This post was originally published here
The year 2017 almost has come to an end. A year I traveled a lot and spent many hours sitting in planes. In total, I have made close to 50 flights. A bonus at the end of this year is that I have reached gold status with the KLM. Thus I can enjoy the benefit sitting in the lounge like some of my friends. The places I visited in 2017 are Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, London, Lisbon, Porto, Olso, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Zurich, Seattle, Rotterdam, Dublin, Prague, Bellevue, Redmond, Adliswil, Ghent, Mechelen, and Montréal (France).
Public speaking in 2017
In 2017 I have spoken at various conferences in the Netherlands and abroad. The number of attendees varied from 20 to 400. My sessions were on the following topics:
– Logic Apps
– Functions
– Cosmos DB
– Azure Search
– Cognitive Services
– Power BI
– Event Grid
– Service Bus
– API Management
– Web API
Besides speaking at local user groups and conferences, I created videos, webinars, blog posts and news articles. The blog posts are available on my blog and the BizTalk360 blog. The news articles for InfoQ, for which I became an editor in November. The latter is something I consider as a great accomplishment.
Middleware Friday 2017
Together with Kent, we put out almost 50 episodes for Middleware Friday. In the beginning, Kent published various videos and later asked me to join the effort. The topics for Middleware Friday in 2017 were:
– Logic Apps
– Functions
– Microsoft Flow
– Cognitive Services: Text, Face, and BOTS
– Operation Management Suite (OMS)
– Event Grid
– Service Bus
– API Management
– Cosmos DB
– Azure Data Lake
– Azure Active Directory
– BizTalk Server
– Event Hubs
– SAP Integration
Creating episodes for Middleware Friday or vlogs was a great experience. It is different than public speaking. However, in the past and also this year I did a few Integration Monday sessions. Therefore, recording for a non-visible audience was not new for me.
Global Integration Bootcamp
Another highlight in 2017 was the first integration boot camp, which I organized with Eldert, Glenn, Sven, Rob, Martin, Gijs and Tomasso. Over 16 locations worldwide join in a full Saturday of integration joy spending time on labs and sessions. The event was a success, and we hope to repeat that in 2018.
Integrate London and US
BizTalk360 organized two successful three-day integration conferences in London and Redmond. At both events, I spoke about Logic Apps discussing its value for enterprises, the developer experience, and cloud-native nature. On stage for a big audience was quite the experience, and I delivered my message.
Personal accomplishments, top five books, and music
Personally, I found 2017 an exciting year with visits to Australia and New-Zealand, completing the Rotterdam Marathon, Royal Parks Half and the many speaking opportunities. Looking forward to my next two marathons in Tokyo and Chicago in 2018 and new speaking engagements.
The top five books in 2017 are:
– The subtle art of not giving a fuck!
– Sapiens – A Brief History of Humankind
– The Gene – An Intimate History
– Blockchain Basics, a non-technical introduction in 25 steps
– The Phoenix Project
The top five metal albums are:
– Mastodon – Emporer of the Sand
– Pallbearer – Heartless
– Caligula’s Horse – In contact
– Enslaved – E
– Leprous – Malina
Thanks everyone for your support in either reading my blogs, articles and or attending my sessions and online videos. Enjoy the winter holidays and merry Christmas and happy new year!
P.S. I might have forgotten a thing or two, but that’s why I created Stef’s monthly update.
Cheers,
Steef-Jan
