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Microsoft MVP Summit 2004 is over - so what? April 11, 2004 [General] | By anonymous 1. This year´s summit - a global meeting of all MVPs has just finished. So what? 
(on picture above [standing] Jason Dunn looks down upon other MVPs during a meeting of Windows Mobile MVPs during MVP Summit 2004; first from the left: Arne Hess - the "iPod MVP") Well, the short answer is simple: nothing! Firstly Steve Ballmer and some other top managers from Microsoft were telling all MVPs from all groups (1500 MVPs gathered in one room) about general strategies of Microsoft and then each specific area of interest had area-specific meetings (some MVP areas are small - 5 MVPs and some are bigger - like "Windows Mobile" are, where there were about 20-30 MVPs - not all came to the summit). Since MVPs signed NDA (non disclosure agreement) they are not allowed to say anything but from this what some MVPs say behind the scenes clearly there was nothing breathtaking or ground-breaking shown by Microsoft during the MVP Summit 2004. One major new story of this year´s summit was the fact that MVPs now will be able to contribute more to Microsoft´s Knowledge Base - we were reporting about it previously here. Windows Mobile group still is working on some improvements in the MS Smartphone and Pocket PC phone platforms - like in Contacts and Messaging areas, and generally there is nothing ground-breaking here but certainly some improvements will be welcomed by users. Windows Mobile MVPs had opportunity to meet development teams in person and opportunity to give positive feedback (whining forbidden!). Nicole Papineau from Microsoft is a patron of Windows Mobile MVPs and she was taking care that these MVPs feel good during the summit. Now, that Derek Brown moved to another department in Microsoft, Nicole Papineau and some other folks at Microsoft are hand-picking who gonna be Windows Mobile MVP... Microsoft covered hotel costs and traveling in Seattle area and in case of non-USA located MVPs in most cases Microsoft covered also flight costs to Seattle. On top of that MVPs got from Microsoft some gifts - various for various groups. Interestingly Windows Media player in Windows Mobile devices must very bad and simply lame because several Windows Mobile MVPs used the opportunity of being in USA to buy Apple iPod (this MP3 player is available also in EU but in USA it´s much cheaper). We can therefore say that Microsoft directly supports competition (equally well MS could send money directly to Apple corporation). All in all: Microsoft again gets excellent return on investement (ROI) as far as MVPs are concerned (despite the fact that some MVPs are inept and not worth any money): they generally are doing mostly for free (not counting occasional gifts and traveling to USA costs, not counting cash for sponsoring some websites owned by MVPs) the work that Microsoft´s own employees should do. In this way Microsoft spares marketing costs and uses clever trick of "viral marketing"... Related links:
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