Background
My journey with Scottish Summit started in 2020, when I discovered that such an event takes place. I looked into the agenda and it looked very exciting and that was a bit disappointing.
It was disappointing. I could only attend 1 conference that year and I was already booked for the Community Summit EMEA 2020. This was when Corona started to raise its head in Europe and none of us knew what was to come.
I figured out that Scottish Summit 2020 was also broadcasted on Youtube. On the day of the broadcast, when everyone was posting pictures about Glasgow, I was glued to my TV.
The theme, sessions and clips in between were really catchy and the whole atmosphere seemed so fun. And I was learning so much new. It was then, I knew, that I definitely want to take part in the event in 2021.
Getting involved with #SS2021
And answering that Tweet, changed everything for me. Sounds corny, I know, but it really did. At first, I just wanted to ask, if I would qualify. Would be cool to get a mentor, right? But the quick answer really surprised me. It, on the same go also decided my faith 😀 I was getting a mentor and not any mentor. I got to prepare my speech with the awesome Sara Lagerquist.
Me and Sara had bi-weekly meetings. To ensure that I was on track and that I had answers to all the questions needed. I am pretty sure she is a superwoman! So welcoming and warm, it felt like we have been friends for ages. During the preparation phase her help was invaluable. She managed to get answers to all my questions and fast. Our talks also lead to so many ideas, I thought I was planning too much.
By the time of submission, I did manage to submit 2 ideas, as I couldn’t choose which one I liked the most. And then it was all about preparation, preparation, preparation.
The most exciting thing about having a mentor for this session was the feedback to every idea for my presentation. Besides that, we also set up a practice session, where I gave my presentation to around 20 people I have never met. This was a brilliant idea!
The feedback and the questions I got asked were very valuable to how I should do the real presentation.
- How I should act?
- What I should focus on?
I ended up changing a few parts, as they seemed to be confusing people. I can honestly say that I had the best team to help me prepare for my first big presentation at Scottish Summit 2021. So once again big thanks to Sara, Julie, Carina, Benedikt and everyone that attended my practise session 🙂
Volunteering
In December 2020, just a few months before the big event, I saw that the organizing team was looking for more volunteers to help out with the speakers and moderating the events. I tend to have a “Go big or go home” attitude and therefore I of course offered my help.
I was appointed a room and a list of speakers and I made sure that people had everything they needed for a successful presentation and that everything technically was also ready for them to give the best presentation they could.
Being a volunteer besides a speaker benefitted me greatly. I got to meet a lot of awesome people in the D365 and Power Platform communities for all over the world. It always makes me energized to attend a meeting with likeminded people. I feel like I can take over the world and wish to give back any way possible.
You could really see how close the community really is. Not only, did everyone use their time to make sure that everything was ok for the speakers and that everything ran smoothly, we also helped each other, if someone had questions or had a session to go over things before the summit.
People that I have been following on social media and blogs were suddenly so close. Being able to do the same thing and getting people to notice me as also a player in this field is the most rewarding thing for me. It is kind of what I imagine addiction feels like. You get so hyped up that you just come back craving for more and more and at the same time you want to do everything in order to keep getting that feeling over and over again.
I think I am still star struck 😀
The day of the Summit
This was one crazy day 😀 My adrenaline levels were running high from the morning until late in the evening when I was trying to process everything that happened.
My session was recorded and when it was my time, then i literally ran back and forth in my house. I just had to move. After 5-10 minutes running around like a crazy person, I focused on the presentation and was, for the first time, ok with hearing myself speak. I don’t know if others have the same, but when I hear a recording of myself, I always think: “Is that really how I sound like to other people?”
All in all I think my presentation went well. There were questions from the people listening and it seemed like I gave value to the people listening. That felt good.
As everyone also had a recording of their presentation uploaded to Youtube, then You can always re-watch my presentation.
