This Saturday just passed I had the pleasure of speaking at Power Platform Saturday in Oslo Norway, organized by MVP Marius Agur Hagelund Lind. I love the way the community came together for this event.
Marius is an outstanding MVP who cares deeply for the community in his region. I love the way he rolled up his sleeves and was prepared to do whatever it took to put Power Platform Saturday like this on.
Keep in mind that he does not have the backing of a Microsoft Partner as he is an independent contractor, but this did not stop him making it happen. Well done Marius!
Location
Oslo is a place I was originally interested in because of its prominence in the second world war, well more so as it was a game battlefield map in Day of Defeat (DOD), a Half-Life mod that I spent many hours playing early on in my IT career. Interesting coincidence that it was released by Valve in 2003, the same year that Dynamics was released by Microsoft.
“Day of Defeat is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game set in the European theatre of World War II on the Western front. Originally a modification of the 1998 game Half-Life, the rights of the modification were purchased by Valve Corporation and released as a full retail title in 2003.” – Wikipedia
But I digress, let’s get back to the event.
What
This Saturday event was the second time I’ve spoken in Scandinavia. The first event was in Sweden last year at the invitation of MVP Gustaf Westerlund and was organized under the watchful eye of his lovely wife Kathrine Hogseth, who is known for her generous hospitality.
I love travelling to this part of the world as the people are friendly and very inclusive in their approach to life.
This Power Platform Saturday event was no exception. Marius arranged three tracks for attendees as well as a workshop for people that wanted to go deeper.
Where & When
The event was located at Microsoft Norge AS on 24th August 2019. Their newly opened office is one of the best Microsoft sites I’ve been to.
Who
What I love about events like this is that they give you the chance to meet face to face the people who you have had long-distance relationships with.
Commenting on channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, seeing their icon photos in chat sessions, the questions, encouragement and insights they have shared via these channels are a contribution to this tremendous global community.
But although these mediums of communication are great, nothing compares to meeting in person and seeing that although we all come from very different backgrounds, languages, countries, and in many cases competing companies, we can engage based on our common interest in this valuable Microsoft technology of the Power Platform.
The speakers at this event were a mix of local and international speakers:
Marius Agur Lind [MVP] Norway
Malin Martnes [MVP] Norway
Sarah Critchley [MVP] United Kingdom
Jukka Niiranen [MVP] Finland
Ida Bergum [MVP] Norway
Joe Griffin – United Kingdom
Tamara Phelan – United Kingdom
Thomas Sandsør – Norway
Jonas Rapp [MVP] Sweden
Gustaf Westerlund [MVP] Sweden
Sumit Sah – Norway
Julian Sharp – United Kingdom
Mohammed Mustafa [MVP] United Kingdom
Ahmad Najjar [MVP] Norway
Tricia Sinclair – United Kingdom
Key Takeaways
I must say the new Microsoft Office in Oslo is amazing, it’s a place that you would want to work at. I found out that the FAST R&D team are located here, who are the team responsible for search in Office 365.
The speakers’ dinner the night before a community Saturday event like this is one of the highlights as you spend a good few hours getting to know the people around you.
In my case a discussion with Jonas was on the topic of explaining simply the difference between the Common Data Model (CDM) and the Common Data Service (CDS). In a spark of inspiration, Jonas said that the CDM is like the Map and the CDS is the landscape we walk on. I liked that analogy so much I used it in my session.
My observation at Saturday events like this is that people are not so much interested in soft skill or life skill sessions, about consulting and career, they prefer tech gold. I have learned this from delivering the former type session a few times, but this time I delivered a technical session on Data Models, Common Data Models, and the Common Data Service. This more technical session seems to be a winner as the room I was in was packed and I received top marks based on the evaluations.
Lesson learned for me, Saturday sessions are better if the content is timely and technical.
I got to sit in Jukka’s session and it did not disappoint. Filled with practical insights in PowerApps from both a canvas and model-driven perspective. I understand he will be doing a post soon on the topic so check out his blog.
The other session I was able to attend was from Mohammed on lessons learned from being the first to implement Sales Insights in Europe for an enterprise customer. I like lessons learned presentations as they are so tangible and practical.
The best part was getting to meet so many people and start friendships and conversations that I’m excited to continue. Who knows where they will lead?
This was a weekend well spent in the Power Platform community.
I also got to share my new London themed sticker, that got snapped up and started appearing around Oslo. Note the sticker incorporates the City of London dragon with the CDS logo, PowerApps and Flow logos.
