This past week I attended my first MVP Summit and I'm happy to report it did not disappoint. Getting to see everyone (sometimes for the first time) and having great conversations was definitely the best part. Oh, and being shown upcoming stuff from the Microsoft product teams didn't hurt either. Some highlights for me, in no particular order:

- Hanging with other Telligenti (RobH, ScottW, ScottD, JasonA, TerriM). Being remote I don't get to see people as much as I'd like, so it was good to have some face time.

- Pwning with Steve Harman. Steve and I hung out quite a bit this week and had a riot the entire time, mostly taking turns pwning one another over Twitter while sitting right next to each other.

- Geek Lager at Kells Irish Pub. This was the last night everyone was there, and according to The Elder, there seemed to be about 75 people in attendance. Definitely a good time, especially all the ribbing I took for drinking Miller Lite in an Irish pub.

- Seeing my buddy Drew Robbins. Drew moved to Seattle about 6 months ago, so it was good to see him and his family again, and they were gracious enough to let me stay with them on Sunday.

- Meeting people I only knew in online form: Scott Koon, Phil Haack, Scott Hanselman, Jon Galloway, Rob Conery, David Laribee, Rick Strahl, and others I know I'm forgetting.

- Chatting with old friends Don Demsak, Darrell Norton, and Jeff Julian.

- Having Jeremy Miller remind me that we met several years ago in previous lives. That was unexpected. I went to say hello and he asked if I remembered him from a project we were both involved in at Nationwide (he came in for a short time as a consultant in his ThoughtWorks days). Once he said that it dawned on me, but before that I never made the connection that he was the same Jeremy Miller. Small world indeed.

- Riding to the product team dinner with ScottGu. This needs a little setup. At the end of the day Tuesday, Steve Harman, Jon Galloway, and myself were waiting around to go to building 42 with Rob Conery. Jon was on the phone with Rob, who said he was with Scott (Hanselman we assumed) and they'd pick us up. By the time they got there, we had to skip the trip to building 42 so that we could make the ASP.NET product team dinner. So when Rob and Scott arrive, Rob calls Jon to say they are out front in a silver car. As we walk out we see Rob in a brand new Infiniti (high end model), at which point I'm thinking, "Damn, Hanselman has some balls to get that for his rental car". But who gets out of the driver side to open the trunk for our bags? Scott Guthrie, not Scott Hanselman. Rob sort of left out that little detail. Anyway, we rolled with it and enjoyed seeing ScottGu drop some f-bombs trying to figure out his new navigation system. Classic.

- Chatting about TDD with Rob Conery. So later on after the product team dinner, I'm at a place called The Palace (I think) throwing a couple back with Rob, Steve Harman, Jon Galloway, Rick Strahl, and Javier Lozano. Rob and I were sitting on one end of the table and at one point we got onto the topic of his venture into TDD, which turned into one of the best conversations I've ever had about how to approach TDD.

- Having the massive lunch tab for 14 people at The Taphouse Grill picked up by Dustin Campbell. Dustin is leaving for Microsoft in a couple weeks, and I think he blew his entire signing bonus :-)

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