The Road to Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional)

It is with great pleasure that I can share with you all that I am now a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional). The MVP programme (https://mvp.microsoft.com/) is designed to recognise those professionals who give their time to support technical communities and Microsoft. This could be through blogging, speaking at conferences, providing feedback, helping other and contributing code to projects. There are many award categories ranging from PowerPoint to Xbox each with its contribution areas. I was awarded MVP for the Data Platform, which covers SQL Server, Data Lake, HDInsight and many of the topics I am particularly interested in. I exceptionally pleased to be amongst the 19 Data Platform MVPs in the UK and 1 of the 418 Data Platform MVPs worldwide.

In a recent blog by Kevin Kline, Kevin discussed what it takes to be an MVP, in his opinion it all boils down to being passionate about what you do and sharing that passion with others (https://blogs.sentryone.com/kevinkline/how-can-i-become-a-microsoft-mvp/). I could not agree more! I talk at events because I want to help people. I still get so much out of attending sessions and I want to make sure that I give back everything I took from the community. Kevin’s blog gives a fantastic overview of what it takes to become an MVP, well worth a read.

When I first started attending user group and conferences I began to become aware of the term MVP. At that point there was only a handful of MVPs in the UK (At that point you were a SQL Server MVP). Their sessions at conferences were always held in high regard and rightly so, these men and women were at the top of their game. I looked up to these professionals and would always learn something from reading their blogs, books and seeing them talk. When I started talking at user groups and SQL Saturday’s I always wanted to become an MVP, but it was never my reason for presenting, it is now a very happy by-product of giving back to a technical community.

MVP is awarded based on your contributions in the last 12 months, so what have I done in the last 12 months:

• Blogged (http://adatis.co.uk/author/terrymccann/)
• Delivered 25 technical sessions at user groups and conferences
• Spoke at the PASS Summit in Seattle
• Organised a data science meetup

It has been a real blast over the last 12 months, I could not have spoken at so many events without the support of Adatis – so thanks. I want to also thank everyone who took the time to nominate me and for the help and support of Microsoft.

(Some of the MVPs who nominated me – At a recent MVP event)

What will I be doing over the next 12 months? A lot of the same. Although I would like to get a few more blogs written this year. If you want to see me talk. I will be at SQLBits in London in February delivering a pre-conference training day and a general session:

A Data Engineer’s Guide to Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Enhancing relational models with graph in SQL Server 2017

Beyond that, keep an eye out at your local user group or SQL Saturday. See you soon.