Personal highlights of 2020 - Some of the things I accomplished this year

2020 has been a strange old year for me and people around the globe. This has not stopped me in achieving some of my goals that I set late last year. Here are some of my more notable achievements in the year.

Highlight 1 - Attended first Microsoft Ignite session in Sydney

Before Australia entered its first lockdown, I attended the first Microsoft Ignite session in Sydney, Australia. I learned a lot from the sessions that were conducted at the event 3.

microsoft-ignite-2020

Some of the topics I attended during day covered the following material:

  • Microsoft Azure
  • Power BI and the Power Platform
  • Security

Highlight 2 - Google Certified Cloud Professional Architect

I decided to get myself certified in multiple cloud technologies during the year and I am happy to report that I am now a Google Certified Cloud Solutions Architect and more information on this certification is available from My path to a Google Professional Cloud Architect.

professional-cloud-architect

Highlight 3 - Started a meetup group with some colleagues

I started the Brisbane AI User group along with my colleagues in May of this year. This group is for anyone interested in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The focus of this group is to help people understand AI scenarios through real, hands-on technical solutions and explore how to develop AI solutions in today’s world using different providers.

I am happy to report that we had multiple different presenters from different vendors like Microsoft, Google, and AWS on a variety of interesting topics. Based on our combined efforts we have increased our members to approx. 370 as of this blog post and are keen to increase it further. To help with that outcome we have also increased the number of organisers from three to four this year.

Brisbane-AI-User-Group

I have also successfully conducted the Brisbane AI Bootcamp, an annual one-day streamed event with my colleagues to promote AI topics across Australasia. We had multiple presenters cover the following topics

Highlight 4 - Conducted my first presentation at a meetup group

I successfully presented a topic called Codeless ETL in Azure Data Factory at the Queensland’s SQL Server User Group. It was an introductory topic that demoed the use of Mapping Data Flows in Azure Data Factory (ADF), and contrasted that with the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). I also briefly covered the concept of Codeless-ETL paradigm that was used in SSIS and in ADF.

Codeless-ETL

Highlight 5 - Promoted to a role as a Data Strategist and Cloud Solutions Architect at BiTQ

Based on my efforts last year I was promoted to a more senior role within my Company as a Data Strategist and a Cloud Solutions Architect at BiTQ. I am happy to report that I have been given additional responsibilities in building a team related to cloud technologies and DevOps within the company.

I would like to thank BiTQ for giving me the time and encouraging me to strive higher, both in terms of my certification and my career goals.

Highlight 6 - Completed the first section of the exam for a Microsoft Certified Data Engineer

I successfully passed the first exam to become a Microsoft Certified Data Engineer (DP-201). I have documented the steps in my study process and some information about the exam in Successfully Completing Microsoft Exam DP-201.

Plan for 2021

There were a number of certification goals I have I will not be able to do this year but I am planning to complete them in 2021. These include the following

  • Submit presentation to different user groups/present internationally
  • AWS Architect Professional
  • TOGAF Certification
  • Microsoft Data Engineer Associate
  • Microsoft Data Scientist Associate
  • Google Certified Data Professional
  • Improve and conduct more presentations with an aim to complete ten by the end of the year
  • Blog more often – the aim is to produce a blog article once a week

Onwards to 2021

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year (2021).

In this climate of Covid-19, it is very important to look after yourself, your family, your friends, and neighbours. Stay safe and I hope everything will clear during the year wherever you may be.

Please check out my other articles on my Blog HomePage.

If you have any feedback let me know, it will be greatly appreciated

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