Steve Ballmer Addresses Microsoft MVPs

I was fortunate to attend the MVP Global Summit in Seattle, WA last week. It was such an amazing experience, and I have many things I want to talk about here in my blog. The first thing I have to discuss, however, is Steve Ballmer’s speech to us.

Whether you love or hate Ballmer, he is a dynamic speaker. He came jumping out on the stage, yelling and clapping. He was fired up. In turn, over 1400 MVPs got fired up quite quickly. We were responding and clapping, firing back answers and questions of our own. This was the first time I have ever seen Steve speak publicly, and you can bet it won’t be the last. After all these years, despite the company downturns and criticism he’s faced… Steve Ballmer is still passionate and excited about his job. How many of you can say the same?

One moment of particular hilarity occurred when Steve asked us how many of us use Microsoft Live Search as our default search engine. Only a few people raised their hands. He then asked how many of us regularly use Yahoo search… even fewer people raised their hands. He shook his head and quipped “We offered $31 a share for that?!”. We all roared with laughter. Then the big question… how many of us use Google? Cheers went up, lots of applause was heard, and nearly every hand was raised. Steve issued a challenge to us, right then and there. He promised much better things to come very soon with Microsoft Live Search, and asked us to commit to one full week of using it when the next release comes out. He then tossed us his personal email address, and asked all MVP attendees to email him our experiences and feedback… positive AND negative. Everyone agreed, and I know that I for one will live up to that promise. I will give Live Search a fair trial, and report my experiences to Steve.

Another thing that he stated… in front of the press, no less… had many of us with our mouths literally on the floor. He said, and I quote: “Windows Vista… a work in progress”. WHAT? FINALLY! Someone at Microsoft acknowledges what all of us have struggled with for so long now. He fully admitted that Vista has problems. He didn’t tiptoe around it. He laid it out on the line. He also said that Vista is “a very important piece of work and I think we did a lot of things right and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from.”

Am I suddenly in love with everything Microsoft after Steve’s talk? Absolutely not. Am I a “fanboi”?? HELL no. I still have my rants, and some of those were aired to the proper people at the Summit. The beauty of the Summit is that they actually really LISTEN to the MVPs. They are wise enough to know we are the ones out there in the trenches day after day, helping people with issues they have with all things Microsoft. We know what works, and what doesn’t. We know what’s needed to make each product better, and stronger. They recognize that, and they embrace what we have to say.

That feels damn good, let me tell you. Thanks, Steve, for an invigorating talk… for being HONEST with us… and for truly caring to hear what we have to say.