SharePoint Hackathon - Hack Together - Introductions 👋

[VesaJuvonen]

Hi everyone, welcome to the SharePoint Hackathon - Hack Together! We are excited to kickoff this hackathon in March and looking forward on seeing different patterns, designs and solutions across the different categories 🤩

SharePoint has such a broad audience, so we wanted to ensure that there's a category suitable for everyone. It does not matter if you are end user, designer, architect, AI specialist, developer or PowerPoint polisher (like me) - there's a category where you can contribute and provide your submission 💡

Great way to get started with this global hackathon is by introducing yourself. Let's use this discussion for that 👋

⭐ Please star this repo as we will be communicating here regarding further information and updates related to the hack, including Office Hours, Session Q & A, Project Submission Guidelines, Winner Announcements, and more!

Please introduce yourself below with the following details:

⚡️ name/nickname/username
🌎 location (country and state/province if relevant)
⌛ your previous SharePoint experience - what have you created, build, designed with SharePoint?
🐶 fav non-technical hobby

[VesaJuvonen]

Let me introduce myself first

⚡️ Vesa Juvonen
🌎 Helsinki, Finland
⌛ I've started with SharePoint back in 2006 when joined Microsoft as a SharePoint consultant. Move to engineering role back in 2014 and currently working as a PM on the SharePoint team - with focus on the larger Microsoft 365 community and open-source, in partnership with our Power Platform friends. Active community member at https://aka.ms/community/home - calls, samples and guidance - also for this hackathon 💡
🐶 My favorite hobby is long forest hikes with our furry ladies (two collies) - Nature charging with dogs 🌲🔋🐶🐶

[PopWarner]

⚡️ David Warner (PopWarner 🏈)

🌎 Los Angeles, CA

⌛ I've started with SharePoint in 2007 at Union Bank of California back when one day my boss said, "We got this thing called SharePoint. I don't know what it is, but now it's all yours!"....Uhhhh....so the rest of my life was born! I really enjoyed "Making SharePoint not look like SharePoint", implementing lots of very cool UX/UI SP and later SPO experiences that you wouldn't even be able to tell were SP.

Fast forward to today and I still love it, especially working with the greater M365 & Power Platform Community (https://community.ms), helping host the community calls and awesome programs such as the Recognition Program and Sharing is Caring! I'm inspired by the community everyday! 💜🧡

🏈🏒 🗣️✈️ I love to travel with my family, where we often are finding ourselves at community events and taking in various Hockey and American Football games.

[Adam-it]

⚡️ Adam Wojcik
🌎 Łódź, Poland
⌛ I started as a SharePoint dev in 2014 and worked on many SharePoint related projects from Sharepoint 2010 and 2013 and then with migrations to 2016 and further to 2019 and online. My work in SharePoint/Microsoft 365 was related to everything 😉, from admin stuff and tenant management, migrations, and governance to developing fully prepared customized sites for client-tailored specific needs and finally to small SPFx customizations that support different client processes. Usually working as a consultant joining existing teams or creating full projects on my own, almost always leveraging and promoting open-source products. For the last few years, I have been a maintainer of a few Microsoft 365 and Power Platform community products like CLI for Microsoft 365 or SPFx Toolkit VS Code extension. Currently, I dropped my consulting jobs and work only as a .Net Dev which gives me the opportunity to focus on what is important in life 😍, and when everybody goes to sleep I do Open Source stuff 🤷‍♂️
🧗🍼 I have been climbing since I was 12 and this is what I did for most of my life until family_members++ and priorities changed

[ervingayle]

⚡️ Ervin Gayle
🌎 USA, New York, NY
⌛ I started working with Microsoft SharePoint in 2003. It is amazing to see a journey that started prior to this as a windows 2000 server admin that morphed into SharePoint Portal Server 2003, its successors and ultimately Microsoft 365. Most of this experience has been as an admin or architect and later as a developer for a variety of companies and industries. I would say this has been very rewarding as I get to understand these industries and how the technologies that I love, and their capabilities can solve specific business problems or improve business processes. While my focus areas have expanded to other capabilities and AI, I am also humbled to know that each day is an opportunity to learn something new. My open-source journey has started most recently as a beginner contributor to projects instead of just a consumer of these amazing tools. I am happy to learn and follow the giants that are here such as @VesaJuvonen @PopWarner and @Adam-it and others that support our amazing community.
🐶 Love to travel when I can, and binge watch Apple TV.

[swamisnawale]

⚡️ Name: Swami Nawale
🌎 Location: Pune, India
⌛ I started my career journey in 2021, initially focusing on UX design. Later, I discovered Microsoft SharePoint and the Power Platform, which led me to dive into development. Now, I work as a SharePoint and Power Platform Developer. My UI/UX design skills have significantly helped me build engaging intranet portals and user-friendly PowerApps applications, not just in terms of UI but also UX. Throughout my career, I've developed numerous intranet portals for various industries, including NPOs, insurance, healthcare, banking, and more. Additionally, I've built business applications for internal workflows. Recently, I have been exploring Copilot agents and Microsoft Syntex to enhance automation and AI-driven solutions.
🐶 Favorite Non-Technical Hobby: I love exploring new places and enjoy Netflix & chill.

Excited to be part of this hackathon and looking forward to learning, collaborating, and seeing all the innovative solutions! 🚀
🌟 Sharing is Caring

[a1mery]

⚡️ Aimery Thomas
🌎 Paris, France
⌛ I've started working with SharePoint in 2013 at a small company. I spent the first few weeks learning SharePoint from Microsoft books! I've never left SharePoint development after that. A few years later, the M365 & Power Platform Community greatly helped me learn SPFx development, so I often contribute back (also because I enjoy collecting badges 😉).
Currently, I am a M365 Consultant building solutions around SharePoint.
👶👶🎮 I love spending time with my young kids and playing video games whenever I have the time.

[Prakash-Ramasamy]

⚡️ Prakash Ramasamy
🌎 Chennai, India
⌛ I have started my career in SharePoint in 2013 and have worked with multiple versions, including MOSS, SharePoint 2010, 2012, and now SharePoint Online. Over the years, I have gained extensive experience in SharePoint development, customization, and modern solutions.
Currently, I am working as a Senior Technical Lead, where I am responsible for delivering SharePoint Framework (SPFx) solutions and building cutting-edge applications leveraging Azure OpenAI. My expertise lies in architecting and implementing intelligent, scalable, and efficient solutions that integrate AI capabilities with enterprise platforms.
🐶 I love Travelling, watching movies.

[VjeraBA]

⚡️ Vjera, Barbir Alavanja

🌎 Zagreb, Croatia

⌛ I am a computer science teacher, and so far I have used SharePoint only in Teams to create a homepage for some classes and a page for a professional learning community (PLC) on artificial intelligence (AI) that brings together teachers participating in projects. Although the entire education system in Croatia has a Microsoft license and we use Teams for communication and class organization, SharePoint is rarely used. I would like to change that with this hackathon. I have shared links in social groups and hope that as many users from Croatia as possible will respond.

Lately, I have been very active in using the Power Platform since I joined the Power Up program. Such challenges encourage me to learn more, develop, and expand my contacts. I am the founder of the Community Power Platform User Group Croatian Power Up Team, where I try to bring Microsoft Power Platform closer to people in Croatia and encourage them to use it in the education system, along with the classic Office.

🧘🏼‍♀️ In my free time, I love to read, write blogs for Medium, watch movies, and spend time with my family and friends.

[gretchunkim]

⚡️ Username: Azores
🌎 Location: DC, United States
⌛ SharePoint Experience: Started as a Lab Operations Manager and Research Associate, where I worked on assay development, verification, validation, and biological experiments. Transitioned into SharePoint to gain access to the latest tools and technologies, enabling me to work with different versions of SharePoint. Now a SharePoint Architect, specializing in SharePoint Online, Power Platform, and dashboard solutions to enhance enterprise efficiency and collaboration.
🐶 Favorite Non-Technical Hobby: Gardening, with a focus on roses and companion planting. Also enjoy hardscaping projects like building sheds and trellises.

[RobIreland-OastHouseLtd]

⚡️ Rob Ireland
🌎 Crowborough, England
⌛ I've been working with SharePoint since 2001, it has been an amazing journey, some days it leaves me scratching my head but in the main I just love what you can achieve with SharePoint and now Microsoft365. I had a background in publishing so the design side of things is always close to my heart. More lately I've been doing a lot with Azure Open AI, Microsoft Viva Connections and Custom ACE cards. The last two years I have been building a student portal using Viva Connections for the University of Surrey. One of the best things that has happened over the past 24 years is the amazing community that has grown up around SharePoint.
🐶 I spend most of my free time travelling with my wife, entertaining our three year old grand daughter, annoying my grown up kids with my playlist or walking the two dalmatians :-)

[LuiseFreese]

⚡️ Luise Freese
🌎 Duesseldorf, Germany
⌛ I stumbled in SharePoint around 7 years ago - and found it pretty cool! First worked in adoption, then changed to the dark (and fun) side of development I build solutions with M365, Power Platform and Azure. Blogging about everything I learn at m365princess.com and speaking about it at countless conferences made me being recognized as an MVP - in 2 categories M365 Dev and Business Applications. Also I am a member of the Microsoft 365 & Power Platform Community Team (the artist formerly known as PnP 😇)
💖 I spend lots of time running, lifting, and practicing Yoga, love to go to museums and travel places, also I raise two dragons, uhm I mean teenage daughters :-)

[kurt-rolland]

My SharePoint experience started back in 2003 with WSS and SharePoint Portal Server. Organized the first SharePoint one day event back in 2009 called "MOSS Camp." Went on to organize multiple SharePoint Saturday events in Saint Louis. Taught web part development at Washington University with the on-prem farm solutions. As an ISV, developed the "Intranet Kit" in 2015 as a fully client-side Intranet-in-a-box. I am a Copilot and SharePoint Experiences MVP.

[francis-r-fernando]

⚡️ Name: Francis Roshan Fernando
🌎 Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka
⌛ SharePoint Experience: I started my career in 2015, and my first project was developing a Xamarin mobile application integrated with a SharePoint 2013 environment. Since then, I have built over 30 workflows as SharePoint Farm Solutions and Provider-Hosted Applications, along with customized intranets.

Now, as the Founder of XSoft Solution and a Solution Architect, we help businesses digitally transform and boost their productivity using Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and the Power Platform.

🐶 Favorite Non-Technical Hobby: i love traveling around 🌍,Playing games🎮and hiking 🥾⛺️