Last month I received an email from Microsoft saying: "We’re once again pleased to present you with the 2020-2021 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award". It's the sixth year in which I have been presented with this exceptional award. And every time it happens, I'm truly excited and honored. It means a lot to me, and I want to explain why.
So what does it mean?
The full paragraph in that email goes like this:
"We’re once again pleased to present you with the 2020-2021 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award in recognition of your exceptional technical community leadership. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in the Data Platform technical communities during the past year."
I have been leading the Data Platform community in Israel for many years. We have a big and active community, which I'm very proud to be part of. We meet online almost every week as part of the Data Platform Meetup. We have a very active Facebook group, where people share their knowledge and discuss all kinds of topics. We have a YouTube channel, where people can access the recordings from past events. We even have a podcast - SQL Server Radio (Hebrew and English), where Eitan Blumin and myself talk about all things SQL Server.
My goal as a community leader is to provide as much value as I can to the community. This includes technical learning and sharing, but also career opportunities, business opportunities, and more.
What's in it for me?
Well, first of all, I enjoy it. Honestly. I enjoy seeing the faces of people who have just learned something new and important. I enjoy hearing from people that they solved a technical problem thanks to something they learned in one of our events or thanks to a connection they made. I enjoy seeing people find their next job thanks to opportunities they found in one of our community channels. I enjoy seeing the results of my work. Once in a while, someone comes to me and say: "Thank you for all that you do for this community". It's definitely worth it.
Second, I get a lot of personal value from everything that I do. I get to know a lot of great people, not just in Israel, but also from other countries. I get to know people from our local community, people from Microsoft, fellow MVPs from all over the world, speakers, and more. I also get a lot of opportunities to learn about the Microsoft Data Platform, which is something I really love.
And this is what this community is all about: people and technology.
If you work with the Microsoft Data Platform, or even if you still don't, but you are interested in this area, then come on and join us. Check out all the links I provided above, join the meetup, join the Facebook group, check out the archives in our YouTube channel, subscribe to the podcast. And come say hello.
Yours,
Guy Glantser
(Proud to be) Data Platform MVP
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