Microsoft gives a „Most Valuable Professional” (MVP) award each year to deserving individuals. Individuals that are “technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies.” The nominees convince with their high technical competence, which they record in their contributions (lectures, books, blog articles). In doing so, they make a significant contribution to the community for Microsoft. “Without such an incredibly valuable and dedicated group of people working with us, we couldn’t be successful” – Brian Harry, Microsoft corporate vice president. The individual MVPs form a global community from over 90 countries/regions. On the Lookeen Blog, you can find a series of articles about the MVP experience, and how each person became a part of the “family”. This week, I am very pleased to be able to introduce you to the MVP award winner Siegfried Jagott.
Microsoft gives a „Most Valuable Professional” (MVP) award each year to deserving individuals. Individuals that are “technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with the community. They are always on the “bleeding edge” and have an unstoppable urge to get their hands on new, exciting technologies.” The nominees convince with their high technical competence, which they record in their contributions (lectures, books, blog articles). In doing so, they make a significant contribution to the community for Microsoft. “Without such an incredibly valuable and dedicated group of people working with us, we couldn’t be successful” – Brian Harry, Microsoft corporate vice president. The individual MVPs form a global community from over 90 countries/regions. On the Lookeen Blog, you can find a series of articles about the MVP experience, and how each person became a part of the “family”. This week, I am very pleased to be able to introduce you to the MVP award winner Siegfried Jagott.
The interview is divided into two parts. In the first part, we get to know Mr Jagott personally, while in the second part we will go into more detail about his work as an MVP. What does an MVP actually prefer to do in his spare time and what is his actual job? You can find the answers in the first part of our interview with Siegfried Jagott.
For how long have you been an MVP?
I was named an MVP on January 1, 2013. So, I’ve been one for more than 8 years – which makes me very proud. I have made many great friends in the MVP community, and I always find it exciting to get together with different colleagues at conferences and talk about technical topics.
Click here to view my MVP Profile.
What goals are you pursuing with your homepage or blog (if any)?
I don’t have a homepage or my own blog but was chief editor of the Practical365.com website until last year and published various articles there.
Therefore, I am rather a MVP who works in user groups (e.g. our Teams User Group Nuernberg) or retains the MVP title by participating in conferences through speakers or expert sessions. I am also the author and co-author of numerous books on Windows and Exchange Server.
Who do you follow to stay up to date on Microsoft?
The great thing about the MVP title is to have direct access to the discussion e-mail distribution list or the teams of the Microsoft product groups, so I can talk and chat directly with the developers about bugs or further developments. Since this is unfortunately only possible for MVPs, I recommend the following media to stay up to date: various blogs and Twitter. There I find most of my information, which I then “disseminate” myself:
My Microsoft 365 Blog “Favorites”:
Azure Active Directory Identity Blog
From Microsoft:
- Scott Schnoll @schnoll – Senior Product Marketing Manager for Exchange Online and Exchange Server
- Greg Taylor @gregtaylor_msft – The former Exchange Product Manager at Microsoft – but you can tell in his tweets: His heart still beats for Exchange
- Dominik Hoefling @DominikHoefling – My former colleague who switched to Microsoft in 2021 – always has good information at hand in the Microsoft infrastructure world
MVPs:
- Steve Goodman @stevegoodman – His work on the blogs at allabout365.com or practical365.com is always worth checking out.
- Tony Redmond @ 12Knocksinna – Tony always has a very critical opinion on Microsoft 365 features in Azure AD, Exchange and Teams that look very deep
- Jeff Guilett @expta – excellent exchange of information and always interesting insights.
- Michel de Rooij @mderooij – His Powershell scripts e.g. to automatically load the slides of Microsoft conferences are legendary!
- Frank Carius @msxfaq – certainly the best German-language information about Exchange and Microsoft 365 topics. His blog https://www.msxfaq.de/ is legendary.
- Thomas Poett @ThomasPoett – An ex-colleague and sailing buddy, fellow MVP and an OCS / Lync / Teams Voice luminary. Anyone interested in Teams Voice topics is in very good hands here.
And in the end, I can of course also recommend the Intellity Tweet @intellitynet, where we regularly try to post interesting news about Microsoft infrastructure or my company
What does an MVP like to do in their free time?
I currently prefer to spend my free time with friends or on my sailing boat. Just relax and not sit in front of the computer! Otherwise, I like to travel, where I also meet a lot of MVP friends and of course then discuss technical issues.
And finally my favourite hobby: Sleeping in for a long time. Why? Because I always get to bed relatively late with my evening Microsoft calls from Germany. And when a Microsoft Ignite makes it necessary to have a session at 4:30 in the morning, I’ll be the last to say no!
Thank you very much, Mr Jagott, for this exciting insight into the life and work of an MVP! Do you have any questions about our MVP? Let us know in the comments.
See you soon!
Aline & the Lookeen team
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