When Technology Meets Passion: My Time at Community Summit North America
English author Albert Pine once wisely wrote, “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”
Ever since I was a child, all I’ve ever cared about was two things: The first is doing good in the world. It’s never been just a mere interest. For me, it is an embodied way of life. No matter the scale, if I’m not contributing some form of kindness to the world, I wonder why I am here. The second care is animals. I’ve been obsessed with them since birth. As I send my husband approximately 70 cat videos per day, and get to know the people at my local animal shelter on a first-name basis, I can confidently say that the obsession continues to grow every day. Is it a healthy obsession? My friends and family would probably say no. Will it continue to consume my whole being as long as I live? I would have to say yes.
You can imagine my delight when I arrived at the Community Summit Conference in North Carolina for the first time last year. I was instantly connected with a network of people equally devoted to driving positive change in the world, particularly through the use of Microsoft Business Applications products, and even more specifically, with a focus on benefiting animals.
On the first day of Community Summit, I was able to attend a session led by Lucas Diaz, the Co-Founder of Ludia Consulting. In greater depth, I learned more about the non-profit work that Ludia Consulting has provided for UWARF (Ukraine War Animals Relief Fund) and how they have been able to provide D365 solutions to rescue missing animals, keep track of shelter supplies, and have an organized way to manage donations.
During lunch, I had the pleasure of engaging in conversation with a woman who worked for a seeing-eye dog company. She was attending Community Summit to find out more information about how Microsoft Dynamics 365 could provide better solutions for her company. Now that I think about it, I think it must’ve been fate that I chose to sit down next to her that day. I was absolutely fascinated with her work and how she was looking to incorporate D365 to make improvements in her company’s day-to-day processes. My curiosity and unhinged excitement ran rampant as I proceeded to quiz her extensively about the amazing world of seeing eye dogs for the next half hour. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind at all.
As a person who was in the process of an overwhelming career transition into the tech field, the elated realization that I could potentially build a thriving career while simultaneously embracing my passions nearly brought me to tears. It truly opened my eyes to how all-encompassing and powerful technology is and how grateful I was to soon be a part of this amazing industry. I knew that I still had a lot to learn and accomplish, but with concrete confidence that my career path was headed in the right direction, I enjoyed the remainder of my Summit experience. D365 is being applied to enact great change and there’s no “kitten” about it.
