Notes From The Road: 2016 in Review

Here are two incredible facts: 318576 views were made to my blog last year, and the country that visited my blog the most was the United States, followed by India, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

In 2016, there were 50 new posts, growing the total of this blog to 534 posts. And I had the opportunity to present 14 sessions as a speaker! A new personal record…

So once again, let’s look back and reflect on what happened in 2016. In a few words, it was an interesting and challenging year, both personal and professional!

My Selected Highlights of 2016

Sharing my book with the community

Physical print copies of my book, BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices, were sold or given away at several Integration events last year, including Integrate 2016 London, the BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm and Gothenburg, and TechMeet360. And I had the privilege of being present in most of them…

(Pro Integration Group PM Jim Harrer photobombing one of the pictures)

And I had – as a “well know writer” – my first book signing event experience at Integrate 2016 London – I felt a little awkward/strange to sign copies of my book, it’s not something I’m used to, strange, but a very pleasant and rich experience.

(At Integrate 2016 London)

(At BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm)

(At BizTalk User Group Sweden in Gothenburg)

(At TechMeet360 in India)

Thanks, Saravana and BizTalk360, for all the work you have done to push and promote my book! Let’s do another one!

First experience at the Channel 9 studio

At the MVP Summit 2016 in November, I had the opportunity to record a segment in the Channel 9 studio, that was my first experience, and I have to confess, I was a little nervous to be recording in a small professional studio, so as I was expecting after seeing the record in its raw state, the end result could have been better, but, for a first experience it went pretty well. What’s important to me is to face new challenges, different situations, leave my comfort zone, and improve to be better next time. The segment is not public yet, but I will be sure to post when it is.

Fortunately, I had the company of my good friend Kent Weare in this small “adventure”:

He is probably one of the few people that I know that I wasn’t able to convince to buy my book. Instead, he tried to convince me that he could help him sell more books if I gave him a free copy 🙂

TUGA IT 2016

Being responsible for organizing the Integration track and one Integration Workshop at TUGA IT event, one of the biggest events in Portugal that targets several distinct technological areas like SharePoint and Office 365, Azure Infrastructure, Data Platform, Programming and Integration (BizTalk, IoT, and Azure), and much more.

Having that role, I was able to invite and convince some of my good friends to speak at this event: Nino Crudele, Steef-Jan Wiggers, Sam Vanhoutte, and Glenn Colpaert.

And I was able to perform a one-day deep dive workshop about Enterprise Integration with my dear friends Nino Crudele and Steef-Jan Wiggers…. what an amazing experience combining three different and experienced experts in one room to share knowledge

Integrate 2016 London

As always, I was really happy and proud to speak at the biggest integration (Microsoft-related technologies) event worldwide: Integrate 2016 London, which was amazingly well organized by Saravana Kumar and his BizTalk360 team. The statistics of this year’s INTEGRATE 2016 event stood at 380 attendees, 187 Companies from 22 different countries, and the key highlight of the welcome session was the announcement of the availability of a printed version of my “BizTalk Mapping Patterns” book… Once again, thanks, Saravana and BizTalk360 team!

This event is always an amazing and unique opportunity to learn from some of the well-known experts in the field and to meet the people you have been following on Twitter, blogs, and other social networks who are interested in the same things you are.

Here is a different perspective of the event… The speaker’s vision:

And here I am with the Microsoft Pro Integration Team and some of the MVPs present at the event:

MVP Summit 2016, meet the entire Microsoft BizTalk team and the reunion of BizTalkCrew

The greatest thing about attending the MVP Summit is the networking part… reconnect with some friends, meet the product group, have great technical discussions, and enjoy… and that was exactly what happened this year. I cannot discuss the technical part (NDA), but here is the fun part:

• I was able to record a session at Channel9 (which I mentioned earlier)
• Attending my first Seahawks game

• First experience at a Shooting range with most of the BizTalk MVPs… just to confirm that I am not a fan of guns… but it was a really fun experience

• Engagements with the product teams during the event and outside the event… here visiting the Museum of Flight with Mikael Håkansson, Johan Hedberg, and Clemens Vasters

• Meet the all Microsoft BizTalk team (or Pro Integration Team), here is a picture of some MVPs in the meeting room where the Logic App team records their Logic Apps Live webcast

• And the BizTalk Crew was reunited once again

A year of speaking engagements…

Another year full of speaking engagements… I had the opportunity to deliver 14 sessions! Speaking about different topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, API Management, App Service, Azure Functions, Microsoft Flow, or PowerApps, in multiple events across Europe (the UK, Sweden, and Portugal), and some of them through live meetings. New personal record!

Some of them I already mentioned above, but here is the complete list of speaking engagements that I did in 2016:

• XV Porto.Data Event: Build your first LogicApp from scratch (No slides)

• Global Azure Bootcamp 2016 Lisbon: The “Apps” World: Logic, API & PowerApps

• 2 online talks at the Integration User Group: Creating reusable pieces in Logic Apps and BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices
• Integrate2016 London: A new set of BizTalk Server Tips and Tricks

Where I also gave away BizTalk T-Rex stickers to the attendees:

• Tuga IT 2016: One session: BizTalk Server Deep Dive Tips & Tricks for Developers and Admins; and one workshop: Enterprise Integration Workshop

• BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm: BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices

• BizTalk User Group Sweden in Gothenburg: BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices

• 12ª NetPonto Porto Meeting: API Management: Rise of the Planet of the Apps

• XXIII Porto.Data Event: API Management: Rise of the Planet of the Apps

(I had this event two weeks after my surgery, was still in recovery, and that’s why my sporty look on stage)

• DevScope CSI: SharePoint integration: How can PowerApps and Microsoft Flow give power to your SharePoint users
• SPS Lisbon 2016: SharePoint integration: How can PowerApps and Microsoft Flow give power to your SharePoint users

• Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP): API Management: Rise of the Planet of the Apps

For me, it is always a great honor and joy to participate in these types of events, either as a speaker or an attendee, be with old friends, meet new people, and share the knowledge!

And yet I had the opportunity once again to attend some events, such as:

• MVP Global Summit 2016
• MVP Open-Day 2016 (Rome)
• A few SQLPort and Porto.Data Community events;
• An incalculable number of internal training events at DevScope.
• And more

My Blog is growing every year…

Very special thanks to all my readers. I really appreciate the 318,576 visits to my blog (a total of 1456497 views since I migrated to WordPress) from 187 countries in the past year. And even with all the speaking events that I had, I was still able to write 50 new posts.

The posts that got the most views in 2016 were:

1. BizTalk Server 2013 R2: Installation and Configuration – Install and Configure BizTalk Server 2013 R2 (Part 9), posted in January 2015
2. The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security. posted in February 2012
3. BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Install and Configure BizTalk Server 2013 (Part 9), posted in May 2013
4. BizTalk Server 2013 R2: Installation and Configuration – Important considerations before set up the server (Part 1) posted in January 2015
5. BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Important considerations before set up the server (Part 1) posted in May 2013

However, my 3 favorite posts that I enjoyed writing last year were:

• Why is so hard to make a simple If-Then-Else Functoid? … well, not anymore! A painful operation has become simple.
• A series of 3 posts using PowerShell and BizTalk Ports because they are a time saver:
  • BizTalk DevOps: Configure the Default Send Handler as the Send Handler for each existing static Send Ports with PowerShell
  • BizTalk DevOps: How to configure Receive Handlers from existing Receive locations with PowerShell
  • BizTalk DevOps: How to configure Default Dynamic Send Port Handlers with PowerShell
• And finally Logic Apps: Tips and Tricks to use Azure Functions inside Logic Apps at the time a fresh topic without any documentation available.

Still contributing to TechNet Wiki and providing several BizTalk Open Source Contributions

And, as has been the case in recent years, I’m a BizTalk Technet Contributor, writing articles in the Microsoft TechNet Wiki, and a BizTalk TechNet moderator. I’m also a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council and TechNet Wiki Ninja Blogger.

And many other contributions….

And as always Besides community work…

… of course, friendship, family, traveling, and running were also important things as always!

• 2016, I had the pleasure to have a mini-vacation (3 days) with my greatest friend, Nino Crudele, and his family… thanks for having us in your home

• Traveling (for work and pleasure) … I was able to visit two new countries: Sweden and the Netherlands (where I enjoyed a nice dinner with Steef-Jan Wiggers and his family, I also visited their home … thank you!)

• And finally… Portugal won their first European Championship

And this means that these two guys will wear a Pepe jersey in the upcoming Integrate 2017 in London during their presentation: Steef-Jan Wiggers and Mikael Håkansson

(Kent Weare, in the picture, was the only one supporting Portugal, so he will be there with me, enjoying this moment)

Thanks for following me and reading my blog, and I promise I will continue to share my knowledge in 2017.

Hope you find this helpful! If you liked the content or found it useful and would like to support me in writing more, consider buying (or helping to buy) a Star Wars Lego set for my son.