Microsoft's annual MVP Summit, taking place this week, is the closest thing the company has to Macworld Expo in its heyday. Sure, there are many differences between the Apple and Microsoft crowds, but each event brings together people who've devoted large portions of their lives to that company's products -- not shy with their criticism but ultimately pulling for the company to succeed.

So it's too bad that Microsoft isn't giving the outside world a glimpse this year.

Microsoft's "Most Valuable Professional" designation is given each year to the top people in the technical communities that form around its products. Each year the company brings in the MVPs for several days of briefings and sessions in Redmond and Seattle, giving them a glimpse of what's coming up. Contents of the private meetings are typically bound by non-disclosure agreements, but in recent years the company started opening up the keynotes to blogging and outside media coverage.

I made sure to go, and it was a refreshing departure from the typical Microsoft event. The MVPs are a remarkable group, and Microsoft's executives know it. Speaking at the summit last year, CEO Steve Ballmer called it his favorite annual address.

"I expect kind of a little bit more wild and wooly, rocking and a reeling kind of a discussion than I do with my average customer group," Ballmer told them at the time. "Everybody sits quietly. I don't think we're going to quite see that out of this audience, and I'm sure you're going to push, push, push, push, and we count on you for that."

One of the defining moments last year came when Ballmer asked the MVPs for a show of hands to see which search engine they used. When a large number of them indicated Google, he challenged them to use Live Search for a week, and many of them did. One of this year's "side sessions" covers how their feedback is being incorporated into Microsoft's search engine.

This year, however, keynotes by Ballmer and others aren't open to outside coverage. In an email message, a Microsoft representative cited the company's desire "to further enhance the opportunity for direct and open dialogue between Microsoft and its MVPs."

It's probably not reasonable to expect Microsoft to open up the smaller meetings where it's discussing upcoming product directions. But the policy reversal on the general MVP Summit keynotes is in sharp contrast with the explosion of social media -- which leaves the rest of the technology world to try to decipher the details through a bunch of cryptic posts by MVPs on Twitter.

So we know, thanks to MVP Todd Ogasawara, that Microsoft exec Rich Kaplan gave "a great honest presentation" in yesterday's opening keynote. Hopefully at some point we'll find out what Kaplan was being honest about.