California has a new Microsoft MVP!

2016 is going to be a great year. I had a fun, quiet evening last night and woke up feeling as I have many January 1st’s.

Another day, another year.

But not this year. This year, this 1st, is different.

Like most others, I have the day off so I slept in past 7, grabbed my tea and settled into my newspaper. Sadly I do keep my phone near by even on holidays, but I was expecting a very slow day, a day to catch up. Then my phone dinged with a new email. A glance over, and what do I see?

Congratulations 2016 Microsoft MVP!

Are you kidding me! I jumped online and found the following email waiting for me.

I do not have words to fully explain how honored I am to join the ranks of so many others in the Microsoft community, in particular those in the Office 365, SharePoint and Yammer communities, that I look up to and am constantly inspired by.

The Journey

I have been working in the Microsoft ecosystem since 1998. In 2004 I was first introduced to SharePoint, and well, I wasn’t impressed. I am a branding guy, what can I say. SharePoint was just difficult to customize back then. By 2008, I got a hold of SharePoint 2007 and that made sense. Master Pages, Page Layouts, SharePoint Designer. Ah ha, here is something.

Unfortunately I hacked away, unaware that there was this amazing community of like minded hackers until 2011. In May of 2012 I attended my first SharePoint Saturday as a speaker, SharePoint Saturday Silicon Valley 2012. I attended a few other regional SharePoint Saturdays, started to attend local SPUG’s (shout out to San Francisco and Silicon Valley SharePoint User Group), and later in 2012 raised my hand and offered to help organize the second SharePoint Saturday Sacramento 2012.

I was hooked. The SharePoint community rocked and I enjoyed being a part of it. Blog posts, helping organize SharePoint Saturdays (join us in Sacramento and Silicon Valley), SharePoint conferences, user groups (SharePoint Breakfast Sacramento and East Bay SPUG) community discussion boards, it has all been such a lively group for a geek such as myself.

The People

I have enjoyed the journey to where I am now, but I have to thank many of my mentors and friends that helped me help the community. Brian Alderman and Michael Doyle are the first people I truly met in the SharePoint community. Naomi Moneypenny, Christian Buckley, Jason Himmelstein, and Benjamin Niaulin have shown me what it means to give much more than you take. Michael Doyle and Paul Olenick have been partners in crime with making SharePoint Saturday Sacramento and SharePoint Saturday Silicon Valley successful events. Mark Kashman and Bill Baer have supported me and given me the opportunity to share what I have learned. Big thanks to me team at PixelMill who have shown me patience and supported me. And of course everyone in the SharePoint community. My peeps at PixelMill laugh at me every time I say it, I love my job, I love the community I have had the amazing fortune to have found. You all give me the motivation to share, teach, contribute and enjoy. If not for the amazing community, I would not be here now.

The Challenge

I am beyond honored to have received this MVP Award from Microsoft. Now it is time to roll up my sleeves and get back to work for this outstanding community. You all have come to expect only the best from MVP’s and I intend to prove that Microsoft did not make a mistake bestowing their award upon me.

Thank you

Eric