The third and last day at Microsoft TechEd India 2011 at Bangalore was no less fun and engaging, and was topped by the excitement around the closing keynote by Anil Kumble, former Indian cricket team captain. All TechEd attendees got an Internet Explorer 9 branded watch in the morning, and ended the evening at a private party hosted by Pluralsight and Telerik for community influencers.

For MVPs, the opening keynotes were followed by a roundtable and private lunch with Rajiv Kumar, General Manager, Microsoft – India Development Centre. In a free-wheeling conversation over oriental lunch at OKO (The Lalit Ashok), MVPs shared their likes and dislikes about Microsoft Office 2010, and Rajiv took notes of the feedback. He also shared the candid  vision of Office in upcoming version. Hush hush!

Post lunch, the MVPs got an opportunity to attend a roundtable with Jason Zander, Corporate Vice President (Visual Studio), Microsoft. Jason had already impressed the MVPs with his morning keynote where did several code-demos instead of talking over a slide-deck. He talked about the developer ecosystem and the platform, and shared information on the upcoming version of Visual Studio.

More photos here.

The learnings, conversations, and activities continued on day 2 at Microsoft TechEd India 2011 in Bangalore, India.

MVPs had the chance to participate in not one or two, but three exclusive executive roundtables – Ramkumar Pichai, GM, Customer & Partner Experience, Microsoft, Bharat Shyam, GM, Developer Experience, Microsoft, and Brian Hall, GM, Windows Live & IE9, Microsoft. The interactions were very candid, frank, and honest, and the three executives and Microsoft folks were seen scribbling notes to take home feedback, suggestions, and some action points. From technical troubleshooting, to best practices of communities… everything was discussed.

Ofcourse, this was followed by a fun Community Evening hosted by user group associations – INETA, GITCA, and PASS. While India progressed to beat Australia in the quarter-finals at the Cricket World Cup 2011, it was exciting to watch the match with community folks with beer and grub in hand!

More photos here.

Here we are at the Microsoft TechEd India 2011 in Bangalore, India. We, you may ask? The Abhishek (Kant) and Abhishek (Baxi) of the MVP Program team at Microsoft, and over 30 MVPs!

The day started with lot of handshakes and hugs, with several MVPs and community folks meeting each other or Microsoft folks after months. After the event keynotes, the MVP networking session took place attended by most of the MVPs, few evangelists from Microsoft India, and other community folks. There was active discussion on best practices, issues, and needs of community and MVP program.

Later in the afternoon, MVPs had the exclusive opportunity for an intimate roundtable with Yousef Khalidi, Distinguished Engineer from Microosft and the key person behind Windows Azure. It was a great dev talk, and Yousef was very happy with the collective feedback and individual issues and pain-points that he was able to gather.

More photos here.

So, it’s just not the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 this month that’s caught the nation’s imagination and attention. For all the tech enthusiasts and practitioners, Microsoft TechEd India 2011 matches that excitement! Are you coming?

At the TechEd India 2011, say hello to the Microsoft MVPs, the best and the brightest community folks and technical experts in India. Bounce off your ideas, and maybe talk about what you are building. Unlike the sessions, this meetup would address your individual technical hitches. For three hours on the first day of the event, explore this opportunity of professional networking with the MVPs.

Here’s a list of all the MVPs you’ll find at the un-conference:

Meet The MVPs
March 23, 2011 | 12:00 – 3:00 PM

Also, as always, several MVPs would be speakers in different tracks at the TechEd… check the schedule here to mark your favorite MVP speakers’ sessions on your calendar.