Father-Daughter Duo Takes Over Global Azure 2021

Are you bewildered by the possibilities of the Microsoft Cloud when it comes to SharePoint? You're not alone.

The Microsoft Cloud brings a huge range of opportunities for how users can leverage Azure with SharePoint – and one father-daughter duo is preparing to educate and elevate other developers on how Azure fits into their Office 365 and SharePoint world.

Office Apps & Services MVP David Patrick is set to present with daughter Sarah Patrick at this week’s Global Azure 2021. Over three days from April 15-17, communities around the world are organizing localized live streams for anyone and everyone to learn about Azure from best-in-class community leaders.

David says he is excited to share the virtual stage with his daughter, a student at the University of Maryland, and share all the tips and tricks the pair has learned. “[My learning journey started] in Visual Basic a long time ago,” David says. “Then I moved on to C# when .NET came out and now I’m learning, along with my daughter, all the good cloud technologies like SharePoint Online and Power Apps and how to integrate everything using Flows in Power Automate.”

“All along the way, Microsoft’s great community support has always enabled Sarah and me to quickly learn new technologies without a lot of financial investment,” David adds. “Tools like the Learning Paths, Quick Starts, Tutorials and free Azure Sandboxes available from Microsoft Learn are extremely helpful in getting up to speed on things like Azure SQL and Web Apps really quickly.”

David says his daughter is very active in learning new technologies and sharing that knowledge with others. For example, Sarah has taken part in internships with the Project Management Institute and the Smithsonian Institution and regularly instructs at conferences like SharePoint Saturdays and Teams Day Online.

“Sarah started young, she gave her first talk at age 16 to a group of middle school girls during a workshop called TechGirlz,” David says. “She was ‘bitten’ by the speaking bug because she continues to lead these workshops today five years later!”

Going forward, David suggests other MVPs can help spread the word about all things tech by directly working with and inspiring young people. “They can volunteer at colleges, like a bunch of MVPs did when we organized a ‘College Tour’ in 2018 for Towson University, or they can partner with an organization like TechGirlz, which always needs volunteers to help lead and run their workshops,” David says.

“Sarah and I have been doing these for the last five years and they continue to be a source of energy and enthusiasm.”

In their session titled Intro to Azure for the SharePoint Developer, the duo is set to offer an overview of how cloud computing relates to Azure and Office 365, give tips on deploying SharePoint on-premises to Azure, and demonstrate how to quickly stand up multiple versions of SharePoint in Azure using Azure templates.

For more, check out Sarah’s Twitter @sarahepatrick or David’s Twitter @DavidEPatrick