Always a warm welcome
The Birmingham D365 and PP UG November 2022 was held on 24th November at the Wesleyan building. The event had been organised by my lovely friends and colleagues Jeewan Bahra, Adam Rusted and Neil Parkhurst. And there were lots of other familiar faces in attendance!
One of the reasons I love the users groups so much is the real feeling of community. Aside from learning some awesome stuff, it’s great to catch up with people, especially if you are a remote worker like me. And this time, my wonderful friend Gabi Barnard and fellow ‘Power Angel’ had also come along as well.
On this occasion, the UG was showcasing Power Pages. I would be presenting a ‘101’ for any of the attendees new to the product. And then, friend and portals whizz Franco Musso was doing a Power Pages site deep dive.
So, all in all, this was a really special event for me!
Power Pages 101
My session was designed to be a warm up for the main act, Franco. I started by giving a brief history of how Power Pages had evolved. I then gave a quick overview of preview experience. This is really helpful to anyone just starting out as you can spin up a trial Pages portal really quickly. After that, I progressed into the Power Pages studio to talk about each of the feature areas in a bit more depth.
A key element to my session was that I was including a lot of signposting to further learning resources and materials. I had embedded links to everything I had used in my journey in the deck and this was shared after the session.
Learning from the master!
After my session, we had a short break during which I was able to catch up with Gabi and another UG regular Ian Greenhouse. Ian is also a regular attendee, and presenter and the Birmingham UG.
The stage was then set for the main at of the evening, the incredible Franco Musso. I first saw Franco showcase his portals skills around 2 yeas ago, as part of Victor Dantas’ Zero to Hero program. Since then I have been avidly following Franco through is awesome blog and other community sessions. Having met Franco in person at the recent Scottish Summit, I can also testify he is a totally lovely human. He is also very unselfish with his knowledge.
As ever, we were not disappointed, as Franco’s session was exceptional. The content featured elements of a portal that Franco had recently collaborated on. It was great as it showcased real-life scenarios and gave context and insight, as well as providing technical learning. And it was delivered with an understated assurance that can only come through total mastery of a subject. I love watching Franco present, he is a real inspiration for those of us starting out on our portal journey!
Old friends and new ...
Another awesome user group done, a group of us headed off to The Good Intent, a lovely boutique bar close by. A great chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones, I can heartily recommend attending a user group. If you’re thinking of coming along, but are nervous to go on your own, give me a shout. I will be more than happy to introduce you to the community!