Notes From The Road: 2016 in Review

Here are two incredible facts: 318576 views were made to my blog last year, being that, the country that most visited was the United States, followed by India, United Kingdom and Sweden.

(In 2016, there was 50 new posts, growing the total of this blog to 534 posts)

And I had the opportunity, as a speaker, to present 14 sessions! A new personal record…

So once again let’s look back and reflect on what happened in 2016. In a few words, it was an interesting and challenge year both personal and professional!

My selected Highlights of 2016

Sharing my book with the community

Physical print copies of my book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices” was sold or give away in several Integration events last year like Integrate 2016 London, BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm and Gothenburg or TechMeet360. And I had the privilege of being present in most of them…

(Pro Integration Group PM Jim Harrer photobombing one of the pictures)

And I had – as a “well know writer” – my first book signing event experience at Integrate 2016 London – I felt a little awkward/strange to sign copies of my book, it’s not something I’m used to, strange, but a very pleasant and rich experience.

(At Integrate 2016 London)

(At BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm)

(At BizTalk User Group Sweden in Gothenburg)

(At TechMeet360 in India)

Thanks Saravana and BizTalk360 for all the work you have done to push and promote my book! Let’s do another one!

First experience at Channel 9 studio

At the MVP Summit 2016 in November, I had the opportunity to record a segment in the Channel 9 studio, that was my first experience, and I have to confess, I was a little nervous to be recording in a small professional studio, so as I was expecting after seeing the record in its raw state, the end result could have been better, but, for a first experience it went pretty well. The important for me is to face new challenges, different situations, leave my comfort zone and improve to be better next time. The segment is not public yet, but I will be sure to post when it is.

Fortunately, I had the company of my good friend Kent Weare in this small “adventure”:

He is probably one of the few people that I know that I wasn’t able to convince him to buy my book. Instead, he tried to convince me that he could help him sell more books if I gave him a free copy

TUGA IT 2016

Being responsible for organizing the Integration track and one Integration Workshop at TUGA IT event, one of the major biggest events in Portugal that targets several distinct technologic areas like SharePoint and Office 365, Azure Infrastructure, Data Platform, Programming and Integration (BizTalk, IoT and Azure) and much more.

Having that role, I was able to invite and convince some of my good friends to speak at this event: Nino Crudele, Steef-Jan Wiggers, Sam Vanhoutte and Glenn Colpaert.

And I was able to perform a one day deep dive workshop about Enterprise Integration with my dear friends Nino Crudele and Steef-Jan Wiggers…. what amazing experience combining three different and experienced experts in one room to share knowledge

Integrate 2016 London

As always, I was really happy and proud to speak at the biggest integration (Microsoft related technologies) event worldwide: Integrate 2016 London that was amazingly well organized by Saravana Kumar and his BizTalk360 team. The statistics of this year’s INTEGRATE 2016 event stood at 380 attendees, 187 Companies from 22 different countries and the key highlight of the welcome session was the announcement of the availability of a printed version of my “BizTalk Mapping Patterns” book… Once again, thanks Saravana and BizTalk360 team!

This event is always an amazing and unique opportunity to learn from some of the well-known experts in the field and to meet the people you have been following on Twitter and blogs and other social networks who are interested in the same things you are.

Here is a different perspective of the event… The speaker’s vision:

And here I am with the Microsoft Pro Integration Team and some of the MVPs present at the event:

MVP Summit 2016, meet the all Microsoft BizTalk team and the reunion of BizTalkCrew

The greatest thing about attending the MVP Summit is the networking part… reconnect with some friends, meet the product group, have great technical discussions and enjoy… and that was exactly what happened this year. I cannot discuss the technical part (NDA) but here is the fun part:

I was able to record a session at Channel9 (which I mentioned earlier)
Attending my first Seahawks game

First experience at a Shooting range with most of all BizTalk MVPs… just to confirm that I am not a fun of guns… but it was a really fun experience

Engagements with the product teams during the event and outside the event… here visiting the Museum of Flight with Mikael Håkansson, Johan Hedberg and Clemens Vasters

Meet the all Microsoft BizTalk team (or Pro Integration Team), here is a picture of some MVPs in meeting room were the Logic App team records their Logic Apps Live webcast

And the BizTalk Crew was reunited once again

A year of speaking engagements…

Another year full of speaking engagements… I had the opportunity to deliver 14 sessions! Speaking about different topics like BizTalk Server, Logic Apps, API Management, App Service, Azure Functions, Microsoft Flow or PowerApps, in multiple events across Europe (UK, Sweden and Portugal) and some of them through live meetings. New personal record!

Some of them I already mentioned above but here is the complete list of speaking engagements that I did in 2016:

XV Porto.Data Event: Build your first LogicApp from scratch (No slides)

Global Azure Bootcamp 2016 Lisbon: The “Apps” World: Logic, API & PowerApps

2 online talks at the Integration User Group: Creating reusable pieces in Logic Apps and BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices
Integrate2016 London: A new set of BizTalk Server Tips and Tricks

Where I also gave away BizTalk T-Rex stickers to the attendees:

Tuga IT 2016: One session: BizTalk Server Deep Dive Tips & Tricks for Developers and Admins; and one workshop: Enterprise Integration Workshop

BizTalk User Group Sweden in Stockholm: BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices

BizTalk User Group Sweden in Gothenburg: BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices

12ª NetPonto Porto Meeting: API Management: Rise of the Planet of the Apps

XXIII Porto.Data Event: API Management: Rise of the Planet of the Apps

(I had this event two weeks after my surgery, was still in recovery and that why my sporty look on stage)

DevScope CSI: SharePoint integration: How can PowerApps and Microsoft Flow give power to your SharePoint users
SPS Lisbon 2016: SharePoint integration: How can PowerApps and Microsoft Flow give power to your SharePoint users

Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP): API Management: Rise of the Planet of the Apps

For me is always a great honor and joy to be participating in these type of events, either as speaker or attendee, be with old friends, meet new people and share knowledge!

And yet I had the opportunity once again to attend some events like:

MVP Global Summit 2016
MVP Open-Day 2016 (Rome)
A few SQLPort and Porto.Data Community events;
An incalculable number of internal training events at DevScope;
And more

My Blog is growing every year…

Very special thanks to all my reader. I really appreciate the 318,576 visits to my blog (in a total of 1456497 views since I’ve migrated to WordPress), from 187 countries in the past year. And even with all the speaking events that I had, I still was able to write 50 new posts.

The posts that got the most views in 2016 were:

BizTalk Server 2013 R2: Installation and Configuration – Install and Configure BizTalk Server 2013 R2 (Part 9) posted in January 2015
The source was not found, but some or all event logs could not be searched. Inaccessible logs: Security. posted in February 2012
BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Install and Configure BizTalk Server 2013 (Part 9) posted in May 2013
BizTalk Server 2013 R2: Installation and Configuration – Important considerations before set up the server (Part 1) posted in January 2015
BizTalk 2013 Installation and Configuration – Important considerations before set up the server (Part 1) posted in May 2013

However, my 3 favorite’s posts that I enjoyed writing last year was:

Why is so hard to make a simple If-Then-Else Functoid? … well, not anymore! A painful operation has become simple.
Series of 3 posts using PowerShell and BizTalk Ports because they are time saver:
And finally Logic Apps: Tips and Tricks to use Azure Functions inside Logic Apps at the time a fresh topic without many documentation available.

Still contributing to TechNet Wiki and provide several BizTalk Open Source Contributions

And as has been the case in recent years, I’m BizTalk Technet Contributor, where I write articles in Microsoft TechNet Wiki and BizTalk TechNet moderator. I’m also a member of the TechNet Wiki Community Council and TechNet Wiki Ninja Blogger.

BizTalk Open Source Contributions in Microsoft TechNet Gallery and in CodePlex;
You can see all of my articles here.

And many other contributions….

And as always Besides community work…

… of course, friendship, family, traveling and running were also important things as always!

2016 I had the pleasure to have a mini-vacation (3 days) with my greatest friend: Nino Crudele and is family… thanks for having us in your home

Traveling (for work and pleasure) … I was able to visit two new countries: Sweden and The Netherlands (Where I enjoyed a nice dinner with Steef-Jan Wiggers and his family, I also visited their home … thank you!)

And finally… Portugal won their first European Championship

And this means that these two guys will wear Pepe jersey in the upcoming Integrate 2017 in London during their presentation: Steef-Jan Wiggers and Mikael Håkansson