This is the exact conversation that I had with three people during the recent SQL Server Public Training.

Person 1: “Are you an SQL Server Evangelist?”
Pinal : “No, but Vinod Kumar is.”
Person 1: “Who are you?”
Person 2: “He is Pinal, haha!”
Person 1: “I know that, but don’t you evangelize SQL Server Technology?”
Pinal : “Hmm… I do that…”
Person 1: “In that case, why don’t you call yourself an Evangelist?”
Pinal : “…! …”
Person 2: “Good Question! Who are you Pinal?”
Pinal : “I think you are asking my title, is that correct?”
Person 1: “Maybe.”
Pinal : “I am a Mentor, and I work for Solid Quality Mentors.”
Person 2: “I have seen you listing yourself as the Founder of SQLAuthority.com… so…”
Pinal : “Yeah that’s true.”
Person 3: “Let me summarize what these people are asking. What they are asking is that you can have multiple titles, so is being an evangelist one of your titles or not?”
Pinal : “Well, I am an SQL Server MVP and lots of people say that we are also evangelists of technology. In fact,  we are all evangelists of technology, aren’t we?”
Person 1: “So let me come back to my original topic: If you are an SQL Server Evangelist, then what is this evangelism?”
Person 2: “And who is Vinod Kumar – I have heard about him a lot.”
Pinal : “Oh okay. Now I got it. Let me explain …”

The answer was quite long but since this conversation, I have been thinking about the words “evangelist” and “evangelism.” I think being an evangelist is one of the most respected jobs in the world and to do this job one must bear lots of responsibilities. There were two questions asked to me, so let me answer both one by one.

Who is Vinod Kumar?

Vinod Kumar is a Technology Evangelist for Microsoft and one of the most respected persons in the SQL Server Community in India. Let me copy-paste my note from the previous TechEd India 2010 article. “I attended 2 sessions of Vinod Kumar. Vinod is a natural storyteller so there was no doubt that his sessions would be jam-packed. People attended his sessions simply because Vinod was the best speaker in the event. He did not have a single time that disappointed audience; he is truly a good speaker. He knows his stuff very well. I personally do not think that in India he can be compared to anyone for SQL.”

What is Technology Evangelism?

Here I am listing three posts written by Vinod Kumar, wherein he talks about Technology Evangelism and Technology Evangelist in an in-depth manner. They are highly-regarded articles in the Community.

Evangelism beyond boundaries with an Evangelists !!!

Technology Evangelism Demystified

New face of Online Technology Evangelism

I strongly recommend reading them all. These are wonderful blog posts.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)