Perosnal Archives - Boris Hristov

Pancharevo Trail Marathon 2018: Yet Again!

April 14, 2018 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

I started running marathons in 2013. Since then I did two half marathons each year – one in April(the Pancharevo Marathon) and one in October(the Sofia Marathon). Тhis year is no different. Or is it?

April is coming and I am heading to the Pancharevo Trail Marathon again! 21 kilometer race in the mountain – should be fun or at least – it is every single year! This year my goal is to make the race under 2 hours and 15 minutes. Hopefully there won’t be as much mud as the last few years(heavy rain during the days before the race) but even if it is, that’s not an excuse.

Wish me good luck. I will update the blog post after the event and probably, I will let you know what I am aiming at this year for October and what I am actually preparing for in the last 4 months.

End.

Update: If you look above, my goal was to get under 2:15 this year. Well, goal achieved! Next stop – 21 km. marathon race on the streets of Sofia. Date – May 13th.

Podcast: The Presentation Podcast 50

March 26, 2018 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

So here’s a question. What is the chance for almost all PowerPoint MVPs in the world to sit down all together on one table and share knowledge? Well, take a look at the photo and see the answer for yourself!

While we were at the MVP Summit in Redmond, the team running the Presentation Podcast(yes, they are also MVPs), came up with a brilliant idea – let’s all sit down, have some drinks and share some PowerPoint wisdom.

That’s what we did and in this almost an hour long podcast you can hear quite some tips & tricks that will help you build better slides faster.

Want to learn the tricks? Enjoy listening!

The road to the MVP Summit

March 19, 2018 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

So you look at this photo and think what a great time we had at the MVP Summit in Seattle some few weeks ago.

And you will be right! We indeed had some incredible time!
However, let me tell you a story. The story of how I, Martin Kulov(Microsoft Regional Director and Visual Studio MVP) and Boriana Petrova(Excel MVP) managed to get to Seattle. Here we go!

I got up at 4:45 to get to the airport for a flight from Sofia to Paris at 7 AM.

We met at the airport.

We took the flight and instead of departing at 7 we did at 7.30.

We had a connecting flight at Paris and we had one hour stop between we landed (if on time) and departing to Seattle.

We landed 35 minutes later then scheduled because of Bulgaria Air (already asked for compensation).

I ran as Usain Bolt but missed the flight to Seattle. Martin and Boriana did too.

We went to Air France to ask for another flight on the same day.

They told us all are full.

Only option was through Canada(but you need additional docs no one had) or on the next day.

We booked for the next day.

Interestingly enough when I went there she told me they had 2 more places for tomorrow, but later, she booked tickets for the three of us.

The lady from Air France also booked a hotel for us.

She also told us that Delta (they work in partnership) “never waits”.

We want on to search for our hotel.

We went to the IBIS hotel she told us to.

They told us we do not have a reservation.

They also told us there’s one other IBIS next to them and we should check there.

We went there and they told us our reservation is in the one we were previously.

We went back there and they said we are not there. We are at an IBIS for which we have to get a bus shuttle.

Martin and Boryana were sick and it was raining.

We found the shuttle and we went to the hotel.

We were not there either.

Turned out there is one more IBIS in the area so they told us to go there too.

We went there – noup. We were not there.

The guys at the 4th IBIS called someone. They confirmed – we do not have reservation.

We went back to the airport and tried to find Bulgaria Air at the Paris Airport.

We went to Information. It was closed. I took a photo of it.

We found another information booth and they told us to go to the one that was closed.

I showed them the photo. They were… shocked.

The lady at Information told us to go to Terminal 2E.

We took the shuttle.

Two stops later, a lady from the airport started screaming in French. We didn’t care.

Turned out someone left a bag on the next stop and so it was a bomb thread.

We wondered why wasn’t she talking in English. Cannot figure it out till today.

We waited.

We got back on the shuttle and arrived at 2E.

Asked there where Bulgaria Air are.

They pointed to a place. We went there. Bulgaria Air were not there.

We went back and explained – they were not there.

The lady called someone.

We then explained we had a hotel issue (let’s call it).

She called someone again. Told us to wait.

We waited for 40 minutes.

It’s now 5 hours since we missed our flight.

At some point she told me that our reservation at the first IBIS we were is now confirmed.

We told her we want official voucher and phone number.

She refused to give us because… it was confirmed.

I asked what’s about to happen if we get there again and we don’t have a reservation.

She went silent. Said it’s confirmed by the manager representing Bulgaria Air in Paris.

We went there and voila – we had a reservation.

We left our stuff and went to sleep.

Later on we went for a short sightseeing in Paris.

On the next morning we went at the airport at 8 AM, so we got breakfast at 6.

Our flight was delayed with 4 hours.

Again.

Delta told us – “Our equipment will be late.”

Whatever that means. (asked for compensation on this delay too)

We found a place and worked for 6 – 7 hours.

Boarded the Delta’s plane.

The air conditioning was not working.

We waited (Delta never waits) for 50 minutes at the gate.

Refueling.

We departed and landed in Seattle 10 hours later.

Welcome to the US! Hoooray!

Wait.

500 people and 2 people at border control?

We waited for almost 3 hours to get through border control!

Welcome to the best country in the world!

A friend of mine waited us 3 hours and got us to our hotels.

IT was around 7 PM on Monday.

We had to be there on 11 AM on Sunday.

How cool is that?

I spent 48 hours travelling in one direction.

Then I spent 48 hours in the US.

Then I spent 17 more hours of going back to Sofia.

That sums it up I think.

Why am I sharing it? Well, I really don’t know. I just believe that stories like this are sometimes fun. Hope you enjoyed our struggle! 😀

And oh by the way, if you were following me on Instagram, you may have been able to see that on video and as it was happening.

Awarded: Microsoft PowerPoint MVP

March 5, 2018 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

So there it is. It happened. Again. I am back to the MVP Program as a PowerPoint MVP!

Some of you may know that back then when I was a SQL Server person, I got the SQL Server MVP award and held it for three consecutive years. Of course, it didn’t happen easy as my application was declined first but that just motivated me even more to push even harder and prove Microsoft that I deserved that recognition. I was 22 back then and probably was one of the youngest MVPs Microsoft has ever had…

Then 356labs happened and that… changed a lot of things. Most importantly – changed the fact that I was not contributing to the SQL Server world anymore and so I told Microsoft that they will have to drop me out of the program because I don’t deserve the MVP status anymore. Why? I was just not doing anything SQL. Simple as that.

However, since we launched 356labs, our presentation agency, I started doing a ton of PowerPoint work – wrote 300+ blog posts, organized and participated in tens if not even hundreds of events, pushed the product and built a community of people who understood that PowerPoint can actually be used to create presentations that win multimillion-dollar deals, and win huge investments. So I asked myself – why shouldn’t I try and get the PowerPoint MVP award?

I tried. I submitted my application almost 2 years after we started 356labs and pushed so hard all of the things above. The result? Got rejected. Why? They wanted to see that I will continue to do what I do because it’s just been an year or two now and that’s not enough.

Well, I agree. That’s really the case and honestly speaking, it makes sense. That’s why I continued to push and pushed even harder. I thought myself that I need to do so much so that I will put Microsoft in a position where they don’t have any other option but to give me the award(yeap, one of the MVP leads will tell you that these are the exact words I told him). When I submitted my application again I had more than 55 activities(as Microsoft calls them) and just one of them were the 300+ articles(to give you context of how much effort it takes).

On February 1, while waiting for the confirmation mail, I received a tweet from a friend who is a SQL Server MVP and the tweet was saying that I got the award… I still don’t know why they pushed this information through FB instead of email but let’s not get into this one. 😉

Lesson from the story: Never give up! I learned that looking at the people who inspired me and who achieved things I admired and hopefully this short article will once again remind you that this old advice “Never give up!” is here for a reason. It’s here because it’s true.

Thanks to everyone who made this award possible and especially to everyone in our team at 356labs. That was not going to be possible without your effort!

Speaking at StartUP@Blagoevgrad 2017

March 2, 2017 By Boris Hristov Leave a Comment

I am happy to announce that I am speaking at this year’s edition of the

StartUP@Blagoevgrad Conference – Ideas Rearranged!

I will deliver two sessions during the weekend:

On Saturday, I will be talking about the mistakes I did when starting 356labs!
And on Sunday, I am delivering a 2-hour workshop on how to craft a truly engaging presentation!

Can’t wait to see those young, ambitions and extremely opened to learn young people at the American University in Blagoevgrad! I have already talked there twice and that is the reason why I am going back again!

Hope to see you there!

Update: The conference went great! There were some tech glitches at the start of my session, but we fixed them quite quickly(hopefully you will see how the audience reacted on the upcoming videos). And as for the workshop – more than 80 people showed up! Overall, a fantastic weekend full of great young people who always inspire me with their willingness to learn!

Videos coming soon…

Update: The videos are now here! First is my talk(fire!) on my mistakes while starting 356labs and then its a two-hour workshop I delivered on how to create engaging presentations.