MVP Summit 2024
Did you know each Microsoft MVP is invited to a yearly MVP Summit? As one of those few, I was invited for the 2024 MVP summit.
This was my first summit, and boy what a trip. Seeing my own name on the MVP wall, between all those other people really made an impression.
MVP wall
What is it all about?
The MVP Summit is a conference at the Microsoft HQ in Redmond. A few days with super interesting talks on:
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Yep that’s right, every MVP is under a none disclosure agreement. I’m not allowed to share the awesome things that I’ve seen, more on that soon. You’ve to hold on a little bit longer.
Microsoft Logo at Seattle Campus
Moving Clippy
Connections
It’s not just about those cool presentations, even more importantly it’s about meeting all these other mvp’s and Microsoft staff. At some point I had a question on how an edge case in Entra ID worked for getting some tokens. Normally I only get reactions like: “What are you talking about?” or “You’re usually the expert on that”. In this conversation I had 4 people with a reaction that made sense. Well that is something different, perfect!
We also discussed speaking at various user groups related to Azure and Identity
Toni Pohl and Tiago Costa
And if you then meet the lead developer for aspire, who is super approachable by the way. You know you’re meeting a lot of interesting people here.
David Fowler Microsoft
Trip
I was flying in this “blue zebra”, as a pretty tall Dutch guy I was glad I had more then enough leg room. Note to self: “Just book a direct flight next time”.
Condor plane
Some drinks before flying back
Airport lounge in Seattle
Some tips for first timers
This was my first summit, and here are some things I would do differently next time.
- Most people seem to stay in the centre of Bellevue or at the edge of the Microsoft Campus, you contact some fellow MVPs and make sure you’re near each other.
- Depending on which hotel you pick, you might want to rent/share a car. Bellevue to Redmond campus is 10 minutes by car.
- There are shuttle busses between the buildings, most buildings are just 5 to 10 minutes walking from each other. Except when you want to go from a building at one side to the complete opposite side of the campus.
- You can plan you entire stay with sessions on all kind of interesting topics, expect to drop some if you’re in a nice conversation. You can watch most of them back anyway.
- Visit Kerry park for a nice view over the city (if the weather is ok)
