What’s in Store at the MVP Global Summit
By Paulette Suddarth
This is a special year for the MVP community. We are coming to the end of the 20th anniversary year of the MVP Award and it will be bookended, for the first time, by two MVP Global Summits.
This milestone anniversary—so momentous in our relatively young technology industry—has given all of us cause to celebrate, but that’s not why we are having two MVP Global Summits this year.
The reason for next month’s Summit—as it is with all MVP Global Summits—is the opportunity to bring together more than a thousand MVPs from around the globe and hundreds of Microsoft team members to share their ideas and news about Microsoft technologies. And with so many Microsoft services and devices launching now and in the coming months, we thought this is the perfect time to sit down for deep dive sessions with these exceptional community leaders.
One of the notable launches is Microsoft’s flagship device, Surface 2, which has been creating a tremendous buzz among MVPs. From developers to IT professionals, business owners to information workers, we’ve been hearing loud and clear that they want to better understand how this device can help them enhance the technology experience of their communities.
As a result, the Surface product team is making it easier to get this important device into the hands of these community leaders. They will be providing MVPs who are able to join us at the MVP Global Summit with a voucher to help in the purchase of any Surface device, as well as a complimentary Surface keyboard. MVPs will be able to take advantage of this special offer at the Bellevue Microsoft Store anytime during the MVP Global Summit, including two private events at the Store. The product team is looking forward to hearing what they think.
The MVP Global Summit provides all of us at Microsoft the opportunity to receive direct feedback from hands-on experts who have the pulse of their communities. One of the things they’ve told us about the MVP Global Summit is that we request too much feedback! So I sat down to fill out the MVP Global Summit surveys and, as usual, the MVPs were right. It took me 47 minutes. So I looked at ways to improve the process and the consolidated survey now takes me seven minutes. I invite all MVPs attending the Summit to beat my time. And if that isn’t enough incentive, we have plenty of others in store.