Vision quest
Wow. Just... wow. What an amazing week.
The scale and ambition of Ignite is impressive. Combining the big 4 North American conferences into a single big event resulted in having a greater cross section of the IT world in attendance, which is an excellent way to expand horizons. I'm a firm believer in osmotic knowledge transfer, and of the ideas that I've brought home with me have come about as a result of having a chat with a fellow attendee over lunch about the shared challenges that we face and what they've done to resolve them.
And being at Ignite did prompt me to ask a lot of questions, ranging from the technical (how can I start using Azure RMS for document security?) to the procedural (where is the next breakout room located?) to the cultural (why is there bacon on this donut?), most of which have been answered to my satisfaction1.
The biggest and best value of attending Ignite has been the chance to chat to the people that actually build the products. Got questions about ExpressRoute? Here's the guy that runs it. Wanna know more about Skype for Business? There's the product manager. Intune implementation questions? Sketch it on the whiteboard with the product team and talk it through. Reading the configuration guide is one thing, actually chatting to the people that put it all together is a great way to reinforce why you should pay attention and listen to them2.
It was also an excellent chance to chat with IT folks from all around the world and from a mind-boggling array of industries. The passion and enthusiasm these folks have to make the planet a better place through technology is truly inspiring. Satya Nadella spoke about this during the keynote, and an extended amount of time spent in transit gave me a certain amount of time to reflect on how this applies to my situation3.
Technology has changed my life. I have gone further and done more with my career than a kid from my background could have any reasonable expectation of, and I reckon that if you took a straw poll of IT people you'd find a decent chunk of them are in a similar position. We know we can use technology to change the world for the better, because it's already happened to us. Now I want to use that opportunity to make my community better.
As mentioned in my first blog post we're in the process of building a new hospital, looking to use new technologies to enhance our processes and deliver great patient outcomes. It's a once-in-a-generation prospect, and it's something that I want to get right. My trip to Ignite really cemented for me the benefits of a cloud-first mobile-first vision and how it can deliver opportunities for everyone, whether they be in Chicago, Kolkata or Kangaroo Flat.
I'm now back to work with a head full of great ideas. I'm ready to help spark the next great IT revolution.
Cheers,
g-lock
1: It has been said before that bacon goes with everything. This has now conclusively been disproven.
2: A sentiment that parents of teenagers can probably empathise with.
3: As well as re-reading the entire Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series