Archive
Microsoft MVP Award – April 2013
We had a lot of exciting activities, events and engagements during the last few months.
And time really passes by when you enjoy yourself doing these kind of things.
Other than the local events (which are lot, considering Microsoft events and User Groups/Community events), we had the MVP Global Summit 2013 in Seattle, WA which was a stunning experience! MVPs had the opportunity to interact not only among themselves (which I think brings a lot of adding value in terms of networking and mingling) but also with the Product Teams, the Teams who actually build and develop Microsoft Products. And that is only the tip of the iceberg, only one of the things you can get from the event itself …
Also, we recently had a refresh of the MVP Award Website, which, IMHO, is the best we ever had. A brand new website with tons of features and content (I love it !)
But, back to the topic:
Congratulations to the newly Awarded Microsoft MVPs (sorted by name), living in Central, Eastern Europe (excluding Russia and CIS Countries) and Italy:
| Influencer | Technical Expertise | Country |
| Alexandru Dionisie | Office365 | Romania |
| Bruno Kovačić | Windows Azure | Croatia |
| Danijel Malik | Visual Studio ALM | Slovenia |
| Dávid Fülöp | Visual C# | Hungary |
| Fabio Franzini | SharePoint Server | Italy |
| István Király | Setup & Deployment | Hungary |
| Luchian Grigore | Visual C++ | Romania |
| Marek Chmel | SQL Server | Czech Republic |
| Pataridis Panagiotis | Remote Desktop Services | Greece |
| Patrick Lamber | SharePoint Server | Italy |
| Toni Petrina | Visual C# | Croatia |
A BIG CONGRATS to the Microsoft MVPs who have been renewed this Award cycle: the list is long so I apologize in advance if I don’t post the whole list but I still want to congratulate them for their community involvement. Being renewed is as tough as being awarded for the first time and being involved in the online and offline community environments is a challenge.
And for the ones who didn’t make it, don’t lose hope: I’m sure if you put a little extra effort you’ll be able to get the Award again.
BTW, If you want to know more about the MVP Award Program, subscribe to our blog and check our Facebook Page to know more about it…
Enjoy your Award, hoping this would also be a nice Easter Holiday gift 
Microsoft MVP Award – January 2012 !
It has been an incredible year, full of events and activities embracing new technology directions which will impact us in the future. Well, it has an impact on a lot of us already, if you think about Windows Phone and the social media integration as a well as the XBOX gaming gaming experience. Some people like it, some people don’t but you have to admit it’s a step further compared to a “normal” Smartphone experience.
Ok, ok, next blog post I’m gonna talk about that, not on this one . Aren’t you a little curious to see who got the MVP Award this cycle? It’s always a pleasure for me to Welcome new people as exceptional community Leaders, online and/or offline. I’m not saying they were not Leaders and strong community-oriented guys before the Award, I’m just saying I’m truly honored when I award people like that and I’m more when I have the chance to meet them.
So here is the list, freshen up & ready for the 2012 Year (sorted by name):
| MVP | Technical Expertise | Country |
| Adis Jugo | SharePoint Server | Bosnia-Herzegovina |
| Boris Ulik | Enterprise Security | Slovakia |
| Drahoslav Dvorak | Project | Czech Republic |
| Gabriel Enea | ASP.NET/IIS | Romania |
| Hrvoje Hudoletnjak | ASP.NET/IIS | Croatia |
| Maciej Grabek | Windows Phone Development | Poland |
| Mihai Nadas | Windows Azure | Romania |
| Nenad Trajkovski | Project | Croatia |
| Sebastian Wilczewski | Project | Poland |
| Slaven Sola | SQL Server | Croatia |
(this is related to the Region I represent, which is CEE & Italy, excluding Russia and CIS Countries).
A BIG CONGRATS to you guys MVPs and of course to the ones that have been re-Awarded. And being re-Awarded is tough as well so don’t you think MVPs take it for granted. The MVP Award lasts 12 months and everybody are treated as normal candidates so I totally understand the excitement (and sometimes the pain ) to wait for an email saying that you’ve been Awarded again.
That said, I sincerely want to wish you a very Happy New Year and, if took some time off, Happy Holidays ! I’ll be on holiday for a while but I’ll still be around (you’ll definitely find me on Twitter ).
BTW, If you don’t know nothing about the MVP Award Program, please take some time to subscribe to our blog as you’ll find some interesting stories to read…
Also, did you notice my blog URL has changed? The RSS Feed has been automatically updated but I wanted to let you know anyway (some personal promotion doesn’t hurt )
Enjoy your Award and Congratulations Again !
Microsoft MVP Award – April 2011 Awards !
Everytime is a challenge, everytime is a “working hard” to make sure all the valuable members of the Communities are Awarded. It’s a process that never ends…
And it’s not that easy, monitoring all the Communities in CEE & Italy (the Region I represent, excluding Russia & CIS Countries), and find the “best of the best” inside those entities.
But I’m helped, of course: thanks to the continuous commitment of the Microsoft local Subsidiaries, and the help of the MVPs themselves, we get new outstanding nominations throughout the Region every Quarter.
So what can I say, apart from CONGRATULATING the new and re-awarded MVPs?
I never experienced that but, if I would be a technical expert in the IT Industry, getting the MVP Award e-mail should be really satisfying, from a personal and professional standpoint.
I always feel the excitement from the new MVPs, but also from the ones who are renewed, it’s still a very emotional part of their jobs and careers.
And this is thanks to what you do, on a voluntarily basis, that makes you a Microsoft MVP, even if you are not “MVP-branded” yet . Doing communities activities, being available to the local subsidiaries when it comes to do technical presentations or articles or whatever it is, you’re part of the Community Ecosystem as an “Influencer”. People listen to you, listen to your advice, and take actions on your technical feedback. And this is definitely TRUST, something you gain year over year with your continuous effort in helping the communities grow from a technical perspective. So this is just to say THANK YOU, again, for what you do.
Back to the April Award Cycle, I’m very happy to announce the new MVPs (sorted by name):
| Influencer | Country/Region | Technical Expertise |
| Alberto Ferrari | Italy | SQL Server |
| Anton Staykov | Bulgaria | Windows Azure |
| Bahrudin Hrnjica | Bosnia-Herzegovina | Visual C# |
| Daniel Stefaniak | Poland | Management Infrastructure |
| Dimitris Papadimitriou | Greece | Connected System Developer |
| Francesco Sodano | Italy | SharePoint Server |
| Igor Pavlekovic | Croatia | Exchange Server |
| Jevgeni Tsaikin | Estonia | Device Application Development |
| Marcin Dembowski | Poland | Internet Explorer |
| Marcin Iwanowski | Poland | Expression Blend |
| Mirko Mainetti | Italy | Dynamics NAV |
| Nicola Ferrini | Italy | App-V |
| Toomas Ruus | Estonia | Exchange Server |
(as soon as you’ll publish the news on your blogs and/or on your MVP Profiles, I will add the links to your name so anyone can see who you are ).
I won’t put the list of all the re-awarded MVPs as it’s very long but, if you ask me to do it, I’ll do it !
Of course we had some declined MVPs. And this is natural: sometimes people don’t have time to dedicate to the communities anymore, some others changed jobs so this make it difficult for them to be active again: any other reason in between I don’t want to lose connections with these guys because I’m sure, sooner or later, they’ll come back again !
BTW, If you don’t know nothing about the MVP Award Program, why don’t you subscribe to our blog? You’ll definitely find some good interesting stories to read about !
That said, Enjoy your Award and talk to you soon !
Code Camp 2010 (F.Y.R.O. Macedonia)
On 6th of November the Macedonian .NET User Group, under the hat of INETA and Microsoft organized Code Camp 2010 event in Skopje, Macedonia.
With more than 500 attendees, they broke a record for community event in the F.Y.R.O. Macedonia. Free online registration service for this event was used. After the first event announcement in their newsletter, they saw some 200 registrations on the very first day!
In the end, on 5th of November an astonishing number of 690 registered attendees was reached.
Some Quick Facts:
- Date: 06.11.2010
- Venue: FON University – Skopje
- 500 attendees
- Live Meeting 200 streaming sessions attendees
- 70 prizes
- 10h recorder presentation materials
- 1500 photos
- 3h video recorded material from the event
- 300 liters juice and water for refreshment
- 600 coffees, 600 teas, 400 chocolates & 60kg snacks
- 22 members in the organization board
Everyone that could not reach the event on-site at the Venue could follow the sessions live, through MS Live Meeting streaming. Statistics shows about 200 Live Meeting attending sessions during the 10 hours of presentations – much more than expected.
CodeCamp was published on social networks like Twitter where each sessions start was announced. All attendees were joined on their mobile devices on the open Wi-Fi network. They were actively participating in the online conversations, commenting about sessions, speakers and the event.
The event saw the participation of 10 speakers, of which some of them MVPs and others from the MKDOT.NET community), in two tracks (here is the agenda of the event)
The feedback got was great, one of the best community event ever held in the Republic of Macedonia.
If you wanna see what happened there, just click on this link …
Microsoft MVP Award – January 2011 Awards !
I’m always happy to see new Microsoft MVPs coming onboard. No matter what the Country is, what language is, what the activities are, there’s one thing in common and I’ll never stop saying this out loud: PASSION.
Together with other Microsoft MVPs, the local subsidiaries and Microsoft Corporation, we identified top community contributors, within many different areas of expertise, who really deserved the MVP Award !
Particularly for the Region I represent (CEE & Italy), I would like to announce the newly awarded MVPs as of the 1st of January, 2011:
| Name | Technical Expertise | Country |
| Alvise Cervellati | Windows Expert-Consumer | Italy |
| Catalin Gheorghiu | Device Application Development | Romania |
| Darius Porowski | Virtual Machine | Poland |
| Fabrizio Volpe | Directory Services | Italy |
| George Andritsos | Exchange Server | Greece |
| George Varakis | Lync | Greece |
| Heiki Tahis | Windows Expert-IT Pro | Estonia |
| Joanna Vathis | Exchange Server | Greece |
| Marcin Borecki | Internet Explorer | Poland |
| Massimo Bonanni | Visual Basic | Italy |
| Matteo Pagani | Device Application Development | Italy |
| Michele Aponte | ASP.NET | Italy |
| Pawel Wilkosz | SQL Server | Poland |
| Philippos Panagiotidis | Office System | Greece |
| …. | Windows Azure | Italy |
| Sabrina Cosolo | Visual C# | Italy |
| Tomasz Onyszko | Enterprise Security | Poland |
| Tomaz Scavnicar | Internet Explorer | Slovenia |
| Ugo Sansone | Windows Live Messenger | Italy |
| Zoltan Zombory | Office365 | Hungary |
(as soon as they’ll publish the news on their blogs and/or on their MVP Profiles, I will add the names so you’ll get to know them 
).
Congratulations !! I think this is the best time of the year as you celebrated the New Year in the best possible way !!
And of course Congratulations to the re-awarded MVPs (and you know who you are !! 
)
BTW if you want to know more about the MVP Award Program, be sure to read our blog and follow me
Sinergija 10 & more !
I took some time this morning to recap on the recent event in which I had the pleasure to participate. It was in Belgrade, Serbia, and I already talked about the previous one in this post.
Sinergija is one of the most important event in the Balkans, together with some other events. ITPros and Developers had the chance to interact with each other and meet a lot of Microsoft folks and international speakers sharing their experiences on Microsoft products.
Also, this year Sinergija was at it 10th anniversary, which made the event even more important.
My colleague and friend Borko Kovacevic wrote some notes regarding the event which I guess it’s nice to share with you. Sinergija 10 gathered more than 1500 people on each of five days of the conference, and more than 3000 people on all Sinergija related events!
Some numbers:
5 days
150 technical presentations
30 business presentations
30 conference partner
1500 people on Technical Conference
700 people on Business Summits
150 speakers
80 IT Influencers from all over CEE
100 Press Representatives
150 Sinergija staff members
120 MS employees
1.500 people on Sinergija Party
1000 visitors of gaming and EXPO events per day
I specifically highlighted the Influencer n° as, together with the CEE HQ, we organized an Influencer Summit inside the event, where MVPs, Regional Directors, Student Partners and “Influencers” could meet and interact with us for a full day.
There were a lot of people who I personally met during other events and I have to tell how much I appreciated all the discussions and talks with them, representing almost 15 Countries in Central and Eastern Europe. MVPs from Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Poland, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.), Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania, I can’t even mention all the people that was there. We also had Tomislav Bronzin (Vice President INETA Europe) and Bernardin Katic (Director at Large) who represented INETA Europe and GITCA who were available for discussing community and User Group issues and requests. Even the local General Manager from Microsoft Serbia came and make a short speech during our event which I think was fantastic !
In the evening, the organizers gathered speakers and Influencers for a dinner on a boat. We had a bus talking us from the hotel to the restaurant and the venue was really super ! We had the chance to talk about different topics but, fore and foremost, having all these Countries represented for me was a great experience (it’s always is).
There are several anecdotes I would like to share: on a personal note, I really appreciated the chat I had with MVP Bojan Jovicic about social skills (thank you for your advices !!)
And I’d also like to ad we had a great time talking about communities with Valdis Iljuconoks (nominated as the Official CEE MVP Photographer 
) and Maciej Pilecki !
There are several pieces of experiences I grab with myself after the event. One in particular, which is nothing new but worth to mention is:
“Strategies are important, but without relationships they are gonna fail”
See you soon !
Announcing newly Awarded Microsoft MVPs – October 2010
This is another exciting quarter for my Company, the Communities and the Microsoft MVPs. New products coming up with new exciting features, new product launches and Community Tours, new topics to discuss in the forums and, most of all, new MVPs onboard 
!
And I’m happy to announce that we Awarded 13 new Microsoft MVPs in some of the Countries I represent as a Community manager:
| MVP | Country | Technical Expertise |
| Adam Granicz | Hungary | Visual C# |
| Daniel Potyrala | Poland | Windows Desktop Experience |
| Domagoj Pavlešić | Croatia | Silverlight |
| Domantas Jovaišas | Lithuania | ASP/ASP.NET |
| Efran Cobisi | Italy | PowerShell |
| Beppe Platania | Italy | Windows Embedded |
| Jacek Światowiak | Poland | Forefront |
| Lukasz Grala | Poland | SQL Server |
| Renato Marzaro | Italy | Visual Basic |
| Senad Zeco | Slovenia | Windows Desktop Experience |
| Sergio Govoni | Italy | SQL Server |
| Tomica Kaniski | Croatia | Management Infrastructure |
| Toni Frankola | Croatia | SharePoint Services |
Congratulations for this achievement: I can’t wait to start collaborating with you moving forward. And of course Congratulations to the re-awarded MVPs !
I’m also proud to recognize that, among the Region, we have now 2 Windows Azure MVPs so congrats to you guys too !!
I know it’s hard to keep that status active, but this means your passion to help others and your community engagement is still present in you and I’m honored to be part of this great group !!
If you want to know more about the MVP Award Program, be sure to read our blog and follow me if you want to 
Microsoft Technology Summit 2009
Around 3000 people expect including almost 600 people from the communities.
These are some of the numbers of the most important Microsoft Conference happening in Warsaw on September 29-30: the Microsoft Technology Summit 2009 !
MTS 2009 is Poland’s largest technology conference aimed at IT professionals, developers, and enthusiasts of new technologies.
Highlighting MVPs Kimberly Tripp, Grzegorz Tworek, Paweł Pławiak, Jacek Doktór, Sebastian Wilczewski, Bartosz Pampuch, Marlon Grech and many other International colleagues and IT professionals, the 2 days will be differentiated in 13 different areas:
Thus touching a lot of different Microsoft technologies and products: from Visual Studio 2010 to the System Center family, from Exchange 2010 to Windows 7 etc etc…
Even if my Polish is almost at a scholar level, I’ll definitely be there !!
Link to: Microsoft Technology Summit 2009 | 29-30 września 2009 | PKiN Warszawa
TechDays 2008 – Epilogue
And yet another great event is over..
We have been doing this event for about 4 years and, as the MVP Community evolved, we really made great steps. The steps I’m talking about are not only about us, doing the Ask The Expert and the MVP Interactive Panel with 13 MVPs as speakers and 8 as active participants, but I’m also talking about the event organization: the TechDays/WPC 2008
Around 400 participants had the opportunity to see many professional ITPros and Developers, on a 3 days event, covering 70 sessions over 14 tracks (from Architecture to Data Platform to Business Intelligence and so forth).
It was about meeting people: the talks and the discussions, mingling together with the same passion to share. Absolutely amazing !
The guest speakers made clearly a difference (David Chappell with his speech on Cloud Computing was simply brilliant!) but I can’t mention all the positive feedback I received from the attendees talking about all the other speeches.
Every time it’s a privilege for me to represent these exceptional community leaders, as we are not talking about mere skills, we are talking about dealing with people that really has a great passion to share, open minded and available to participate to meet other people hungry for knowledge.
I recall a guy telling me: “For me, solving a technical problem for which an IT department/a developer is stuck for days/months with just a face-to-face chat, really pays my day”. And this is exactly what fosters these people (as I said) I have the honor to represent…
I have a lot of special thanks but please let me do just one to Giorgio Garcia-Agreda and Anna Cometti who made the “MVP Experience” so special… !
MVP Award Program – July 08
Indeed it is time again to announce the newly awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals in Italy for the first of July, 2008:
Please join me in congratulating Alessandro Del Sole for his MVP Award in the Visual Basic technical expertise !!
“But why are you posting in English?”, you might ask… Because, as of the 1st of July, I will also be responsible, as part of the MVP Organization, for the following Countries:
- Baltic Regions (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
- Cyprus
- Greece
- Malta
- and of course Italy
“What does that mean?” It means I’ll be the relationship manager for all the MVPs living in the above Countries.
“Yes, but, could you be a little bit more specific?” . Well, I’ll be their point of contact, the one that finds new opportunities and interactions with the local Subsidiary, the one that manages and escalates issues and provide feedback, the one that will help the local Office find extremely valuable professionals candidates living in these Countries and so forth…
You can’t imagine how excited I am for this new challenge and I would like to thank my boss Çigdem Akin for giving me this amazing opportunity.
So…
Congratulations to Aggelos Mpimpoudis (XNA/DirectX), John Katsiotis (ASP/ASP.NET), both from Greece, and to Sergejus Barinovas (Visual C#) from Lithuania for their well-deserved achievement ! And, of course, congratulations to all the re-awarded MVPs (I presume you already received the Welcome email ! )
I’m so thrilled to start this new exciting adventure and, believe me, I’m more motivated than ever to start new engagements, new technical interactions and all the other networking opportunities the MVP Award has to offer! (and yes, It’ll be fun! Did you doubt that?! 
)
about.me
Alessandro Teglia
EMEA Regional Manager @Microsoft
Social. Connected. Digital Enthusiast. Online & Offline Community Influencer & Follower. Avid audio book reader, rookie Photographer, History fan. Addicted to #WindowsPhone... #Branding is my Passion
World Map
My bookshelf
My PhotoStream
|
