Introduction
As the year comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on the past 12 months. It has been a year of ups and downs, challenges and opportunities.
In this blog post, I will share some of my reflections on 2023 and the goals I have set for 2024.
What went well?
I was awarded Microsoft MVP for Azure in April! 🎉🎉
I changed jobs (same employer), being promoted to a Microsoft Partner Technology Strategist at Version 1.
I relaunched Azure Pirate as The Cloud Pirate (content aggregator), which now posts to three platforms, and has well over 600 combined followers.
I launched The Cloud Pirate Newsletter, which has over 300 weekly subscribers.
I attended 6 in-person Microsoft conferences.
I published 20 blog posts!
What didn't go well?
I shut down the Azure Pirate and Azure Projects. Not all projects work out, and these were two of them. Still, it was worth a try!
I co-founded the Azure Community Enthusiasts User Group, but due to family reasons had to back out. Still, it's great to see it thriving.
I'm trying to launch a new in-person cloud tech user group in Newcastle, UK, called North East Cloud Comparisons. It's not going as well as I'd hoped, but let's see what the new year brings!
What's planned for 2024?
All jokes aside, for me (and I imagine many others), 2024 will be the year I truly immerse myself in AI. My role as a Technology Strategist will dictate as much, but I'm also very interested in this topic. From Copilots to (what was previously called) Cognitive Services, my plans are to get my hands as dirty as possible with these tools and learn what I can from them.
I'm also hoping my Azure Lean Coffee initiative kicks off. I had great fun recoding the first one, and I've already got several great people signed on to help me continue it - so fingers crossed! You can find out more about that here.
To all of my readers, I wish you all the very best for 2024.
Dan (aka The Cloud Pirate 🏴☠️)
Don't you just love AI image generation 😂!