Two Days of Giving and Deep Discussion—Before MVP Global Summit Even Starts!

 MVP Global Summit kicked off at 9am today in Redmond, but the excitement and community contributions got a jump start around the Puget Sound this weekend. We brought you footage and photos from four different events—check them out below!

It started bright and early Saturday morning when more than 60 MVPs and Microsoft employees—as well as some of their families—filled two large buses and headed to Northwest Harvest to help pack food and fight hunger in Washington State. 

This was the second project for GeekGive, organized by MVP Steve Andrews. Last year, GeekGive helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity at Tech-Ed in New Orleans. This year, they packed 10,000 lbs. of green beans, 4,896 lbs. of dry pasta, and 1,125 lbs. of grapefruit for more than 15,000 meals. 

A few hours later, more than 100 MSMVPs converged on the Microsoft retail store in Bellevue, offering hands-on help for hours to a packed house—everything from technical advice for WP7 to SQL server.

The next morning, the familiar long Summit registration tables, flanked by red-jacketed event staff, opened for business and nearly
75% of the MVPs signed up for Summit took advantage of the early start.

Many attended side sessions offered that day: Emily Freet, MVP regional manager for the Americas, organized the Summit’s first Women in Technology session. Eight accomplished women—MVPs and Microsoft employees—served as panelists to discuss a range of issues, including gender disparities in technology careers and ideas for inspiring and including girls in studies of math and science. They fielded questions from an audience comprised almost equally of men and women.

Immediately afterwards, a session with Microsoft Developer Platform Evangelists explored how their relationships with MVPs provides value to customers and the community.

And this is what MVPs did before the Global Summit even began!