After just over three years as a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft, I'm moving.  I'm not leaving Microsoft, and I'm not leaving New Zealand, or even Wellington, but I'm moving teams.

I've had a blast in the Developer Evangelist role, and I've learned heaps.  Its been incredibly rewarding, and I'm glad I stuck it out through the good and bad times.

Where am I going? I'm switching from evangelism to *gasp* marketing. How can that be so?

A few months ago the SQL and Tools Product Manager role became available and I had a good hard think about where I wanted to go and decided that I'd like to learn some new business skills and get some opportunities in other areas of the business.  It turned out that the marketing team weren't just after a marketing grad either - they specifically wanted someone technical - and I'm somewhat technical, which suited them and me perfectly.

So, I'll be sticking around, and I'll be continuing to blog here.  In fact - if you are in the SQL Server, Visual Studio or BizTalk world in New Zealand, you'll want to continue to watch this blog as those products are the ones I'm responsible for in New Zealand.  I'm also going to be responsible for the Forefront security products - more on that in a later post.

I'm going to miss the regular interaction with the developer community - but I'll be around - particularly at SQL Code Camps!

I'm incredibly proud of what the developer community in New Zealand has become.  In the last three years the number of groups has more than doubled and the number of attendees to user group meetings in New Zealand has quadrupled.  The user group leadership has come a long way, having matured into an organization that is (mostly) agile and syncs together well.  Its been a great privilege to be part of this transformation, and I look forward to seeing what it does in the future!

I'm also going to miss being in the DPE team - I haven't worked in a team this good before.  Everyone in the team is incredibly smart and its been an honour to work with you all.  However, the DPE team still has the Visual Studio number, so we'll continue to work together :-).

If you have any particularly strong views on Visual Studio, SQL Server, BizTalk or Forefront security and you want to talk to the NZ Product Manager for these products - drop me a line and we'll talk!