Renewed as a Microsoft MVP

If you’ve visited Twitter or LinkedIn today, you’ve undoubtedly been overwhelmed by the flood of announcements of people being re-awarded for the Microsoft MVP Program. I added to this euphony of announcements with my own: I was renewed for the 13th time in the M365 category, recognized in the technology areas of SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. Of course, my contributions have expanded this past year into more areas, such as Microsoft Viva and Copilot, but, at my core, I consider myself a SharePoint and Teams guy. They are the meat and potatoes of my content, and I am still very passionate about this space.

For those new to the community and the MVP award, it is Microsoft’s annual recognition of people who have contributed their technical expertise to the Microsoft community. Each MVP generally focuses their contributions on one or more products or services within the ecosystem, sharing their knowledge and supporting the community through events, blogs, videos, podcast, livestreams, answering questions on forums, writing books, and other mediums and channels. Honestly, the selection criteria is a bit of a black box, where Microsoft has sole discretion on who they award. Some MVPs spend most of their time contributing through technical forums, answering questions or creating scripts and solutions. Other MVPs are wizards at video production, creating amazing walkthroughs and presentations. My primary contribution types are writing and interviewing. While I’m not speaking at events as much as I did 10 years ago (at that point, 3 or 4 events per month, around the world), I do still enjoy presenting 5 or 6 times a year. As for the topics that I cover, I’ve built my career around social and collaboration technology, project and portfolio management solutions, end-user productivity tools, and AI, with the strongest emphasis around SharePoint and Teams.

And as I tell people again and again, I was blogging and speaking and building communities before I earned my first MVP award, and I’ll be doing it after retiring from the program. It’s who I am, and it’s what I enjoy doing. In fact, if you missed the post, my blog turned 20 earlier this year…

What is next for me this year and into next year? Here are some of my current community activities:

• I’ll be attending/speaking at M365 Twin Cities (Minneapolis), Power Platform Community Conference (Vegas), TechCon365 (Dallas), and ESPC (Stockholm)
• Co-hosting the monthly Guardians of M365 Governance show along with fellow MVPs Ragnar Heil (@ragnarh) and Joy Apple (@joyofsharepoint)
• Co-hosting the weekly Project Failure Files live stream with fellow RD+MVP Sharon Weaver (@sharoneweaver)
• Answering 10 to 12 community questions each month with a panel of experts in the ongoing #M365AMA blog+video series
• Interviewing MVPs every Monday via blog+video+podcast for the #MVPbuzzChat series
• Interviewing a broad range of technology and business experts every Thursday via blog+video+podcast for the CollabTalk Podcast
• Inching closer to my goal of 3 years of daily blog posts (I will hit my goal at the end of August)
• Participating as a board member for Microsoft User Group Utah (MUGUT)
• Ramping up the CollabTalk TweetJams once again (Q3), with a live stream panel component
• Writing, moderating webinars, and promoting TekkiGurus.com
• Co-hosting a monthly mentoring cohort for people interested in becoming an MVP (6 of our members have become MVPs!)

What are my long-term community contribution plans?

• Possibly going for 4 years of daily blog posts (I haven’t decided)
• Following our weekly live stream, Sharon and I are planning to publish a project management book in 2025
• I’ve also been working on a tech evangelism/guerilla marketing book that I plan to publish in 2025
• Fellow MVP Shari Oswald (@shortcutshari) and I are also working on plans for a bi-monthly live stream, followed by an ebook/regular book on anything and everything related to M365 calendars which we hope to publish in 2025
• After helping to organize and run 10 in-person SPS/CollabDays/M365 events in Utah, next year we’re talking about combining forces with the SQL and Dynamics user groups and hosting a larger combined event

I should point out that yes, I sometimes eat and sleep, say hello to my wife, and walk the dog. I’m not a robot, people.

Thank you again to Microsoft for this award, and to the many friends inside and outside of Redmond who help make this a thriving community. While there are far too many people to thank, some of the key players at Microsoft that I want to recognize include Laurie Pottmeyer, Betsy Weber, Mark Kashman, Bill Baer, Chris McNulty, Heather Cook, Karuana Gatimu, Jeff Teper, Neil Hodgkinson, Steve Nguyen, Naomi Moneypenny, Adam Harmetz, Michelle Gilbert, Fabian Williams, Jay Leask, and Max Fritz. I’d also like to thank my posse of co-hosts and collaborators on all of my various content endeavors including Erik Ruthruff, Ragnar Heil, Sharon Weaver, Shari Oswald, Stacy Deere, Sean McDonough, Mike Nelson, Hal Hostetler, Geoff Varosky, Norm Young, Jonathan Weaver, Kirsty McGrath, Joy Apple, Dan Rey, Heather Severino, Brian Alderman, and Knut Relbe-Moe. Fantastic human beings — make sure you follow all of them on the socials!

Thanks for reading. I’m going to walk the dog now…