Saturday, October 2, 2010

I’ve been awarded Azure MVP!

October 1, 2010: A day I’ll remember for a long time. I was on an early flight home from Seattle after 3 amazing days with the Azure team, participating in a Software Design Review (SDR). I was headed home to my family, and to support my wife during this difficult time (she lost her father a week ago).

Being October 1, I knew that it was MVP award day. Naturally, my plan was to stare at my email client , hoping my magic powers would help deliver some good news to me.

My flight took off at 7:15am. I distracted myself with Vittorio Bertocci’s new Windows Identity Foundation book until WiFi was available. The book caught the attention of the gentleman next to me, who develops against Amazon’s AWS, and we spent a bit of time discussing Azure and its benefits.

Shortly after crossing into Montana (courtesy of FlightAware),  I received “The Email,” welcoming me to the inaugural group of Azure MVPs! I found it only fitting that we were passing through cloud cover at the time, and ironic that the first person I told was an AWS guy (and yes, I now have his business card and plan to visit his group in Atlanta).

I’m truly honored to be the recipient of this award, and thankful for all the support I’ve received from the developer community. I first got involved in the community back in October 2008, when Microsoft’s Dr. Z invited me to speak at techdays ‘08 in Washington, DC. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at many user groups, code camps, webcasts, podcasts such as Community Megaphone, and even an Azure Bootcamp. I’ve met some great people at these events, and it has greatly enriched my life (I can only hope I’ve had some positive effect on theirs as well).

My family has been very understanding and supportive of my speaking and blogging activities (although my wife no longer believes that I’ll be off the computer “in just a minute…”).  RDA, my employer, supports my efforts as well, and co-sponsored the Azure Bootcamp. And, last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to Microsoft for presenting me with an MVP!

Sheesh – I feel like one of those long-winded Academy Award winners who rambles too long and get-off-the-stage music kicks in. Time to get back to techy goodness, especially Windows Azure Goodness! I have some cool things to blog about, including my adventures with MongoDB running in Azure.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats David!
    I hope that the book did its distracting job well ;-) It was a pleasure to have you here!
    Cheers,
    V.

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  2. @Vittorio - Thanks! The book is excellent and served as a perfect distraction.

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  3. David -

    Congratulations on the MVP award - now you will have to do even more code camps and presentations.

    Our dinner at Red Robin two weeks ago was only the first of three for me - perhaps indicating a serious lack of imagination. Fortunately, I scoped out the route to the campus that evening so your premature departure didn't cause me any difficulty. We regretted not having you as part of the group but, alas, it was not to be.

    Once again, congratulations on your Azure MVP award.

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  4. @Neil - thanks! I'm bummed we didn't get to work together during the week, but I'm sure there will be other opportunities. And I'll have to send you links to other restaurants in the area... :)

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