP Global Summit 2007
Well Chris (my wife) and I got home late yesterday after a full day of air travel going from Seattle, WA to Jacksonville, FL. I really hate those long flights from coast to coast especially when going from west to east. We were up at 4:30 AM to make the flight and didn't get into Jacksonville until 6:40 PM. A long day to end a long week,
We flew out to Seattle on Sunday and were there around 11:30. After getting settled in at the Westin we walked down to Pikes Place Market and did some sightseeing before having dinner back at the Westin.
Monday morning we met up with other MVPs and their spouses from Unified Communications group (OCS and Exchange) for a tour of underground Seattle before having a pizza group lunch back at the Westin. After that it was off to the Washington State Convention & Trade Center to check in for the Summit and check out the vendor exhibits.
Tuesday was highlighted by the keynote address given by Bill Gates. It was my first time to see him in person and I was very impressed with what he had to say. After the keynote he answered questions from the floor. The rest of the day was spent attending session highlighting Microsoft developer technologies and listening to their roadmap for the future.
Wednesday and Thursday were spend in small group sessions with the Office Communications Server 2007 product teams. The sessions were full of information as well as some Q&A time with the teams. We got to hear about their plans for what lies ahead as well as some good information on the new APIs and demos of the new phone hardware. There was even a dog food session where they explained what it was like to use the stuff internally.
Spread among all of the session over the 4 days were plenty of food and entertainment. There were also ample opportunities to meet other MVPs and catch up on what is happening with friends that you don't get to see on an everyday basis. I got to spend some time hanging with the Florida MVPs which was great. I also got to meet Casey Chesnut and Shawn Wildermuth which was exciting for me as I read their blogs regularly. I kept looking for Bill Ryan but I guess he didn't make it to the Summit this year. Or at least I never managed to hook up with him.
At the product group dinner on Wednesday evening I got to meet up with my old friends from the Speech Server Team and renew that friendship. Watch for some exciting news coming from that meeting (hopefully) in the near future.
On Friday Chris and I rented a car and went in search of waterfalls. Chris had gotten tired of the city so I thought that would be a good way to get her out into the country. It was her first visit to Seattle so I wanted here to see some of the things I have enjoyed on previous visits such as the Microsoft Campus and even the company store. She got to see both. We went to Snoqualmie Falls then had lunch in North Bend before taking a hike to Twin Falls and later visiting Weeks Falls.
After dinner overlooking the water at Cutters Bayhouse it was back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the trip home. It was an awesome trip and I learned a lot. Unfortunately there isn't much I can talk about. It's exciting to have friends on the product teams at Microsoft and have insight into things that are coming up in the months ahead but it can be frustrating when you can't talk about what you know. Still, I wouldn't trade my position for anything else. I love it. It's great to be "the gotspeech guy".