Yesterday I was delighted to find in my junk mail (for some reason it’s always there) that I have been renewed as an MVP for the first time. I’ll confess to have been quite nervous about whether this was going to be forthcoming or not; ultimately it’s all in the lap of the gods. Thankfully they favoured me and so it’s game on for another year.
Last year my project pals (one in particular) surpassed themselves with a beautifully photoshopped picture of me whilst others littered my desk with more “MVP” post-it notes than I care to remember. This year I rather suspect the injury to my pride will be completely self-inflicted. My MVP Lead recorded a video with me at the recent and very successful SQL Data Management Conference (#sqldmc for tweeps) on my MVP program experience. I rather suspect this will appear on Facebook very shortly. The MVP program has really embraced social media in recent times and can also be found on twitter (#mvp). I expect it’ll come across as rather gushing and so I will probably be watching it from behind a cushion cringing ever such a lot when its published.
That of course is to take nothing away from the MVP program which has been very good to me in the last year. The community spirit amongst fellow MVPs, especially in the SQL newsgroup, is just amazing. I just can’t stand to see myself “on telly” nor listen to my voice. It is at these times I realise what everyone else has to listen to when I am talking. I pity you all.
I’d like to thank fellow UK MVPs and SQLBits committee members Simon Sabin, Chris Webb, Allan Mitchell, Darren Green and Martin Bell for their continued support. My MVP lead for 2008/2009, Vicki, has been amazing and I’d like to thank her for all her efforts and sterling work. I’d also like to make a special mention to Christian Bolton (another UK MVP) for the opportunity to write some chapters in his upcoming book “Professional SQL Server 2008: Internals and Performance Tuning” where I am collaborating with Justin Langford, Brent Ozar, a new SQL MVP (congratulations Brent), Steven Wort and seasoned MVPs Jonathan Kehayias and Cindy Gross.
It’s been a great year and I look forward to seeing all 4 of you who read my blog at SQLBits in November. Roll on October 2010.
Cheers, James
@jrowlandjones