On Monday 28th July 2014, I retired from the Microsoft MVP Program after 7 years!  The MVP Program is a fantastic honour and privilege to be a part of and I have interacted with many, many fantastic peers and community members over the years. 

I’ve had to retire because I have joined Microsoft as a Program Manager on the Microsoft Azure Websites Team, a very exciting and interesting opportunity for me!  I’m looking forward to getting up to speed quickly and working with my new team.

I’ll still be as active as I used to be in the community, workload permitting, and look forward to seeing many of you at NEBytes and DDD North as it’s business as usual with both of those.

This afternoon I received an email from Microsoft to tell me that I’d been awarded the 2014 Microsoft MVP Award for ASP.Net/IIS!  This is my seventh MVP Award, I am extremely humble and privileged to be associated with a great group of less than 5000 technical people around the globe.  I’ll be aiming to continue my efforts to help the community and deliver as much content as I can to aid and spread knowledge through events, blogging and social media among other avenues. 

This afternoon I received an email from Microsoft to tell me that I’d been awarded the 2013 Microsoft MVP Award for ASP.Net/IIS!  This is my sixth MVP Award and I’ve mentioned before I am extremely humble to be associated with a great group of less than 5000 technical people around the globe.  I’ll be aiming to continue my efforts to help the community and deliver as much content as I can to aid and spread knowledge. 

Are you interested in getting started with Windows Azure and have are free on Saturday April 27th 2013?  Then why not join me in Bradford at the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp being hosted by Black Marble?  I’ll be joining Microsoft Integration MVP, Robert Hogg, Windows Azure MVP, Steve Spencer and Microsoft Alliance Manager, Linda Hogg to deliver a one day deep dive class which will help you get up to speed with developing for Windows Azure.  This is a great opportunity to get real hands on experience with developing on Windows Azure from professionals who are actively developing solutions on the Windows Azure platform.  Windows Azure is a fantastic platform to develop on and we hope to see many of you at the event getting up to speed with development.

To register for the Bradford event please go to - http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/Register.aspx?Event=Global Windows Azure Boot Camp&Date=27-Apr-2013 and make sure to check out the list of pre-requisites for the bootcamp - http://globalwindowsazure.azurewebsites.net/?page_id=171 – please arrived prepared as we hate for you to miss out on the good stuff and spend the day getting your laptop ready .

If you’re not able to get to Bradford but would still like to take part in the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp be sure to check out all the locations worldwide where other events are running -http://globalwindowsazure.azurewebsites.net/?page_id=151

I’m currently in Redmond, Seattle at the 2011 MVP Global Summit but next week I’m embarking on a User Group tour back home in the UK. I’m covering a number of IIS topics including IIS 7/7.5 for Developers, IIS Media Services and IIS SEO Toolkit.  I’m starting off in Bristol at DotNetDevNet on Monday 7th March 2011 and finishing in Cambridge at NxtGenUG on Thursday 10th March.  I’m really looking forward to visiting new groups and talking to the attendees about these great sessions.

I decided to take a week off work to travel and talk to groups I usually wouldn’t be able to take time out to do so.  Hope to meet lots of new people and catch up with old friends too as I work my way back up the country!  Hope to see you there!

Event Details and Sign Up links:

• “Ba-da-Bing!” Using the IIS SEO Toolkit to Improve Your Site’s Ranking – DotNetDevNet, Bristol, Monday 7th March 2011.
• Say Yes to IIS – NxtGenUG, Oxford, Tuesday 8th March 2011.
• IIS SEO Event – NxtGenUG, Coventry, Wednesday 9th March 2011.
• The Information Super Highway – NxtGenUG, Cambridge, Thursday 10th March 2011

I’ve been sitting writing and submitting session proposals for Developer Day Scotland this evening.  I really enjoy speaking at User Groups and Conferences and am always looking for ways to improve and share knowledge.  In our User Groups i.e. North East Bytes and the Developer Community we actively encourage new speakers, indeed that was the original mandate of the DDD events.  We’re always looking to discover new speakers and to encourage new speakers, be they starting out with a short 10 minute Grok Talk or standing up and delivering a full one hour conference session.

Guy Smith-Ferrier, well respected speaker with over 20 years experience of speaking at User Groups and Conferences such as Tech Ed, has recently published a series of 8 videos on How To Give Great Presentations in addition to his paper which he has previously written on the subject.  Guy is a great speaker and these sessions address key elements of giving great presentations with plenty of tips and information which both new and experienced speakers can use to improve their presentations.  Check them out now,

I don’t often post links to posts from others, however I really wanted to highlight two great resources which two other IIS MVPs have started recently.

IIS Community Newsletter

Steve Schofield has recently published the first IIS Community Newsletter.  The newsletter comprises all of the latest information and happenings in the IIS Community.  If you would like to find out more or register to receive the newsletter go to http://www.iisnewsletter.com and if you have anything you’d like to contribute you can also contribute to the Wiki.  Big thanks to Steve for the mention is the inaugural newsletter for both my Twitter account and for NEBytes

Web Pro Series

Scott Forsyth has recently started a 52 week series of walkthrough videos on a number of topics relevant to IT Pros and Web Developers covering a vast range of topics including

• Troubleshooting essentials;
• Application Request Routing and Load Balancing;
• URL Rewrite;
• SQL Syntax for IT Pros;
• Scripting;
• Command Line Basics;
• IIS Share Configuration;
• Keyboard Shortcuts;

In the first four weeks Scott has covered Ping and Tracert; Understanding DNS Zone Records; Nslookup; Capturing Command Line Output.  It’s a great start and will help to fill gaps in knowledge and also add tools and techniques to your arsenal for resolving issues and implementing technologies in the best way possible based on a wealth of experience. 

As is the case with most of my blog posting of late, it’s well.. late and in a big queue, but seeing this is relatively time sensitive and the fact that I’m over the moon again.  I thought I’d jot a quick post.

Last Thursday (1st July 2010), I was very pleased to receive an email from Microsoft to inform me that I had been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award for 2010 – Internet Information Services (IIS).  This is the third consecutive year I have received this and as I’ve mentioned before I am extremely humble to be associated with a great group of technical people around the globe.  I’ll be aiming to continue my efforts to help the community and deliver as much content as I can to aid and spread knowledge. 

Today I received an email from Microsoft to tell me I’d been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award for 2009, to follow the award which I received in 2008.  I am very pleased, and once again extremely humble to be associated with a great group of very clever people around the globe.  I hope I can continue to server the community in the best way possible over the next year!  First thing on my list is more blog posts as I’ve been neglecting my blog over the last six months and I have lots of content to cover!!

The 24 hours I'm currently writing this post in are all about firsts. First I've just got back from my first ever live gig, and first ever experience of Metallica live! I've been to the Sheffield Arena for the latest leg of Metallica's Death Magnetic tour, it was f***ing AWESOME!!!! Can't wait to do it again! Note to self - why has it taken 28 years for this to happen???? WTF!!

Secondly I'm currently sitting in the departure lounge at Newcastle Airport waiting for my flight to Amsterdam and then onto Seattle for my first MVP Summit! Looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones in what looks to be a packed week ahead!!