Ok, since the word is out, I might as well write about it too. Yes, I’m switching jobs. At the moment I’m in my last week at i-merge, the brandbreeding agency. I’m currently still in the strategic team, but as of December 11th, I’ll be joining a few friends over at Microsoft. I’m going to be an Enthusiast Evangelist for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and I’ll be listening to (and speaking with) the influential end users, the blogosphere and perhaps some online media.
I’m well aware of the fact that it’s a great challenge, but I think it’s going to be interesting, fun and very learning. I’m looking forward to use all the skills I have and try to fit in as good as possible. I’ll set up a blog to document my thoughts and experiences for starters (I’ll pass on the url when it’s up and running) and I hope I can try to add some relevant ideas and thoughts to the conversations about Microsoft’s products and services.
My first three days on the job will be in Switzerland, where I’ll be meeting the rest of the EMEA team to get acquainted and set up the goals of my job. Updates will follow, stay tuned for that.
I had a great time at i-merge, I learned a lot and met quite a bunch of interesting people with whom I’ll try to stay in touch. It’s been an interesting 9 months of joy and sometimes pain, but mostly joy. Looking back, I don’t think I could’ve been at a better place to start my career. Somewhere I had hoped to stay around a little longer because the strategy section is finally in full force and working at warp speed 10. But this was an opportunity I just had to accept. Without any doubt, i-merge is so going to kick ass in the Belgian ad world very soon. A little less without me (lol) but still. I’m looking forward to seeing the work they’ll be producing. It’s been a wonderful learning school. Thanks guys.
Erno Hannink
December 5, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Hallo Miel,
Van harte met je nieuwe functie als product evangelist EMEA bij Microsoft. Heel plezier en voldoende energie de komende tijd!
Groet,
Erno
Robin Wauters
December 5, 2006 at 11:47 pm
Aha … since you accepted that last comment, allow me be the next to congratulate you with your new job. Good luck!
Coolz0r
December 5, 2006 at 11:54 pm
Thanks guys! I really appreciate it!
(The two comments above have been reposted here because they were posted on an off-topic post, the authors have been notified of the move. This way, the conversation stays relevant to the right post)
Rolf Donders
December 6, 2006 at 12:14 am
Congratulations man, I have to say I love your site.
More power to you, what a way to start your career. Good luck!
Darren Straight
December 6, 2006 at 12:20 am
Congrats dude, Enthusiast Evangelist sounds like a cool Job! :D
I’m just reading this:
http://www.microsoft.com/cze/careers/prilezitosti/pozice/enthusiast_evangelist.mspx
And it’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve been looking for! :P
El Jimi
December 6, 2006 at 12:22 am
wow things go pretty fast here it seems :-)
once again congrats!
Robert Gale
December 6, 2006 at 12:47 am
Congrats on the new job Miel!
Uw Moeder
December 6, 2006 at 1:00 am
Een evangelist, moet ik me daar zoiets bij voorstellen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I_ueUeTP6E ??
In ieder geval, veel succes met de nieuwe job!
Benjamin Gauthey
December 6, 2006 at 11:31 am
Welcome on Board !!!!!
Benjamin : Enthusiast Evangelist from France :)
Peter Forret
December 6, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Don’t be evil!
albeenah
December 6, 2006 at 12:53 pm
heya…congratulations!!! I’m sure u’ll be good in whatever job and I’m glad u’re breaking away from these guys with no hard feelings…it’s the best way to go! As for the new job..I hope it won’t stop you from posting in this blog…I so much enjoy getting my daily dose of advertising from you! ;)
I know a Microsoft enthusiast evangelist! | blog.forret.com
December 6, 2006 at 1:09 pm
[...] Miel just announced that he will be working for Microsoft as a enthusiast envangelist. ‘Technology evangelist’ I’d heard about but how does one evangelize enthusiasm? I did a simple Google search on the term and up came Benjamin Gauthey, his French counterpart. [...]
andrea
December 6, 2006 at 1:11 pm
ohh evangelist eh, well congratulations on your new job :)
I always believed that new places and new people are the things which make our lives a lot better :D
So I think you’ll live up to the challenge quite well :)
best wishes :D
Jurgen Van Duvel
December 6, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Congrats and welcome to the team! :)
Make sure to bring some swimming-aids ; you’ll need them ;)
Bart
December 6, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Congrats Miel! To warm you up, here some pics I took at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond last week:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartclaeys/313350104/
Michael
December 6, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Coolz, as always, I wish you a great time.
Bruno
December 6, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Congratulations, keep on blogging …
nate
December 6, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Congrats and everything, but if you start spouting too much Microsoft stuff on this blog, I might have to unsubscribe. Keep it pure man. Keep it pure. You’ve been great so far.
Pietel
December 6, 2006 at 5:20 pm
Bij-merge halen ze de verhuis aan als reden voor je vertrek. Door de lage plafonds geraakte je ego niet meer binnen. :) (says TDB)
Neen, genoeg gezeverd. Een oprechte proficiat. Vraag een MacBook Pro aan je nieuwe werkgever, draai er windows op en bezoek ons at DGE voor een kleine evangelisatie.
Coolz0r
December 6, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Thanks everybody… it’s really cool to have such a positive reply on this decision. I really appreciate it!
Nate, Marketing Thoughts will remain my outlet for advertising and marketing rants, I’ll keep it running and next to it, I’ll have a blog related to the things I’ll be doing for Microsoft. I’ve been blogging about Microsoft here before, and most likely I’ll refer to some things every now and then if they have the right context to fit in, but it’s not my intention to change the purpose of this blog. Just so you know.
Cheers, everyone !
Tanguy De Kelver
December 6, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Hallelujah! Congrats man! Same as Pietel, whenever u want for some preachin at McCann…
Tanguy
Robbert
December 7, 2006 at 1:25 am
Congrats m8!
Wish you all the best with in the new episode of your carreer!
And keep us updated about it hehe!
PS: Keep on going with Marketing Thoughts, it just rocks!
Tom Mertens
December 7, 2006 at 1:39 am
It’s great to have you in the DPE group at Microsoft EMEA! Congrats…
Chris
December 7, 2006 at 8:17 am
Great news Miel.Do you know what products you will be evangelising? :)
Ed Kohler
December 7, 2006 at 9:00 am
Congrats on the new job. We may have interviewed a few of your future teammates during the GNoTE conference this past Monday. Lots of ’softies were in the house.
links for 2006-12-07 | blog.forret.com
December 7, 2006 at 9:18 am
[...] » Changing Jobs – Coolz0r – Marketing Thoughts as of December 11th, I’ll be joining a few friends over at Microsoft. I’m going to be an Enthusiast Evangelist for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and I’ll be listening to (and speaking with) the influential end users, the blogosphe (tags: coolz0r imerge microsoft evangelist mielvanopstal career) [...]
Serge
December 7, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Even without having met in RL, I feel like the least I could do is congratulate you on the move up the career ladder (having read this blog for some time now and even stolen some content from it -with the approproitre reference, of course :-) ). From what I have heard from Tom, you undoubtedly have it in you to make it at Microsoft. And now I can only hope the Coolzûr-Marketing Thoughts blog stays alive and kicking as it has been for so long now. Don’t let Bill take up all of your time! :-)
Marketing.Interactive » Blog Archive » i-Merge brons op Eurobest Interactive
December 7, 2006 at 4:51 pm
[...] i-Merge hamstert dit jaar prijzen voor de winter: na het kersverse brons op de Epica Awards wint het interactief bureau uit Leuven opnieuw brons met dezelfde Hamstercam camapgne op de Eurobest Awards. België had in totaal 7 projecten op de Interactive shortlist (.pdf) staan. De online websites en campagnes Sprite 3G, Nokia Concept Lounge en Helping Hands, Prepare your Hair van Opel, en bannercampagnes voor De Post en Eurostar geraakten niet op het podium. Minder goed nieuws voor het bureau is dat Miel Van Opstal reeds na enkele maanden stage en strategisch werk i-Merge verlaat en inruilt voor een job bij Microsoft. [...]
Verhuizen. at Pietel.be
December 7, 2006 at 5:37 pm
[...] blog.coolz0r.com – Changing Jobs [...]
Randy Charles Morin
December 7, 2006 at 5:44 pm
Congrats! The new Microsoft evangelist blogger. Finally, a replacement for Scoble ;-)
Nedra Weinreich
December 7, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Congratulations on the new job! Sounds exciting! I hope you’ll continue to be able to keep this blog going since it’s one of my must-reads. Love your new title!
Kristof Van Holder
December 7, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Congratz! I’m convinced ‘evangelist’ will be an understatement for you!
Keep on bloggin’!
Hans Mestrum
December 8, 2006 at 12:55 am
Ha Miel, ik was toch nog een uurtje eerder met mijn bericht ;-)
Manneke het ga je goed!
JP
December 10, 2006 at 10:59 am
Good luck. The world is small. So, you’ll be around. JP
JohanDK
December 11, 2006 at 1:37 am
Entering the danger M$ zone…
nee serieus..
Good move, leuke uitdaging en een interessante positie om mooi dingen te realiseren & sharen.
Ciao
Johan
Microsoft Academy Marketing or Technical Programme? » Darren Straight’s Blog
December 22, 2006 at 1:26 am
[...] However saying that, the Marketing Programme catches my eye again because it’s probably the most likely path to lead me to be a Enthusiast Evangelist which is pretty much what I want to do as I get to tell everybody about Microsoft and what they are doing. Thanks goes to Miel for the information on it, as that’s what he’s currently doing. [...]
Jeff Sandquist - Microsoft Evangelist - Welcome to Miel Van Opstal to Microsoft
December 23, 2006 at 5:51 am
[...] by: newtelligence dasBlog 1.8.5223.1 Sign In Friday, 22 December 2006 Welcome to Miel Van Opstal to Microsoft Ok, this didn’t get as much press Jon Udell joining my team, but is just as exciting. MielVan Opstal who authors the popular Marketing Thoughts blog will be joining our group as an Evangelist. As part of this he’ll be producing content for Channel 10 Ok, since the word is out, I might as well write about it too. Yes, I’m switching jobs. At the moment I’m in my last week at i-merge, the brandbreeding agency. I’m currently still in the strategic team, but as of December 11th, I’ll be joining a few friends over at Microsoft. I’m going to be an Enthusiast Evangelist for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region and I’ll be listening to (and speaking with) the influential end users, the blogosphere and perhaps some online media. Nathan Weinberg picked it up today on Inside Microsoft: Congratulations are in order to Miel Van Opstal, who has helped out with blogging here when things were tough, and has built a popular marketing blog, “Marketing Thought”, at blog.coolz0r.com, as he starts his great new job at Microsoft! Miel will be joining MS as an Enthusiast Evangelist for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, talking to users, bloggers and the media about some of the great things going on at Microsoft. While no company is perfect, and Microsoft was a pretty rough place in the late 90s, Microsoft today is creating some amazing products that the market and the community aren’t noticing. While Google is well-loved and gets a flood of coverage on any product release, Microsoft has built some amazing things that, if they aren’t called Xbox, don’t get the notice they deserve. The fact that Windows Live Local isn’t getting the love Google Maps get is the biggest crime on the internet, and I’m glad Miel has joined up to help out. Microsoft needs passionate people to get the word out, because their best stuff is completely misunderstood and under-represented. I can’t wait to see what cool stuff Miel starts doing. Maybe he’ll even show up here to let us know. Lots of exciting new folks will be joining our group across the planet over the next few months, watch for more fun announcements soon! Welcome aboard Miles! technorati tags: 10, evangelism+network, Miel+Van+Opstal 12/22/2006 19:51:33 (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00) Comments [0] [...]
Spaga in blogosfera at BloGhidul Presei
January 27, 2007 at 4:40 pm
[...] Din cate stiu eu acestia se numesc evanghelisti…si cunosc si eu cativa…si poate si tu…unul nou dintre ei e chiar Coolz0r care a devenit si el evanghelist la Microsoft. [...]