A pleasant surprise…

This morning I received a note from the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program stating that I’d been selected as an MVP for technical expertise within the SharePoint Server community.

In a word a few words – stunned, flattered, honored.

I’m flattered and honored to have been recognized by Microsoft. Six years ago I would probably have told you that I never expected to really be that involved with the community – the SharePoint community was just starting to get on board with Twitter and connections were being made between individuals throughout the community across the country. I had met a few folks, Becky Isserman, Eric Harlan, Shadeed Eleazer, John Miller, Dan Lewis, Dux Raymond Sy,  Joel Oleson, Mike Watson, Cathy Dew, Laura Rogers, Lori Gowin, Geoff Varosky, Michael Gannotti, Fabian Williams, Susan Lennon,  Rob Foster, Eric Shupps, and none other than Joel Ward.

Over the years I’ve made several other connections and friendships for a life time with folks like Scott Hoag, Joel Ward and Jason Himmelstein, Cathy Dew, Lori Gowin, Becky Isserman, and Isaac Stith and so many more that I think that I’d run out of room here 🙂

Needless to say, I want to say thank you to the SPS Events crew that I’ve been able to be a part of the past five years. Eric, Tasha, Susan and folks that helped start the group – thanks for giving me the opportunity to be a part of it. To the DC crew, I’d be remiss without saying thanks to Rachel and Adam (and Scott and Isaac of course).

So what changes? Nothing, really. I’m still Dan Usher. Still organizing SPSEvents DC with the help of the crew, still running the Reston SPUG that Scott and I started a bit over a year ago, still toying with Azure and Office 365 in my free waking hours.

I look forward to being able to be a part of the MVP community over this coming next year and hope to be able to continue to support the DC community. Let’s rock and roll friends!