I was already excited today to be spending my first Canada day with my four month old son, Dominic and my lovely wife. Today ended up being even better than expected as it was almost like Christmas for me, and Sasha was Santa Clause. I had received my official “Congratulations, you have been awarded a Microsoft MVP”! Tears nearly came to my eyes. I must admit, my wife was very confused by my emotions and thought I had hurt myself in bed or something.
Seriously though, I did have a few tears! After all, I am a geek and I always wondered if I would ever be even nominated, let alone inducted into the Microsoft House of Representatives (as per Scott Hanselman). Seriously though, I am very humbled to have received a Microsoft MVP for Expression. I’ve always thought that Software Development and software in general was a powerful way that I could affect change in the world, and with others, create some pretty awesome and sometimes life changing applications. When Microsoft released Expression Studio, they ushered in a new era of designer and developer workflow tools that I was freaking ecstatic about! I’m extremely honoured to be among the likes of Scott Hanselman, D’Arcy Lussier, Derek Hatchard, and some other pretty awesome guys I don’t have room to list. I can’t believe I put Scott Hanselman and D’Arcy Lussier in the same sentence! Just kidding 
A Huge Thank You
I wanted to thank everyone that made this happen, especially Sasha Krsmanovic. For those that don’t know Sasha “Superman” Krsmanovic, he is the MVP Lead for Canada, and the one that makes MVP’s happen in Canada. He puts in some pretty amazing work to making sure the program grows, and runs amazingly well! I also want to thank all the Winnipeg .net User Group members and the board of directors for making the last year a great one filled with pizza, board meetings at earls, and some freaking awesome presentations.
I also wanted to thank John Bristowe as well for really helping me get involved in the community and taking the time to chat any time I needed him. He is a freaking awesome developer and Microsoft Evangelist in the truest sense.
Many more thank you’s to everyone that has had involvement in my career like Joel Semeniuk (Microsoft Regional Director). It has been a great ride, and how can it not be when you do what you love. I loved meeting all you fellow Influencers this year in Toronto, and look forward to next year!
Karaoke Anyone?
So I now join other Winnipegers like Darcy Lussier and Eric Legault. One thing I noticed is we are all clearly lovers of the performing arts. I have a Karaoke setup in my living room complete with smoke machines, lasers, and strobe lights. Maybe the Winnipeg boys should put together a band for next years MVP Summit and blow the roof off of the house!
You haven’t seen D’Arcy Lussier’s performance of "I Touch Myself" at this years MVP Summit, you have to check it out below. I warn you it is a little disturbing to say the least.
Video: MVP Summit Karaoke- D’Arcy and Divnyls
Also you should take a few minutes to watch the performance of "Enter Sandman" by Eric Legault. Eric is also an MVP from Winnipeg, he is an MVP in Outlook.
Video: MVP Summit Karaoke – Eric Legault and Metallica
So What’s Next
I am really looking forward to speaking at more user groups and conferences over the next little while and speaking with software developers and designers. At Anvil Digital, we have some pretty awesome RIA Applications under development and have really taken it upon ourselves to come up with some awesome workflow procedures and development practices for building these applications. I’m hoping through making connections with other software developers, we can share some of our knowledge, and in turn learn from other developers as well!
I am hoping that through this blog, we can get more developers interested in software development, and really grow our development community here in Canada specifically. We are facing a huge problem when it comes to skilled IT workers in Canada, and as successful as Microsoft, or any other company may be, without the skilled workers, we are going to have a tough time filling positions here in Canada and will have to look at other options.
My other goal of course is to get developers interested in building Rich Internet Applications using the Microsoft Expression Suite of tools, and the Silverlight add-on for Visual Studio. If you were to ask me, what are the coolest things Microsoft is working on right now that has the potential to flip the industry on its head, its by far Silverlight, Expression, and Mesh.
Let’s make it a great year! Enjoy the summer, make plans to take over the universe, and execute your plans like crazy! Maybe that’s what makes Winnipeg a hub for great software development talent, we have only a few months of summer, and then many months of Winter! All we can do is program, sing Karaoke, play Rock Band, and drink fantastic beer!