Have Your Best Season Yet: Becoming a (Microsoft) MVP

Learn how following your passion and deepening your technical area of focus can help you create a wide-sweeping impact and how you can be awarded as an MVP! The MVP community is comprised of over 4,000 MVPs worldwide, and offers you a rich and diverse network of talented tech experts who can help you learn new skills and advance your career. As an MVP, you also gain insider access to Microsoft product development teams, and a plethora of other benefits. Come join the discussion and learn how to reap the rewards of your best season yet! I delivered this talk at CodeMash in Sandusky, Ohio, and had a panel of 7 MVPs speak for part of the session to educate attendees on how they can be awarded in the future. Many of the attendees noted on Twitter that this was their favorite session of CodeMash. Attendees have appreciated the transparency and awareness I bring to the MVP nomination process through this talk. It is also a great way for attendees to meet Microsoft MVPs and make connections with other community leaders since much of the talk is driven by questions from the audience. This talk is ideally suited to community leaders and those active in the community (speakers, bloggers, etc), but is also suitable for attendees who are new to the community and looking to build connections to widen their impact.

• Lisa Anderson

  1 Recording

  Lisa Anderson is Microsoft’s US Central Region Community Program Manager – responsible for the Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals Program (MVP) and Regional Directors Program in the Central United States (all of the states in between the coasts). In her previous role at Microsoft, Lisa worked in the Microsoft Services group as a Technical Account Manager responsible for managing Premier Services account portfolios for several enterprise customers in the legal and commercial real estate industries. In her four years at Microsoft, Lisa has also been a community leader for Microsoft’s MACH program (Microsoft Academy of College Hires) and assists in recruitment and interviewing efforts for university hires all over the USA. Lisa attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Go Badgers!) and earned a BA in psychology. She aims to combine her background and passion for psychology to help people in the tech industry do their best work and lead their most fulfilling and balanced lives. She can be found at technical conferences speaking about how positive leadership strategies can help leaders and community members become more successful and productive. Outside of work, Lisa enjoys traveling (she has visited 13 countries outside the US so far and always planning her next trip!). When not on the move, she enjoys a nice brandy Old Fashioned and Wisconsin Fish Fry back at her parents’ home in Wausau, WI. Her other interests include cooking, hiking, skiing, and petting cats.

• Little Rock Tech Fest 65 Recordings

• Microsoft MVP 1 Recording