One of the best benefits of being awarded an MVP is that I get to go to the MVP Summit. The Summit is held in Seattle and brings together MVPs from all over the world to attend both technical and executive sessions. Being a newly awarded MVP, I was looking forward to attending my first summit.

I left Brisbane last Saturday (10th March) on a direct flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles. I’ve never really been able to sleep on planes so I enjoyed four movies on the 13 hour flight over the Pacific. A 4 hour transfer in Los Angeles, spent sitting on a truly uncomfortable chair sipping a way-too-hot Starbucks coffee and I was back in the air again, this time on an Alaska Airlines flight. I had quite a surprise on this flight as I stepped aboard a brand new Boeing 737-800 that had a distinctive new-plane smell. One of the friendly cabin crew mentioned that plane was on its third day of service and everything was in pristine working condition. What a treat.

After collecting my luggage, I headed off to the Downtown Airporter bus service for the trip to the Seattle Hilton.

So why am I posting this now? Well two reasons… 1. I’ve had a few emails asking how the summit is going and 2. While I’ve struggled to find time to blog during the trip, I have been jotting my thoughts and experiences down in my PDA so I’ll do the copy & paste thing and post my notes over the next day or two.