Introducing the #MVPbuzzChat Interview Series

Introducing the #MVPbuzzChat video interview series, and supporting blog posts! As part of an effort to consolidate my video creation process into two primary outputs (and reduce the production time/effort to publish some of my video content), I’m officially launching this new series alongside a long-running series:

#MVPbuzzChat is a new series of one-on-one discussions with other Microsoft MVPs where we discuss, in-depth, the technologies that they are most passionate about. My idea was to learn more about what my fellow MVPs are doing — and get to know MVPs from outside of my area of concentration. These casual conversations are recorded on location, as well as from the comfort of my home office, and can cover their area of focus within the MVP program — or it can be completely unrelated, giving them an opportunity to “geek out” and talk about whatever interests them. I’ll be posting short profiles on each MVP, including links to the social profiles and any relevant content they’ve created and want to promote. To kick off the series, I’ve recorded sessions with Harjit Dhaliwal (Windows and Devices for IT MVP), Michael Blumenthal (Office Servers & Services MVP), Eric Overfield (Officer Servers & Services MVP), Ellen Finkelstein (PowerPoint MVP), Tom Arbuthnot (Office Servers & Services MVP), and more. My goal is to post 3 or 4 of these interviews or more each month.

#DigitalSackLunch is a continuation of the series that I launched back in 2012/2013 while working at Axceler, and is a longer session typically covering both business and technology topics, with mostly familiar faces within the ecosystem. The idea behind this series was to provide more substance that the shorter videos, with the recommendation to sit at your desk and watch it while eating your lunch. These tend to be more of an interview-style discussion around targeted topics, and may include one or more guests. For example, I interviewed the Chief Product and Technology Officer from Workfront (Steve ZoBell) in which we discussed a recent CollabTalk tweetjam topic on the blurring of lines between project management and collaboration technology. More recently, I sat down with Pouneh Kaufman, Director and Principal Program Manager of the End User Services Engineering team at Microsoft, and Karuana Gatimu, Principal Program Manager for Microsoft Teams, to discuss their internal deployment experiences with Microsoft Teams. It was an excellent discussion, so watch for that one.My goal is to produce 1 or 2 of these interviews each month, depending on my event and travel schedule.

Beyond these two series, I’ll still occasionally produce webinars and client-focused video content, as always, as well as Facebook live streams (when my live streaming ability is reinstated — they nailed me for background music during my last broadcast). I have a backlog of content around each series, so I’ll be pushing much of it out in rapid succession over the next week. As always, your feedback is welcome — and whether you’re an MVP or just have a passion for technology, let me know if you’d like to schedule an interview!