Last year of the Scottish Summit I had the pleasure to be part of the selected speakers and also take part as a volunteer and mentor. I shared a session around my beloved Dynamics 365 Human Resources (you can check it here: Ana Inés Urrutia - D365 HR Scottish Summit) and also monitored the Italian track. Malin and I got the chance to work together mentoring two amazingly talented ladies - Latoya & Tanique - who presented a session around: Power Platform can aid user adoption for Finance and Operations Projects.
Scottish Summit is known for a lot of reasons because it builds community, provides the perfect environment for people to exchange and grow, selects the best speakers but gives opportunities to the new starters. It is also sponsored by great companies that believe in the values and mission behind it, and that's invaluable. As a speaker, I had the chance to expose myself to an unknown world of highly qualified experts and got the chance to network with people from literally all over the world.
Sometimes submitting is a challenge...
I honestly wasn't sure if it was a good decision to submit a session, I was doubting. I mean who would benefit from the content I create? Who will be interested in it? Finally, I made up my mind I realized that this was definitely a great experience of exposure and exchange with a community I've never had the chance to share something before. I was involved in local user groups and also doing video recordings of D365HR in this blog, but never this kind of event. This was the big one. If I look back I even remember the moment where I recorded my video to submit the session. I was living in Perú, wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, next door a building was under construction and it was an early Sunday. That was at least a year ago...
How did it impact my professional career?
Earlier today I was thinking about what lead me to be now in Spain, working for a company like Axazure in one of the roles I ever wanted since I started in this amazing Microsoft world. Want to know why I'm here? Because - added to my blog and LinkedIn activity - I took part in Scottish Summit earlier this year. I was able to stand out, share my knowledge and experience around Dynamics 365 Human Resources, and that totally paid off. Someone saw me speaking and I asked for an interview, but also a lot of requests to connect appeared as well as invitations to collaborate in community projects.
The power of networking
Microsoft technology world is quite big, and as a Consultant - unfortunately - I'm not able to keep track of everything. But I guarantee you that for every question you've around a specific stream I got at least two professionals to refer you to. I learned about the different leaders surrounding Microsoft technology at Scottish Summit because it covers almost every topic. From Power Platform and Dynamics 365 apps, Azure, Big Data to Personal skills and Microsoft Education. It is a very complete experience.
Mentoring is key
Mentoring is something I'm very grateful for. I even wrote an article about it: The hidden power of mentoring: a personal collection of lessons learned. (microsoft.com). When you land in the speakers' field and you've no idea how to start mentoring is part of the solution. There are a few ways to get off that fear of speaking in public and reach your goals. Past year Malin and I got the chance to work closely with Latoya and Tanique to help them to get rid of all their doubts and speak out about something that they were really passionate about. It was a great session and they reached a big audience, but what was better is that they lost the fear of speaking in public. They understood the value of their experience and realize that their experience was definitely valuable for other people.
2022 here we go!
This year I'm part of the organizing team and I could be more grateful about it. I'm a happy member of a team of 6 people including two formers members: Mark Christie and Iain Connolly, as well as Janet Robb, Matt Bread, and Zoe Wilson. Next year is going to be epic, but we need you. Personally, I want to encourage you to submit your session, to think how amazing it will be after it and the impact that it could have on your career and professional life. If you are doubting the idea of becoming a speaker, don't worry! We all started sometime, and let me tell you Paddy Byrne will be there for you leading the New Speakers track. There's only space for learning and growing.
📣 Call for speakers:
Follow this link to submit: Scottish Summit 2022: Call for Speakers/Papers @ Sessionize.com
A total of 160 sessions will be selected, from Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Big Data, Personal Skills, Microsoft Education and New Speakers.
Mark your calendars for February 2022!
📅 When: Scottish Summit is happening on 25 and 26 of February 2022.