End of Year (2021) Review

This year was another abnormal year with ups and downs for many. Salute to everyone that kept pushing through any and all hardships you experienced. For me, my focus continued to be family and seizing all presented opportunities while blocking out as much unnecessary noise as possible.

Highlights:

I consider 2021 a spectacular year with several milestones and firsts for me. This year kicked off with me being featured in the Star Tribune (the 5th largest newspaper in the United States) in Superbowl Sunday’s paper! Other major highlights included being renewed as a Microsoft MVP for the 10th year, being promoted to an Azure Platform Offering Lead at work, developing 6 new courses for Pluralsight, publishing my 7th and 8th book one of them being my 1st book with O’Reilly, appearing on 5 podcasts/webinars, & speaking at 7 conferences/user groups of them being DevOpsDays MPLS! I also continued my virtual world tour speaking at events in Africa and even Jamaica!

Here is the full list of activities from 2021:

February 2021: Featured as a technology leader in Minnesota’s largest newspaper Star Tribune. Was a full page story. Bonus this was the super bowl Sunday newspaper.  https://m.startribune.com/twin-cities-technologist-steve-buchanan-sees-a-more-inclusive-expanding-future-for-young-minorities/600019839

February 2021: Published GitOps course on Pluralsight showcasing knowledge in AKS, Azure Arc, Kubernetes and GitOps.

February 2021: Presented at Omaha Azure User group on Azure Arc enabled Kubernetes & GitOps. 

February 2021: Presented on Containers in Azure for Lago’s (Nigeria) LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY (LASU) TECHX CONFERENCE. 

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Workforce for the Future of Work Tech Panel

Recently (April 2021) I was invited to be a panelist during an event for the Workforce Innovation Board of Ramsey County. At this event, we discussed how to leverage tech skills and the Ramsey County tech ecosystem to support a transformative workforce recovery. This panel was hosted by Tony Lusiba, WIB Tech Committee Chair.

The panelists included:

Some of the topics that were discussed

  • Trends to think about as we pivot our workforce post-COVID-19.
  • New skills that job seekers should have as companies move to hybrid models vs going back to the office 100%.
  • Technology enhancements employers should adopt to provide support for this new hybrid working model.

Here is a blog post about the event:

https://www.ramseycountymeansbusiness.com/workforce/workforce-news/p/item/34678/preparing-our-workforce-for-the-future-of-work-recording-now-available

Here is a direct link to watch the the recording:

Preparing our Workforce for the Future of Work panel discussion

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