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Today I received my notification that I’ve been renewed as a Microsoft MVP. It’s the 20th year for me, and I thought it would be worth spending some time writing down random notes and thoughts about the award.
Things were very different the first year I was in the program (which, if my math is correct, was 2006). .NET was only 3 years old, it was closed source, and it only ran on Windows (well, that’s true if you only count the .NET runtime that came from Microsoft and ignored Mono). Being a MVP helped out a lot because:
I really enjoyed it. I loved going to the Summit. It was beneficial to get some “insider” information. For the first 10 to 15 years, it was great!
Of course, things change in the world. The conference arrangements getting to the Summit changed where you were “encouraged” to find a roommate, and the hotels were switched to Bellevue. I’m guessing this was to drive down cost, and understandbly so. Fortunately, I knew of other MVPs that I didn’t mind staying in the same room with for 5-ish days, so that wasn’t a problem.
Then COVID hit. For the next year or so, the event was completely online. That made sense, but once the event started to happen in person again…the logisitics changed even more. Hotel wasn’t covered. Transportation to the conference wasn’t covered. This pretty much made it impossible for me to attend in person, and trying to get into the sessions via Teams has always been a nightmare of security and authentication fumbles. Moreover, since .NET went OSS and x-plat in 2015, it’s been less of a “gain” to get that insider view.
At this point, while I’m still grateful to received the honorific, I have some mixed feelings about it. It’s sad not being a part of the Summit anymore - I miss chatting with others and having interesting hall conversations.
I’m not sure when it’ll happen, but at some point I’ll stop getting renewed, either because I don’t apply for it or the powers that be say “no more”. But, to be clear, I am very grateful for being a Microsoft MVP. Receiving any kind of award as an acknowledgement of your efforts and work from others is something I don’t take lightly, and I appreciate it when it happens.
Of course, being in the MVP program for so long, I got to do karaoke in the early days with a band singing “Living After Midnight” at one of the after-hour events. This was after I had some “liquid encouragement”. Yes, this was captured, and you can find it on YouTube. Keep in mind that I am not a singer, so if you really want to listen to this performance…you’ve been warned (though the flames behind me were awesome!).
Published: 07.15.2026 1:47 PM CST