So why another MVP blog?
I promised myself I’d put something together after my first MVP Retreat but it’s taken me a while to ‘get over it’ (this is, of course, a reference to the amount of food that was eaten).
A few fellow MVPs have already blogged and you can get information regarding what they’ve written – see the list of links at the end of this post (as at the time of the last update):
Well, you’re here – on a Tridion Developer blog site and you probably don’t realise just how easy it is to become recognised as an MVP.
So, YOU couldn’t an MVP?
You may be thinking that the fact you’re reading here and not writing means you’re not technical enough, you may even be more business/functional focused and just browsing stuff you’ve heard the techies (or sales) talk about.
Well, I spent most of my time managing the team doing the technical stuff than I did doing technical stuff. But I did share what I learned from them (or from reading around/trying out). I wrote a couple of blogs and I tried to answer all I could on the very useful QA forum Tridion Stack Exchange. and I even shared an idea and commented of a few.
Note that I’m not proclaiming I became a fountain of truth all of a sudden – far from it! I asked questions, I gave my opinions and I answered a few (some correctly yay! some not so correct – so what – I learned something and you will too if you stumble across it!).
But I shared. Read more about becoming or nominating an MVP.
If you share your questions, offer some answers, share some insight then you could become an MVP!
You get something yeh?
So, aside from the kudos of becoming an MVP what do you get?
So for me, it was a number of things
- Acknowledgement for the extra work I’d put in to share! I didn’t realise I’d really done that much until I reflected and the recognition was truly a surprise but most importantly it instilled a sense of pride I felt comfortable in!
- Permission to use the official MVP 2017 logo – yes!
- Stuff. I got stuff – a great beach towel, a t-shirt and a most splendid wind-breaker. All with the SDL Web logo – previous ones all being Tridion – Ohh how I wanted a Tridion one!.
Acceptance to a secret club with some awesome current and previous MVPs in a more informal chat scenario.- A trip to Portugal to share, learn and present something back to the community.
- Inspiration to continue to share and a sense that it really is appreciated!
Ahhh, they all mention Portugal!
I don’t need to say much about Portugal that you won’t read on the blogs noted above, or previous blogs from MVPs in the past – but the bits that I can add are:
- it’s on the house! Thanks to Nuno for arguing the very valid case of getting a bunch of highly skilled people together to work on the product for a couple of days and share those learnings – and thanks to @SDL for listening to him
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- See here for some info – Nuno’s on around 35 seconds in, you may notice a few names and even a few Content Bloom people too!
- it’s an amazing feat of logistical skill to get 20 odd single-minded people to herd along as you need – thanks to Carla and her trusty team of helpers (Paulo and Christelle – and Rai and Nuno for driving too!!)Â Driving into the unknown!
- my surprise of the level of musicality within the MVP group
- the stamina one needs to eat as many delicious meals as I ate is more than I could muster sometimes….
- gin is great when poured into a glass for 8 seconds (with the pouring nozzel in obviously)
- 12 seconds is more of a challenge
- sometimes you stay up later than you should – but this can be learning and sharing too
- The Cultural trips out
Fatima:
Nazare (and many more!)
- The beauty that is Portugal
- The fact we stayed in a CASTLE!
Ourem Castle - Eating.
- Sharing and learning for those that love doing both!
So, did I enjoy being an MVP?
Heck yes.
- I enjoyed opening the email and reading that I’d been awarded it – I re-read, checked the ‘TO:’ and then ran downstairs to announce this to the Mrs! She wasn’t as impressed as I was.
- I enjoyed adding my MVP 2017 logo to my profile on TREX
- I enjoyed meeting the other MVPs in person – some I knew, some I knew of, some were new. All were welcoming into the MVP club and are a great bunch of people!
- I enjoyed Portugal – I enjoyed the working bit, the drinking bit, the eating bit and the cultural bit!
- Do I want to be an MVP again – of course – but now you’re off sharing too there’ll be more competition I hope!!!
Learn. Do. Share.
Not least, here’s a list of MVPs sharing their experience on the MVP Retreat 2017 #mvcretreat
Note that not all the photos were taken by me so thanks to the MVP Retreat Peeps of 2017 for sharing your great memories too!!