I am, of course, constrained in what I can share with you from our meetings today in Microsoft’s MVP global summit. Five other Zune MVPs and I spent a full and fascinating day with various members of Microsoft’s Zune team.

I thought I would share, though, a few behind-the-scenes pix from the past day.

As the opening introduction session kicked off, the giant screens displayed some example accomplishments of Zune MVPs this past year. I was late for this section, stuck in my car by I-5’s construction delays. As I neared the convention center, I received a text from my friend Grahm of anythingbutipod.com:

“Dude, you were just on the 20 foot screen on the keynote stage”.

Me: “You can’t be serious!”

Grahm: “Totally, your head was like 4 feet tall.”

Grahm snapped a pic and twittered it. (Thanks, Corrine, for finding that twitter pic!) That was a nice, surprising way to start the conference!

The Summit is a grand affair. There are about 4,000 MVPs worldwide that cover Microsoft’s many product areas. (I believe there are now eight Zune MVPs.) This map shows the home locations of the MVPs who are attending the sessions this week:

After the opening, we got a chance to mingle with the other MVPs as well as with our MVP lead from Microsoft. For some reason, the Xbox MVPs and the Zune MVPs seem to gravitate to each other. We’re all part of the digital media area, and there is some crossover and is likely to be more of that in the future. Zune MVP Drea (from beetstro.com) in particular has a connection with both groups through her blogs and her work with GamerTagRadio.

Early this morning, we were bussed from downtown Seattle to the Microsoft campus in Redmond. The passion of the Zune team for music is evident throughout the sprawling building. (The Zune software and Zune hardware teams continue to be co-located, at least for now, despite their recent realignments.) Here’s a nice sound system consisting of several hundred Watts of audio power and a little 16GB flash Zune.

A wall-full of old LPs makes for some fun memories. I’m the only MVP old enough to remember some of these albums, at least in their vinyl form.

Here are the fellow MVPs learning about upcoming directions for Zune. That’s Drea (http://www.beetstro.com), Jason (http://www.zunethoughts.com), Patrick (http://www.zunetracks.net), and Jessica (from the Zune team).

… and here are Grahm (http://www.anythingbutipod.com) and Marques (http://www.insidethecircle.net).

Tomorrow is another full day of sessions with various aspects of the Zune team. The access provided by Microsoft’s MVP program is really fantastic and, to Microsoft’s credit, they really seem to listen to the MVPs as representatives of the Zune community overall.

Comments

And, timely enough, I will be in Redmond the week after next, for the annual MVP global summit. This is a highlight of the year for me, and a chance to engage in meaty ways with Microsoft’s teams responsible for Zune software, hardware, user suppport, and social.

As usual, I’ll be wearing my NDA hat. But tell me, Zuners: what are some things I should be looking for, and questions I should be asking, as I interact with the Zune team members (hardware and software) while I’m on campus?

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I recently learned that I’ve been selected as a Zune MVP for 2008/2009. This is a renewal of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional award that I received last year.

There are about 4,000 MVPs worldwide, covering all Microsoft products. This award gives me a little bit of access to the Zune team and a chance to provide input to them from our Zunerama community.

That means a lot to me, and really makes me appreciate our forum community. You “are” this site, and make this place worthy of this recognition from Microsoft. Thanks for that!!

Who knows what delights are in store for us in the year ahead..?!