OK, I apologize, I haven't been blogging whilst the event. And yes, I do have a perfect reason: the event was so great that I didn't have time to blog. So to make up, here's the full scope of the MVP Summit 2008 in Seattle/Redmond!
So you've been to Seattle?
Yes! I received the MVP award last January and I also became Regional Director. Every MVP or RD is invited once a year to go to Seattle and Redmond, just to say thank you. Of course, they do a lot more than just saying "thank you": as MVP, you get insight in upcoming (big) things from Microsoft, you get to know the product teams of your expertise and you get to say your opinion to fellow MVPs and the Microsoft teams. While you learn a lot of new stuff, the event also has a very social aspect.
Therefore, I decided at the end of January to go to Seattle and Redmond from April 13th until April 18th (sponsored by my company Ordina). Seattle Tacoma (SeaTac), the airport of Seattle, is about 10 hours of flight from here.
Day 0: baaaad start!
It couldn't all start any worse. We were to leave from Schiphol (we = Ilse Van Criekinge, Kris van der Mast, Joris Poelmans and myself). Upon arrival, only Ilse could check in. Kris and myself were directed to a counter were some employee had the news that the plane seemed overbooked. "This happens... but there's a 99% chance you'll still get on that plane. Check at the gate at 11.15am", she said. (The plane was to leave at 13.00). At 12.40, we still hadn't heard a thing from the KLM employees. Until all of a sudden, Kris's and my name were called, we got the 2 last seats. Joris however, couldn't get on, he had to wait 'till the next day before he could depart.
The flight itself was nice and quiet. We arrived in Seattle on time, around 14.00 local time. After we went to drop our luggage at the Sheraton hotel, we went for a walk through Seattle. Though it's quite a nice city, it's really rather small, smaller than I'd expected it to be.
We did pay a visit to "The Cheesecake Factory", where I had an enormous hamburger. In fact, it was so big, I couldn't eat any cheesecake anymore :-(. The burger was called a "Ton of fun burger". They got the "ton" part right...
After that, it was time to go to sleep. Day 1 was coming up, the opening of the event was almost there!
Day 1: Opening keynotes and Open Space principle
Monday afternoon, the event was opened. The keynote had a special touch to it, since it was the last event for Sean O'Driscoll, who lead the MVP program for many years. Although I don't know him personally, he really seemed like a nice guy.
After the opening, there was this new concept called Open Space, in which MVPs and RDs got the chance to debate over all kinds of different topics. The sessions I attended were very useful, in fact I picked up some really cool ideas that I certainly will be able to use very shortly. (Do note that most of the content of the summit is subject to an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), so I'm not allowed to talk in detail about topics :) ).
In the evening, I got to know my MVP lead, Gerard Verbrugge (finally 
).
Day 2: Going to ... REDMOND!
OK, it might just seem a little bit overreacting, but it has always been a dream of mine to be able to visit the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. Below are some pictures of they way over there: the Washington Lake on a floating bridge.
Finally, we arrived at the Campus. Something that struck me immediately, was that it was not only Microsoft that was there: there were other companies there too. I had always thought it was like one big area, where there was nothing but Microsoft. Apparently, I was wrong on that one.
The campus consists of many small buildings, not higher than 4 stories (higher buildings are not allowed by building regulations). We were dropped at the Microsoft Convention Center, where most of the talks would take place. All over the campus, small and large buses are driving around, to get people from one place to another.
The first talk was given by Scott Guthrie, Microsoft VP. He gave a very interesting talk with some very good insight.
On day 2 also, I visited the Microsoft Company store. Again, I thought I arrived in heaven . I bought 5 interesting books there, that with the low currency rate of the dollar cost less than half there.
Day 2 was concluded with a dinner with the product team. I met Scott Guthrie again, Nikhil Khotari and Scott Hanselman, along with a lot of other people. Without knowing it, I was sharing the table with 2 other RDs!
Day 3: Redmond #2
Day 3 was filled again with a lot of interesting content. I took a shuttle and drove around the campus a bit. It's striking how very friendly and helpful everybody is over here. Whenever you think you're lost, someone will get you where you need to be!
At the end of Day 3, I met about 50 RDs and the RD lead. I also received a very nice gift from him and the pizza that we got... Now, that's what I call pizza!
The day was rounded up at the bottom of the Space Needle, in the "Experience Music Project" with a fine party with Japanese food, Guitar Hero and some performances. I had a nice long discussion with colleague-RD Grégory Renard.
Day 4: That's all, folks
The final day of the conference. I do admit, I expected not that much of this final day, since 3 closing keynotes were planned. Boy, was I wrong... Toby Richards opened the day with some interesting talk on the "almost-over" event, followed by a Q&A sessions with Ray Ozzie.
But the star of the day was surely Steve Ballmer! He gave a very inspiring talk that got the crowd laughing and cheering at the same time. I took some text from this article, because it really describes the feeling that was in the room that day:
"In the online area we've got a lot of users. We've got some big competitors. We've got some big whatevers — competitors or acquisition targets, whatever you want to call them. We've got a little bit of everything out there," Ballmer said.
Ballmer said Microsoft is the global leader in e-mail and instant messaging, but in Internet search — the biggest source of online revenue — "we are the clear No. 3 in the market."
In March, 59.8 percent of U.S. Internet searches were done with Google. Yahoo's search engine ranked No. 2, with 21.3 percent. Microsoft had 9.4 percent, according to online measurement company comScore.
Ballmer sought his own anecdotal measure of search share from the audience of IT pros, many of whom have dedicated their careers to becoming expert in Microsoft's products.
"How many of you use Live Search as your default?" Ballmer asked.
A smattering of hands went up. Tepid applause.
"How many of you use Yahoo search as your default?"
Far fewer hands went up and the room was relatively quiet, until it filled with laughter. He asked again and got the same response.
"Wow, we offered 31 bucks a share," he said, to more laughter.
"How many of you use Google as your default?" Ballmer asked.
The vast majority in the audience raised their hands, cheering and hooting.
Ballmer looked around. Smiled. Scratched his cheek. Rubbed his face with his hand.
He talked about the company's efforts to improve Internet search and asked the MVPs to set their default search engines to Live Search for a week later this year, and send him e-mail describing their experience.
Ballmer gave a muted report on Windows Vista — the company's flagship operating-system product — which, according to some analysts, faces a make-or-break year in 2008.
"Windows Vista," he said, pausing for a moment, "a work in progress.
By the end of his talk, Ballmer was wearing a Canadian hockey shirt and a Simpsons tie...
After that inspiring talk, I went for a final tour of Seattle with Joris, Kris and Hans Le Roy. We went to the Space Needle, all the way to the top, where we got a terrific view of the area. Luckily, the weather was on our side, and it didn't rain while we were up there, 560 feet above the ground.
We ended the event in "El Gaucho", one of, if not the finest steakhouse in the Seattle area. And where there's steak, there's me... . This dinner brought together all the Benelux and North-Western Europeans with our MVP lead.
Day 5: We want to get on that plane, all of us!
Friday, leaving Seattle for home. And we all wanted to get on the same plane this time. Apart from again some troubles with Joris' ticket, we managed to get on the same flight. We did have a lot of turbulence, in fact, it got so bad over the Rocky Mountains in Canada, that everybody was asked to remain seated because of possible rolling in-flight dinner carts in the middle isle... After about 30 minutes, it was over and the rest of the flight was very calm 
.
Conclusion
The MVP Summit 2008 was a great experience. I'm really happy that I was part of it. Sessions were great, content was great, meeting all these interesting people was great, dinner was great... in conclusion: YES, IT WAS GREAT! I'm sure I'll profit from the content and the great ideas I managed to pick up on this event for quite some time.
More pictures?
Yes, many many more... They're all on my Flickr account!