Glasgow ... where it all began!
Speaking at Scottish Summit 2022 was like a dream come true. My very first community event had been the D365 Saturday Glasgow a few years before. This had been hosted in the University of Strathclyde Innovation Centre and had become Scottish Summit. I had volunteered the second time I attended, and then delivered a recorded session the following year. But here I was now speaking at Scottish Summit 2022 in person, in the place where my community journey began!
My session would be based on my favourite part of the Power Platform, Power Apps Portals. Or as they had very recently been rebranded ‘Power Pages’!
Over the course of the past couple of years, I had become quite familiar with, and really interested in portals. My interest began with the Zero to Hero program run by Victor Dantas. During the first set of sessions, Victor had guided attendees on how to create and manage portals. And during the second series had invited portals ‘heroes’ to share their magic with us.
Under the hood
Although I was somewhat a portals novice, I still felt I could provide some useful information to newbies like myself. So I decided to try to demystify some of the things that had confused me to begin with.
Starting out with a timeline of how portals had got to where they are today, I laid out the fundamentals of portals to give a solid base.
I then stepped into the actual structure of the portal, which is not necessarily easy to visualise in flat files. So I ‘borrowed’ an idea from my portals hero, Victor Dantas and tried to present the portals files hierarchically.
Luckily this content was something I felt quite comfortable with, because I had a bit of a shock in store! In the audience for my session were all of my portal heroes, including Victor!!!
From Zero to Heroes ...
Incredibly I was able to overcome my nerves and get through the session. I was delighted when my heroes engaged in a community discussion at the end. I was incredibly honoured to be included in the picture above, alongside some of the most amazing people in the portals community. From left to right they are
I was now a fully fledged member of the ‘portals gang’.
And hero we go again!
Scottish Summit 2022 was just incredible in terms of the amount of knowledge that was shared. In terms of Power (portals) pages alone, there were so many amazing sessions, it was mind blowing.
I had my second awesome photo opportunity following Ulrikkes fantastic session on portal templates. Here I was included among my portal gang favourites and the legend that is Nick Doelman, Senior Content Creator at Microsoft!!’
Honestly no words can describe how lucky I felt to be included alongside this marvellous group of people.
As iron sharpens iron ...
Finally, my favourite picture from Scottish Summit 2022. Here I am alongside my absolute hero, Victor Dantas. This guy is a huge inspiration, not just because he is a technical genius, he is also a pretty amazing person.
His Zero to Hero academy has helped so many people, myself included and he also helps with many other community initiatives.
Victors motto is ” as iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another “. Victor really does embody the heart of our community, and proves we really do rise by lifting each other. I was delighted that I got to meet Victor at Scottish Summit 2022 and can call him my friend.