TechStylers is a community group created by Microsoft MVP Foyin Olijide-Bello. It is focussed on supporting women to succeed in the tech space, and holds meetups once a month, to provide a platform for established Women in Tech (WIT) to empower and mentor upcoming WIT.
The inaugural TechStylers meetup was in May 2020 and featured a number of new and familiar faces within the Dynamics and Power Platform space. It began with an introduction from Foyin, who outlined the reasons behind setting up the group and welcomed everyone along. The group then heard from Dona Sarkar, who explained how and why she uses the Power Platform to run a successful business, and gave us an insight into how technology can have a real impact for good. Dona also issued a 30 day challenge, for anyone who had not previously built a Power App to get hands-on before the next meetup and #DoTheThing!
Sarah Critchley then spoke on how to ‘Level Up Your Career in Tech’, giving advice on how to acquire and improve some of the soft skills that may be needed to accompany technology expertise. Sarah was followed by Georgia Tsoraklidou, nicknamed ‘Agent 001’ by her mentor Alan Chai as she was his first Power Platform ‘Secret Agent’. Georgia’s greatest success has been an app that helps colleagues stay safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, built in 3 hours but with 42k users!
The fourth speaker was Alison Mulligan, a recruiter and self confessed #PowerAddict, who coaches people in how to make a successful career in the Power Platform, as well as being heavily involved in the Power Platform community and building apps herself!
My favourite session of the evening, was the one presented by the fifth speaker Abigael Adenigbagbe entitled ‘Stop Self Sabotage, Ask Questions’. During her session, Abby shared her journey into the Power Platform and some of the elements of self-doubt that can sometimes affect us all, in terms of a number of fears, and Abby then went on to explain how these fears can be overcome. The message of this session really resonated with me, as someone who may or may not have been the person hiding themselves away at the back of the room at times.
In closing out the meetup, Elaiza Benitez spoke on a range of subjects from her own personal journey to community contribution, mentorship and giving great practical advice on how to set yourself up to learn and share knowledge. Elaiza also shared some really helpful resources around content creation, signposting to a number of role models in the community who may be able to assist or inspire anyone just starting out.
The recording of the full session has been uploaded to YouTube here