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2019 - Year in Review

So, it’s the final day of 2019. A good moment to look back on what the year brought me!

With regards to work, it was my first full year at PeopleWAre. Okay, I started there early 2018, but that still wasn’t a full year. I got to do some cool projects, mostly Modern Workplace related. It’s good to see the way PeopleWare (and the people working there) are adopting the shift in the market to modern workplace based solutions, cloud and everything related. I think we have a great team, and we are well equipped to handle everything that’s coming our way. The acquisition of PeopleWare by ProAct will give us even more opportunities to do so! I’m realy looking forward to the next year to see how this evolves.

Speaking

Visiting Nantes and Birmingham in 2019!

2019 was a good year for me, looking at one of my favourite things to do: speaking at conferences. Not only did I get to speak at several conferences in The Netherlands, such as DuPSUG and Experts Live, but I also got to travel abroad to speak at ReBuild in Nantes, France and EvolveConf in Birminghan, United Kingdom. It’s always great fun to speak at conferences and meet up with people from the industry, but doing so in another country with all cultural differences, meeting up with people you’d usually only speak on Twitter gives it extra dimension!

Crowds at DuPSUG and ExpertsLive NL

Ignite

One of my highlights of 2019 was visiting Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, Florida. It was my first time visiting the US and I’m realy gratefull for the fact that PeopleWare gave me the opportunity to do so. I had great fun travelling with colleagues, learning lots of stuff at the different keynotes and break-out sessions and meeting up with friends and community members on both the expo-floor and off-site having a drink or diner. Truly a great experience!

Meeting up with Barbara and Jaap
Ignite hotel and venue

Personal life

I don’t talk much about my personal life online, but 2019 will go down in the books as a life-changing year: right before Christmas I had surgery to finish my constant struggle with my weight. After this Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy I’ll still have to watch what I eat and how much I excercise, but it will all be a bit easier. Before going into the surgery, I had a two-weeks diet to kick-start the weightloss. So, in the past three weeks I’ve already lost 15 kilos just preapring for and recovering from the surgery. I’m vary excited to see where this will end in the next year!

My 'final' meal before the weigth loss surgery

So, that’s it. 2019 is a wrap! Somewhere in the next week, I’ll try to write up a blog post on my goals for 2020. How was your year? Let me know in the comments!