On my way up to Microsoft for the second week in a row. This week should be a bit less grueling if not less fattening.
It is the time for the almost annual Microsoft MVP summit. This means a few days of executive briefings, meetings with the project groups and breakfast, snacks, lunch, snacks and dinners and snacks. This year Bill Gates will be delivering the key note. The past two were Ballmer with his bombastic Blah bla bla blaaah blaaah blah! so it will be a nice change. And what I hear is that there is more time 1:1 with the product groups which is another welcome development. In several past summits this got scant attention, amounting to a session for a couple of hours. I think there is an entire day scheduled this year. I hope to use the time to figure out when we are going to see the first service release on Project and Project Server 2007.
The best things to come out of this conference though are the conversations with people. My current job is the fruit of a seed planted when a group of us bailed out from the planned activities and had lunch in Seattle instead. A group session with 1800 people + Press + Translators has less importance on a personal level and even on a business level than sharing a meal with a 5 others.
Looking down I just see a blanket of white and the same bright warm sun that was shining when I left home. Where I live it is spring. The air is infused with warm earth and plum blossoms. It is the kind of day that brings out the bees. Seattle weather may not be as kind.
