Italian MVP and Community Lead Summit

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Organized by Microsoft Italy Audience Marketing Manager Sara Campagna and her team, the first Italian MVP and Community Lead Summit took place on July 8 and 9 in Desenzano sul Garda, a picturesque venue with a lake view. Aimed to kick off FY16, the event targeted two audiences and has been divided into two days to cover plenty of sessions for both targets: MVPs on the first day and adjacent communities on the last day.

The first day witnessed the participation of 39 MVPs from different expertise and various parts of Italy. The opening keynote by Roberto Andreoli, the interesting and intensive session of Q&A with Fabio Santini and the presentation of the technical evangelism team -Paola Presutto, Erica Barone, Jessica Tibaldi and Lorenzo Barbieri, played a great role in reaching a broad audience. It was also a great opportunity for Community Program Manager Cristina Gonzalez Herrero and Program Coordinator Marjorie Di Clemente, to speak about the program and the new opportunities born from the integration to DX. Cristina’s presentation gave an insightful update about the new synergies that the MVPs will be able to create with the DX team. The day finished with a nice dinner in the “Invernal Garden” with speeches of Fabio Santini and also with the interesting speech of Carlo Mauceli, the CTO of Microsoft Italy. The evening ended late at night, offering the participants a great networking opportunity. 

The second day consisted the audience consisted of 19 community leads, 15 of whom are also MVPs. The day was focused on community building and expansion as each community had the opportunity to present itself to the other and to DX team to provide their community activities and how both parties could collaborate.

The initial comments and positive reactions published on the social media were very appreciative as attendees stated; “Great event, great place”, I’m excited that the program MVP is now part of DX”, and “I’m looking forward talking part in this year’s DX initiatives.” We can say that this first event of a series of upcoming ones was a great success and everybody expressed their hope that it will be repeated next year!