SharePoint Saturday Ensenada 2019

I want to send out a huge thank you to the SharePoint Saturday Ensenada team for letting me talk about practical uses of the Power Platform. As a first-time event, I was impressed with the turn-out and the engagement from the attendees on all topics. I have never seen so many happy faces diving in to learn all about SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and the Power Platform.

Attendees talking with the great sponsors of SPS Ensenada, Crow Canyon Software and iTProve Corporation

My presentation for this inaugural event was The Power is in Everyone’s Hands – Practical use of PowerApps, Flow and PowerBI where I talked about practical uses of the Power Platform for "No-Code" Applications. This is one of my favorite hands-on sessions as I show many demos and interact with the attendees as much as I can. For SPS Ensenada, the interact was incredible and I was having a lot of fun, even when folks stumped with a few questions. I had to use my friend, Wes Miller's favorite phrase, "It depends", way too much.

Ever since SharePoint 2010, there was a push to provide a way for Business and Power Users to create their own "application" to help their business processes and goals. At that time, SharePoint Designer became the tool of choice. Those users could create amazing business process management systems with SharePoint Lists, Libraries, Workflow Manager, and InfoPath. As companies are moving to Office 365, they are wondering how to move these developed platforms. The answer is now Power Platform with PowerBI, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow. I showed how I use Power Platform to do some basic management of data from Twitter to Azure Storage Tables to SharePoint Lists to PowerApps. The possibilities are nearly endless with the Power Platform. The best part in the end about the Power Platform? If you hit the limits of the capabilities, there are ways for IT teams to take what you have done and move to larger systems like Azure Logic Apps, Web Apps, and SQL Server BI.

To help you get through some of the rough times and questions about the Power Platform, feel free to leave a comment and I can respond. If you want to ask me a question privately, use my contact form on the site.

I can't thank the organizing committee enough for letting me come down and present on the Power Platform. As this was the inaugural event for Ensenada and Baja California, I felt privileged to help kick of this event and look forward to next year where I hope to return and talk more with the great attendees. Lastly, I do want to thank David and Nichole Leveille of Crush Networks for the great SharePint afterwards. While almost every SharePoint event has these networking and social gatherings, this one kept going and going with great conversations, laughing, and good spirits. Plus, being right on the oceanside with an premium view of the Pacific Ocean and the sunset that evening did not hurt either.

The crowd enjoying themselves at the SPS Ensenada SharePint

SharePoint Saturday Los Angeles 2019

I want to send out a huge thank you to the SharePoint Saturday Los Angeles team for letting me talk about my journey to the Cloud. This was an incredible event in the Southern California area. Thank you for adding me at the last minute to fill gaps.

My presentation for this year's event was Don't Fear if the Forecast is Cloud! where I talked about my journey from Server Hugger to lover of Cloud and Modern Engineering. I know it can be a tough situation when you don't have all the information. There is mo much FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) about the Cloud and I hope to clear at least a start of that. My journey has been rough at times as I had to change my mindset and learn new skills to enable my change. Do not feel bad if you are having a rough time with the change; that is a very normal response.

To help you get through some of the rough times and questionsabout the Cloud or my journey, feel free to leave a comment and I can resond. If you want to ask me a question privately, use my contact form on the site.

SharePoint Saturday Los Angeles 2019

I am excited to say that the wonderful folks at SharePoint Los Angeles 2019 have added me to their awesome speaker lineup at the last minute. It came out of the blue but I am happy to be joining the wonderful speaker lineup they have already.

So what am I talking about? For SPSLA, I plan to bring one of my favorite sessions, "Don't fear if the forecast is cloudy!" First things first, no.. the session has nothing to do with Seattle weather. Although, that might be an interesting session... This session is talking about how I have moved from a self-proclaimed server hugger to my love of the cloud and what it can do for anyone, be their role IT Pro, Developer, Business User, or Power User. The cloud can be scary for many, offer too many options that confuse, or feels insecure compared to on-premises systems. My plan is to have about 15-20 minutes of presentation and spending the rest of the session answering your burning questions about "the Cloud".

Join us for SharePoint Los Angeles 2019 at the Microsoft Playa Vista office. Breakfast and Registration starts at 7:30 am with opening remarks at 8:00 am.