South Asia MVP Open Day 2015 - Review

It was few months ago, I was invited for South Asia MVP Openday, Bangalore. Followed to it I booked the flight as I had to be there, as this was the first time for me and as someone has said "Never miss the start.... :)".

Since then I was picturizing about what exactly shall happen in Open Day (will it be like those in school days?), even my collegues, friends were curious to get answer to the same question. No idea about what was the agenda, even the event venue was not revealed, that was adding to the curosity build up.

Upon landing at Bangalore met few fellow MVP's (even though many of us were connected on linkedin and facebook, we had to introduce ourselves to each other -that made me smile, don't know why). There we met the travel manager who was responsible to make sure we reach the venue safely and on time (even the travel manager didn't reveal the secret(the venue)-  all were promptly instructed by Biplab and Gandharv). But the fun part was, driver wasn't instructed, and we did it - we got to know the venue - Royal Orchid Resorts, Yelanka, Bangalore.After a drive of around 40-45 min, we reached the final destination and there we met the two men who were responsible for all this - BipLab Paul and Gandharv.

We were welcomed with a refreshment drink, and were informed about the plan of action for next two days.

Below was the plan/schedule for two days:

      First Day:      a) Welcome Message by Mayumi
                       b) MVP-to-MVP Session around O365 by Dr. Nitin
                       c) MVP-to-MVP Session around DevOps by Subodh
                      d) Games and other activities
                      e) Discussion on Open Source Strategy by Balaji Kesavaraj
                      f) O365 Insights by Manas Biswas
                      g) Evening Party and Connect
   
Second Day:  h) Learnings from Leaders by Sumit
                      i) Staying Ahead of the curve by Pramila
                      j) Web Application Performance by Tulika
                      k) Troubleshooting Azure Websites by Puneet
                      l) Security Measures in Windows 10 by Pradeep
                     m) App Design Best-practices by Amar
                    n) Xamarin in Open Source by Nishanth and Mayur
  

Banging the dong, it was Mayumi Suzuki who started the Event, followed by Alen Li - both of them educated us about the MVP award, what they think of MVP's and also the responsibilities we(MVP's) carry on our shoulder (it's not on paper :)) Both are very sweet and were patiently listening to all our questions

and did answer all the question to our satisfaction except one, why there are less number of female MVP's   :) .

Among the rest sessions, most of them were intended to give us the insights and future plans of Microsoft around the various technologies, following with questions/answers and feedback on the same. No more I can say on this as I might violate the NDA (Non Disclosure agreement).

But there were two sessions that were on par (for me), session by Dr. Nitin Paranjape on Microsoft Office, I jotted down two things in my mind after his session -

 1. We are not to help software to do its work, instead it's the software which is intended to help us

 2. To get more you need to hit the More button ( More, F1, Advanced section etc.). 

The other session was by Pramila Matthew, Staying ahead of the curve. Everyone was totally engrossed and involved right from the start till the end of session. We were on our feet and clapping for her as she concluded, she very humbly accepted it. For me she is the real epitome of determination, inspiration, focus, optimism etc. Take away from her session are many but in one sentence "You just need believe in your self and nothing shall hold back you".

No it wasn't all sessions, there were fun activities too. Biplab and Gandharv very well planned the event so that we(the MVP's) get time to interact with each other and socialize. It was the dinner party after the first day sessions with Ethnic theme, allowed us to mingle. It was very interesting and great to experience the profoundness of all, they are just brilliant.

 

Baithak after second day sessions lasted till 1 - 1:30 am 

Last to Mention but not least, you can't do well if you are not healthy - yes there was yoga sessions too instructed by fellow MVP Vijay Agarwal.

Being an Integration MVP, I wanted to have something related to BizTalk Server. It was sweet surprise to meet Abhishek Kumar who is recently awarded as MVP, we did share some insights about and around BizTalk.

So was my expectations met? - No , it was more than expected, with back to back sessions and fun activities in between, wonderful and truly learning experience it was MVP open day 2015 so far with so many moments to cherish !!!!! 

Related Post By Other MVP's

1. Review by Kapil Arya
2. Review by RaviKumar 
3. Review by Tadit Das