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Engage & Speak Up: Qureshi’s Dynamic IT Pro Session

Following a few years of pandemic-induced quiet and the arrival of twins, I had hardly any in-person speaking engagements. Recently, however, things have picked up, with several recent events attended and more marked on the calendar.

A Look Back

Experts Live Netherlands 2024

It was a pleasure to head back to the Netherlands and speak at Experts Live Netherlands. The Experts Live conference is familiar to many in IT across Europe, and Isidora Maurer (MVP) has steadily grown this event over the years—expanding from a Europe-wide gathering to local versions that let more people get involved. I presented here previously, but due to personal commitments couldn’t return until now. Being accepted as a speaker again was fantastic.

The event took place in Nieuwegein, easily accessible via train from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam – Dutch public transport is truly world-class. The day featured a bustling expo area and an eager crowd. I ran my session “Azure Firewall: The Legacy Firewall Killer” to a full house with people lining the walls

TechMentor Microsoft HQ 2024

Back in 2004, I attended my first conference: WinConnections in Lake Las Vegas. It was genuinely a career turning point. TechMentor has come to have the same impact, gathering top-tier presenters each year. This time, I had three sessions accepted, including an all-day pre-conference seminar.

I invested a huge amount of time into that pre-con seminar, expanding my session “Routing – The Virtual Cabling of Secure Azure Networking” into a full-day event. Scaling it from 1 hour to a day was a challenge and required cutting some material! To make the session as interactive as possible, I spent long evenings designing a Bicep deployment to automate the lab setup for participants—a must if everyone was to enjoy hands-on experience. Azure did throw up random deployment quirks and upgrades from Microsoft, unfortunately, so the “demo gods” weren’t on my side. I had to pivot swiftly from hands-on labs to demonstrations. Although in-class questions were few, plenty of discussions happened during breaks and even in the days that followed.

Session two was “Azure Firewall: The Legacy Firewall Killer”—a crowd favourite. I enjoy presenting this as it allows for a good bit of humour, much to my family’s embarrassment!

The session I’d worried most about was “Your Azure Migration Project Is Doomed To FAIL”. Up to now, no event would accept it, maybe due to its tongue-in-cheek negative title. The talk actually covers the frequent confusion in large organisations between cloud migration and cloud adoption, illustrated with fictionalised stories and a heap of Unsplash imagery. Despite being unsure, it landed very well with attendees and got a lot of positive feedback.

TechMentor stands out for how well they connect attendees and presenters. On the opening evening, everyone gathered at a local pizzeria, with small booths making it easy to get talking—I met professionals from all over the US. On day two, lunch was structured so that each presenter hosted a table, allowing direct interaction. Migration proved a hot topic, and many present were tackling it for the first (or second!) time. I was able to tweak my session to be even more relevant, which paid off given the post-session engagement and further conversations.

Some Downtime

The day before flying off to TechMentor, I dropped my family at the airport—they were off to Spain for four weeks, and I followed a few days later after a marathon journey via Seattle, Los Angeles, Dublin, and Alicante (note to future self: next time, go for the one-stop route through Iceland!).

We settled into a friendly residential Spanish town, rather than a tourist hotspot, which was a lovely change of pace. Sunshine, temperatures above 33°C, a pool, and a mellow environment allowed me to squeeze in some work before two weeks of pure holiday.

I ran most mornings – usually 5–7KM – relishing the chance to explore new routes each day and scope out places for family visits. At home in Ireland, there are only two safe running routes! Returning home was quite the shock—cooler, greyer, and distinctly autumnal. Even so, it’s good to get back into routine, jacket on and running slower until the legs warm up.

What’s Ahead

Here are three lined-up events to look out for:

Nieuwegein (Netherlands) September 11: Azure Fest 2025

I’m returning to Nieuwegein soon to present a brand new session: “Azure Virtual Network Manager”. Having tracked this product since its early private preview, I can see its potential for revolutionising how we manage complex Azure networks for secure, compliant PaaS and IaaS setups. Although there are still tweaks needed (especially with pricing), I’ll be demonstrating its major strengths and current limitations.

Dublin (Ireland) October 7: Microsoft Azure Community & AI Day

Hosted by Nicolas Chang (MVP), this day will showcase a rapid series of presentations from leading Irish MVPs, each covering Azure and AI. Details are due to go live soon—watch this space. I’ll be delivering my “Azure Virtual Network Manager” session again for this audience.

TBA: Nordics

I’m delighted to have been allocated two speaking slots at an as-yet-unannounced Nordic event. Once details are released, I’ll update—but I’m looking forward to engaging with the northern tech community soon.

My Azure Sessions & Troubleshooting Guides

If you’re curious, you’re welcome to check my public Sessionize profile with a full catalogue of sessions here.

Are you troubleshooting Azure and seeking step-by-step solutions? Here are some valuable Microsoft Azure blog resources to help you out:

If you’re running into Azure issues, searching for ‘How to troubleshoot [your issue] in Azure’ on the Microsoft Tech Community blog can surface in-depth articles and troubleshooting guides crafted by Azure experts. Bookmark these resources for a smoother cloud journey!

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