The road to Microsoft MVP – Part 3

This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series The road to Microsoft MVP

In the previous posts, I’ve told you how I got my first MVP nomination, what i’ve learned from others about the MVP program in 2017. Next I’ve updated you on my activities in 2018, a post I originally started writing in october.
Now we’re december, and it’s time for the 3rd part of this installment!

Let me take you on a short journey

Imagine this.

Very busy year behind you.
You’ve seen a ton of “SQLebrity” people.
Kevin Kline came to your session (and didn’t leave!), you even had a great chat afterwards that HE initiated!
Steve Jones “crashed” your session, made you nervous by standing behind you during your presentation and you had to ask him to sit down.
And of course you’ve met Jen Stirrup again and had a great talk with her that almost made you late for your own session 😀
Let’s not forget Stephanie Locke who taught you a lot about diversity in tech over pizza and beer with Alex Yates, Rob Sewell and others
You’ve spoken to so many people who inspired you throughout the year.
And I mean, really inspired you. You’re so inspired that you could just as well be on fire.

Your year has been so awesome that you’ve actually stopped thinking about the MVP nominations during all of that. And then, on a saturday morning, after a tiring week you open your eyes. You’ve just slept great, birds are chirping outside and because you’re a bit lazy, you pick up your phone to check it in bed.
You’re not wearing your glasses and with your phone about 10cm from one eye, you’re looking at it. Because that’s just the way badly near-sighted people do that.
The next bit all happens in about 5 seconds.

You notice you’ve got some new mails as usual.

One of them is from Microsoft.

It’s from the MVP program.

“Must be some random notification again.” You think to yourself.

But before deleting the mail, you open it anyway. Because you’ve always been curious like that and you have time to kill on this lazy day. And who knows, maybe it’s actually a mail from a Nigerian prince!

But then you see it…

BAM! You’re awake!

You double check to see if it’s actually what you think it is.

Your heart starts racing and you just want this moment to never end.

Snap back to reality

I’m extremely happy and grateful to have been awarded Microsoft MVP in the AI category. It’s an incredible honor to be in that very small club of excellent people.
How small? Currently I’m the only one in Belgium.
And there’s 8 of us if you count all neighbouring countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and France).
So out of 179 million people in those countries, only 8 got awarded in this category. That’s mindblowing.

Counting all categories, there’s 55 people who currently are awarded Microsoft MVP in Belgium.
And counting all neighbouring countries, we’re 8 MVP’s in the AI category out of a grand total of 417.
That’s really special!

However, all of this doesn’t change who I am, what I do and why i do the things that I do. It doesn’t change why people like or dislike me. It doesn’t change the fact that I value openness and helping others over other things. And it certainly doesn’t change the fact that i value the people in the community and their opinion more than any award.

Let’s not forget that there are still a LOT of people out there in the community who deserve this honor, maybe even more than me. And in the way (I think) I’ve learned how the program works, I’m sure they’ll be awarded as well in due time.

But why so quiet?

People have been wondering why I’m not screaming the news that i got awarded from the rooftops. I’ve actually had a lot of linkedin/facebook/twitter private messages and people tweet at/about me as well. All of them asking this question or making a remark about it.
The thread that below screenshot came out of was a nice example.

I’ve sent private mails and messages to the people who’ve been supportive with a nice “thank you”. But i didn’t feel the need to make a big deal out of this.
One reason is that there’s a lot of people out there who don’t like to see all the “OMG, I got awarded” messages every month, either because of various good or bad reasons.

Another reason is that, although I may be loud at times, I’m not someone who goes around and “promotes” himself.
I’ve learned to use all media to get content out there, but i still feel bad about talking too positively about myself.

What’s next?

I’ve realised several things shortly after i calmed down again.

  1. I might not be re-awarded. Since before october, I’ve been telling everyone i was scaling down on the amount of talks i’d be doing in 2019. There’s a lot of stuff coming towards me, and i just don’t have the time or the money to be on the road for almost half of the year.
  2. We’re not even in the new year and i’ve already submitted to 13 events. 10 of those are in the first half of the year. But i’ve been pickier with the locations of the events. Let’s see how many accept me as a speaker.
  3. My MVP award means I’ll have my first ever award to put on display! Where will i put it?!
  4. I’m not sure what caused me to suddenly be worthy of the MVP award. And I’m still pondering about it. Since october, i didn’t have any activities anymore. Some people have told me to just accept it as one of the strange mysteries of the program and just do what I do as people at Microsoft seemed to have liked that.

I’m starting technical blogs again as well, so you’ve got that to look forward to.

Conclusion

Since december 1st, 2018, i’m proud to call myself the first MVP in the AI category in Belgium. 

Turns out, i do have some value 😉

I’ll just keep doing what I love doing. Helping others and ensuring they grow as tech workers, as speakers and as a person. If i get re-awarded or not, i’ll still be part of this great community, which is more important than any award.

The road to Microsoft MVP – Part 2

This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series The road to Microsoft MVP

Warning

This is a less ranty than my first “road to MVP” post.
I’m finishing this post at the end of december. And while I know there’s already a 3rd part as well, I found it important to continue with my original plan for these posts. Which is, to document my journey towards becoming an MVP, no matter how long it would be or even if it would ever happen.
I do hope you as a reader have use for these posts, either way, don’t hesitate to contact me through the comments or on twitter or even linkedin if you have any questions.

Previously on this blog

About a year ago, I made a post about my experience and feelings about getting nominated for the MVP award by quite a few people I look up to.
I ended that post stating that while it had been 1-whole-full-year-omg-so-long of being nominated but not awarded, the fact that I had gotten nominated by people I look up to and the feedback I received from people in the community meant a lot to me. Maybe even more so than an award.

Fast forward a full year

Almost a full year has passed since that post.
I didn’t pay much attention to my MVP nominations anymore and when people asked if they could nominate me, I’ve been declining their offers. I’ve been declining nominations because this year, for me, was about getting even more involved with the community and just having some relaxed fun.
Due to all my new activities, this blog didn’t receive much new content, although I have quite a few new drafts ready!

Presenting at conferences & user groups

In 2018, I kept speaking at conferences and user groups, kept meeting people and most importantly, kept having fun. I’ve met so many great people and learned a ton from them in the past year.
Only issue I had, is that working full time as a consultant AND speaking this much tends to become a bit much. So I stopped all speaking engagements in october, with SQL Saturday Holland being the last event I spoke at.

Microsoft Advanced Analytics User Group

In the Microsoft Advanced Analytics User Group I organise, We’ve held 10 meetups in 2018, with quite a bit of wraps and pizza being eaten. Come join us if you’re into Big Data, Machine Learning, IoT or any related technologies

Power BI User Group

I started a Power BI User Group because we don’t have that yet in Belgium. We had 10 awesome meetups and I got to know a lot of great people who work with Power BI in Belgium.
Come join us next time if you’re working or even thinking about working with Power BI!
Our audiences tend to be a mix of everything in between deeply technical and pure business users. That tends to mean everyone wins as we can learn from each other!

Power BI Days conference

As we did our Power BI meetups, I got feedback from people. People who couldn’t make it during the week but also from people outside of Belgium who wanted to attend some meetups. So I started a free conference in september, and people seemed to enjoy it. One day in Belgium and one day completely virtual.
We had quite a few people for a saturday, but what surprised me was that the virtual event on Sunday had a ton of people as well!
Simply amazing to see how speakers and attendees invest in their future by attending events like this in the weekend.

Next up: Power BI Days 2019-01, come join us, either in Mechelen or online! www.powerbidays.com

Rest of the year

For the rest of the year, I haven’t planned much. A couple of user group meetups, catch up on work and just spend some time with my girlfriend.

Conclusion

It’s been a very busy year, i’ve met ton of new people, I did way too much and by september I was already telling people that I’d be scaling back on speaking at conferences due to my personal life getting much busier in 2019.

Either way, It’s been worth every minute of my time and I’ve had a blast doing all of this.
I can only say that you should try to speak at as many conferences and user groups as well. If you’d like some help in any form, let me know. From coming up with an idea together, to practicing your session together, I’m here for you. Others are here for you as well, check out www.speakingmentors.com.

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