I usually like to see the positive side of things, even in adverse situations, so despite 2023, it has been a strange year, neither good nor bad, just weird. Perhaps the constant inflation of the cost of living and the continuous loss of civility in society have influenced this definition. I still find myself remembering the good and most important moments, both professional and personal.
Personal highlights…
5 years in a row with home renovations. The path to our dream house is not a fast run but a marathon instead :). This year, we have decided to renew all the bedroom wardrobes in our house and improve our pergola with lights to have family dinners on summer nights. Also, do some renovations on our AIRBNB house in Porto:
- Casa do Sr. José in Porto, Massarelos.
We made one of our dream trips: Walter Disney Paris!
And I was able to bring my wife on a “business trip” with a personal weekend as a bonus for her to know a different city and country: Gothenburg, Sweden.
Professional highlights…
Each year, I change, or I try to, how I contribute to the different communities so that it does not become tiring or monotonous. If 2021 and 2022 were years that I dedicated myself to speaking engagements at conferences and User Groups worldwide on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, and Power Automate, delivering a combined total of 31 sessions. Or in 2022, a year that I also focused on creating whitepapers, ending up publishing ten whitepapers that year.
This year, I decided to return to my roots and dedicate myself to writing more blog posts on my blog (117 new posts) – a personal record!:
- 2022: 77 new posts
- 2021: 77 new posts
- 2020: 92 new posts
- 2019: 43 new posts
- 2018: 70 new posts
- 2017: 63 new posts (migrate to a new blog)
- 2016: 50 new posts
- 2015: 79 new posts
- 2014: 52 new posts
- 2013: 79 new posts
- 2012: 102 new posts
- 2011: 61 new posts
As in BizTalk360 (13 new posts) and Serveless360 (42 new posts). Making an astonishing total of 172 blog posts, which means an average of 14.33 blog posts per month.
I also contribute to GitHub with samples, tools, and other types of resources.
But don’t get me wrong, I was still able to deliver 8 sessions (on-prem and remote) in several conferences and User Groups worldwide on topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, and Power Automate:
- Microsoft Integration Trends 2023 Webinar | March 2,9 and 16, 2023 | Online | Enterprise case studies on migrating BizTalk Server to Azure
- INTEGRATE 2023 London | JUNE 5-7, 2023 | London, UK | BizTalk Server to Azure Integration Services migration
- Azure Logic Apps Community Day 2023 | June 22, 2023 | Online | A walk in the park with the new Logic App Data Mapper
- Integration Down Under | June 29, 2023 | Online | A walk in the park with the new Logic App Data Mapper
- BizTalk to Azure – The Migration Journey event | September 28, 2023 | Gothenburg, Sweden | Elevating Integration – The Roadmap from BizTalk Server to Azure
- BizTalk to Azure – The Migration Journey event | September 28, 2023 | Gothenburg, Sweden | Azure Integration in Action – BizTalk to Azure Transition Case Studies
- CONNECTED Conference 2023 | November 15, 2023 | Online | API Management: Best practices, tips and tricks
- Porto.DATA #90 Christmas edition – Lightning talks | December 19, 2023 | Online | A walk in the park with the new Logic App Data Mapper
Another thing that I started doing more often was publishing videos on my YouTube channel alongside my coworker, Luis Rigueira. We ended up publishing 14 new videos I especially like:
- How to Integrate RabbitMQ with Azure Logic App from Luis Rigueira
- and Logic Apps (Standard) Data Mapper: Basic Principles of Maps by myself
Finally, this was a year full of training. I was able to deliver 10 training courses (in person and online) focused on BizTalk Server and Azure Integration Services to several partners and organizations on topics like:
- Logic App Training Course
- Azure Integration Services Training Course
- BizTalk Server Developing Training Course
- BizTalk Server Administration Training Course
- BizTalk Server Dev and Admin Training Course
Star Wars…
Finally, I couldn’t endup without speaking this. If you saw some of my speaking engagements, you notice that at the end I finish the session with this slide:
Well, my son (and me) is a Star Wars fan, and every time I go to the computer at night to write articles and blogs, prepare sessions, or travel to lectures, I tell him I will earn money for our LEGO! So, I decided to create this buy-me-a-coffee thing for those who like my community work and want to contribute.
We were not even close to raising the amount for the Millennium Falcon (not the biggest one, nor the small one :)), but I decided to tell him that we did it! And here he is, saying thank you to all the people who helped us achieve our goal!
The 2024 goal will be once again the LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon (75192) or Chewbacca (75371)!
For all of you…
Once again, thanks for following me, and for reading my blog, and I promise that I will continue to share my knowledge during 2024.
