2017 in Review, 2018 in Preview…

The year 2017 turned out in a great professional and also personal year. It really felt like a awesome journey, where I exceeded my own boundaries to next levels in multiple different ways. Back in 2016, when I decided to start my own blog to share my excitement and passion around innovation. I’d never expect that it would go so quick and be so addictive… Guess that doing something for the community without the need to receive something back is much appreciated after all!

And yes, it was quite busy and it consumes a lot of my free time, therefore I personally think that if you’re passionated in what your doing, it will never feel like work. “Don’t think only about yourself, just share the knowledge with others” fits in my way of thinking. A smart guy named Douglas Brown said a while ago, about becoming a community professional – it’s not the main goal, but a result of the work you did.

In the past year, I also decided to start presenting on public events. Which was one of the biggest personal barriers to get through, but after all, I’m planning even more for next year. If you’d asked me that 2 years ago, I’ve probably answered that with, let’s discuss this later or don’t think so…

One of the most inspiring books that I’ve read throughout the year, are the books from Richard Branson. One of the most best motivational quotes that I would like to share is “There’s no other way to find out whether or not you will be successful other than just doing it.”.

So what all happend in 2017? Let’s make a list…

Renamed my blog from infrashare.net to christiaanbrinkhoff.com
Gain to (an incredible) amount of 15.000 pageviews every single month, the number is still growing every day.
Gain to more than 1k Twitter followers
Wrote 35 articles throughout the past year on christiaanbrinkhoff.com
Wrote an article for the Citrix Blog website
Wrote 4 articles for the myCUGC.org website
Wrote several external guest blogs for vendors, such as for FSLogix and eG Innovations
Presented 2 CUGC User Share webinars for the Networking SIG Group
Presented at the Dutch Citrix User Group for almost 180 attendees
Presented at the Virtual Expo event for almost 300 live attendees
Presented twice for my employer Detron
Been awarded as a Microsoft Azure MVP
Been awarded as a Citrix Technology Advocate (CTA)
Been awarded as a VMware vExpert
Been awarded as a IGEL Community Insider
Been awarded as a ACE (Atlantis Community Expert)
Became a DABCC Community Professional on DABCC.com
Participating in the NetScaler MVP program, and won a Drone for my contributions
Became one of the 5 Citrix User Group (CUGC) Networking SIG Leaders
Get Access to several awesome (and powerful) Slack Community channels
Gain to the Senior Consultant role at Detron in the Netherlands
Lead, build and designed several awesome projects on Azure and Citrix
(Nothing particular to blogging) Started to invest in blockchain technology, a great and also fun ride!

And above all, met up with many other awesome and passionated community professionals! Drinking beer, grab diner and (most important) having fun after community events is one of the best and greatest parts! So if you haven’t visit one of them, I encourage you to start attending one! It already took me to great places in the world, such as Orlando (Synergy), Kennedy Space Center, and Barcelona (E2E).

Reviewing myself through a blog is something that opens your eyes, that’s for sure. So I’ll recommend this to all of you once a year. And all the achievements not come even close to the most – awesome, personal and impressive thing – what is going to happen next February – the birth of our first baby girl!

Let’s see what 2018 will bring. I’m very exited to see the results! The following parts that are already on my list (and some are already confirmed):

More articles on Cloud, Citrix, Microsoft and VMware
Start with a series of blogs on Azure basics
Writing whitepapers
Attend the Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle, Redmond (USA) in March
Present on Citrix Synergy in Anaheim (USA) in May (I submitted 3, with Marius, Dave and George, so fingers crossed…)
Present on E2E in Amsterdam in June (confirmed)
Present more webinars for the CUGC
Hopefully VMworld Europe for the first time
Meet and collaborate with more people from the community! Where do we meet?

And there is more, therefore I keep that for myself for the next review blog in 2019 (or just keep tracking my blog)!

With that, I want to thank all of you that supported me (and some in particular)! I also would like to thank my employer Detron and my sponsors (ControlUP, Altaro, NRG Global, eG Innovations, Goliath Technologies, Vembu, FSLogix, Workspace365, LoginVSI and Liquidware) for the past en upcoming year, they are much appreciated and been a very important part to make this work possible!

Happy new year, and make 2018 a even greater community year!

Cheers,
Christiaan Brinkhoff