2020 highlights

As the end of 2020 draws near there comes a great opportunity to take a moment to reflect on the high points in a year that none of us could have predicted.  

As many of you know, my passion is being part of this community and helping pass on that sense of community: giving back, lessons learned, advice, experiences, and tips on the technology advances to everyone. Thank you to those I have had the opportunity to work with and all the members of the Cambridge Power Platform User Group for being immense. Wishing you all health and happiness and look forward to working with you in 2021.  

So what did I get up to in 2020…

• Became MVP for Business Application: https://bit.ly/2R4RFfQ
• Accepted as Business Mentor for Women in Cloud: https://bit.ly/2X7E4qZ
• Nominated for Women of the year: Tech sector for Women in Tech Excellence Awards 2020:https://bit.ly/3mFsttb 
• Winner of the Power Platform User Group All-Star Award! https://bit.ly/3heydsQ
• Introduction to PowerApps (Canvas Apps) & the AI Builder, my session was among the top sessions at 2019 Power Platform Summit North America in Orlando!! So in 2020 we recorded it on You Tube The Best of Summit Webinar – PowerApps User Group – YouTube

• Interviewed on the most excellent MVP show podcast sharing my passion for SharePoint, Office 365 and Power Platform (and Tesla) : https://power-full.blog/2020/12/10/the-mvp-show-podcast/ 

Received this amazing feedback from a mentee – “Bringing Sharon in as a WIC advisor is more valuable than finding a cave of diamonds!”  sent to Chaitra Vedullapalli Co-Founder of Women in Technology #WITNetwork

• Became a Women in Cloud Ambassador for 2021
• My team along with Co-lead Matt Collins-Jones was the Winner of the Hackathon Hack4Good 
• Received the Dynamic Communities Granite award for Community Participation 
• Was a track Leader for TeamsFest (Now Teams Nation) 
• Became a Volunteer and Track Leader for Power Apps at the Scottish Summit 2021 
• Had the honor of being a Power Platform Community Call Speaker with a very Christmassy theme with Clarissa and Jese in Dec 2020: recording here https://bit.ly/2WHq5I4
• Presented a Cloud Lunch and learn 4 part series on the Power Platform in September 2020 
• Was part of the Ask the Expert team at Ignite (speaking / being part of Ignite USA is a lifelong goal) 
• Invited to take part in the Oops moment You Tube Channel – great fun
• Took part in a Nations of Women interview me on Office365: https://bit.ly/3mLRov8

• Heather Newman: https://youtu.be/FrmhWKQWKRk
• April Dunham: https://youtu.be/YAtWU33cGZM
• Sancho Harker: https://youtu.be/2yKN9FNLjc0 
• Charles sterling: https://youtu.be/1TlRQ7i7LLM
• Greg Hurlman: https://youtu.be/oUXCmMeDVVE
• Chris Hoard: https://youtu.be/Z8igDjLZRBI
• Laura Graham-Brown, Sandy Ussia, and Jon Levesque: https://youtu.be/Cc2a9ef-Alk
• The group has now become part of Microsoft Azure communities family
• Joined by a new Co-host for the group, Power Platform enthusiast and Microsoft evangelist Joel Jeffery 

• Started writing a book – work in progress…
• Have had over 11k visitors to my blog: http://power-full.blog/
• I have close to 100 You Tube subscribers https://bit.ly/3hhCmMD
• I have Proctored as many sessions as I presented – remote sessions need helpers and its so much fun!
• Launched Casper365 SharePoint and Teams Migration

I know we’ve not had a great year, and while I could write an equally long list of challenges that were far less positive I think it’s important to reflect and find things to feel good about. I choose to keep busy, overcommit and take part – I’m frequently exhausted but never unfulfilled and lucky to be a part of the best community in tech – thanks to all the people that make that community work – you know who you are #PowerPlatform #Microsoft #CommunityRocks #PowerAddicts