TechEd Europe 2013 – 40 EMEA MVPs as speakers
Editor’s note: The following post was written by Community Program Manager Cristina Gonzales Herrero. Photo by Windows Azure MVP Rainer Stropek.
TechEd Europe was once again a great success. This year the event took place in Madrid for the first time, attracting 5,129 registered participants. The MVP Community had a very active role in the event in a various number of fields, providing support and feedback while driving excitement around Microsoft technologies.
There were 69 MVPs (40 of them from EMEA) who delivered an estimated 174 breakout sessions (out of 357) and an estimated 38 Hands-On-Labs. MVPs also delivered 8 Pre-Conference Seminars (out of 13). The Expo Hall featured an area dedicated to our Information Worker, Server and Tools and Windows technologies, where an estimated 30 MVPs helped visitors solve technical questions as Ask-The-Experts.
The community benefited from a dedicated area, the Microsoft Community Lounge, where different Microsoft initiatives oriented to its influencers were presented. Some of those initiatives included the Imagine Cup, the Microsoft Technical Communities Program, The Scripting Guy, PASS and of course, the MVP Program. The MVP Program hosted a booth that served as a meeting point for MVPs and community members. One local MVPs, Pep Lluis Baño, held some demos with the help of his Micro-Framework programmed robots. MVPs also had the opportunity to autograph their pictures in the “Wall-of-Fame” and meet our Community Program Manager Cristina Gonzales Herrero and EMEA Regional Manager Alessandro Teglia.
MVPs had the chance to connect with Microsoft PG members present at the event through 2 NDA technology roundtables, conducted by Christa Anderson and Brian Keller. They also got invited to a number of other MVP-exclusive events such as the MVP Gathering on Thursday evening, which was a great success: 70 MVPs and 8 MS employees were present, on a day when several other exclusive events were also taking place.
The event was also a highlight in the social media space. The @teched_europe Twitter account has 6,391 followers and 2,911 messages, while the event, using the hashtag #TEE13, became a trending topic during the week.
About the author
Cristina Gonzales Herrero’s academic background is in economic science, marketing and communication. She first joined Microsoft in 2002, after having gathered some experience in different markets and industries across Europe. She spent 3 years with the Microsoft Small & Medium Business and Partner organization. Since 2006, Cristina is working with the MVP Program, taking care of the best and brightest community members in Portugal, Spain and most recently in Italy. Married and mother of two children, she really enjoys working with MVPs. “I feel really privileged for dealing with the best technology experts and gurus, who are also even better persons.”