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Most Active Speaker

Alec Harrison

Alec Harrison

Lean Techniques, Software Consultant

Omaha, Nebraska, United States

I am Alec Harrison a Microsoft Azure MVP, a software development enthusiast passionate about test-driven development, cloud technologies, and agile methodologies. In my free time you'll find me learning about new Azure technologies and helping to run the Iowa Microsoft Azure User Group!

Awards

Area of Expertise

  • Energy and Basic Resources

Topics

  • Azure
  • .Net
  • C#.Net

Using and Deploying Azure Static Sites

When you are looking to host sites in Azure you always want to limit costs and spend money where it really matters. We will walk through how to deploy your first app through infrastructure as code and a CI/CD pipeline to Azure as easily as possible! I hope to see you there!

ARM Versus Bicep Deploying Via GitHub Actions

Join me as we discuss the future implementation of Infrastructure as Code! Is it better than ARM, what does the future look like, is it scary, how to prepare for the future? Find out in this presentation!

Continuous Delivery Novice to Dangerous

The goal of this talk is to take people from the high-level phrase “Continuous Delivery” to building out a pipeline in Github and deploying safely to Azure. This will get everyone not only knowledgeable in CD topics but lay a good foundation to be dangerous in writing pipelines safely at their jobs.

This workshop is geared toward developers at all skill levels or who are new to Github/Azure! This will be a friendly workshop in building out your first continuous integration and continuous deployment pipeline. That might sounds scary, but with a little guidance and the maturity of the tools today you’d be surprised how quickly you can go from hearing about “Continuous Delivery” to actually implementing it yourself! This guided walkthrough will take you from talking about the high-level concepts of Continuous Delivery as we come to them and also building out a simple sample application. There will also be more supplemental materials for more challenging or self-learning outside of the workshop!

Azure Open AI

Have you heard about Chat GPT? Do you think Open AI could be the future of your company, or make your job way easier? Where does it sit today?

In this session, we will discuss where Open AI currently sits in Azure. Cover some cool technology like Azure communication services, Twillio, Azure Open AI, and Logic Apps. We will debunk some myths, discuss how to get access to Azure Open AI, build out a low code/no code solution to leverage Azure Open AI, and finally build out our own version of an SMS-based search engine. After this talk, you will be able to build a system that allows you to send a text message to a number and have Open AI answer you wherever you have text message coverage for Free*.

This session is meant to be collaborative and I will ask some questions of the audience. Due to this, I target to have a session of around 40 minutes instead of a full 60 to allow time for some fun, Q&A, and general discussion on AI. Due to this being a low code/no code solution, we can have people of varying degrees from beginner to expert in Azure to be able to pull this off!

Training Azure Open AI On your Enterprise's Data

Open AI is great for helping to write code, giving generic feedback, and being a good general assistant, but what if it can answer questions about your organization? Now with Azure Open AI you can have it do just that!

Open AI is advancing at such a break neck pace that organizations are scrambling to utilize! Why not just use Chat GPT and call it good? Well, that data is going to be reused back to train the model. So what if we can use the model Chat GPT uses, but not have to share all of our business data with it? Using Azure Open AI you can! Join this session as we discuss how to use Azure Open AI with enterprise data, keep your data protected, and how to utilize Azure services to answer questions for generic organizational topics like an employee handbook, 401k plan, health insurance plans etc! We will demo using Azure Form recognizer and Azure search to scan and index our files. Finally, using the index and Azure Open AI to recognize what a human is asking and answer it with our enterprise data. If time allows we may integrate even more data sources.

You work with computers, will you fix my printer?

In this talk we will walkthrough how we can use Azure Open AI with RAG to make a printers help doc to translate into any language with very little code.

Exploring Generative AI: From Basics to Advanced Techniques

Are you fascinated by the world of Artificial Intelligence and its ability to generate creative and human-like content? Join us for a captivating half-day workshop on Generative AI, where you'll embark on a journey from the fundamentals to advanced techniques, unlocking the potential of AI-driven creativity.

This workshop is tailored to cater to developers from diverse backgrounds, including C#, Java, and Python. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting your journey in AI, this workshop offers valuable insights and practical skills that can be seamlessly integrated into your preferred programming language.

Unlocking Creativity: The Power of Semantic Kernel in AI

Prepare to embark on a captivating journey into the heart of Artificial Intelligence as we delve into the enigmatic world of the Semantic Kernel. In this one-hour talk, we will unravel the mysteries and unveil the sheer power of Semantic Kernel—a revolutionary concept that's transforming the landscape of AI-driven creativity.

Mile High Azure User Group

February 2024 Denver, Colorado, United States

Omaha Azure User Group

January 2024 Omaha, Nebraska, United States

ARM Versus Bicep Deploying Via GitHub Actions

Join us as we discuss the future implementation of Infrastructure as Code! Is it better than ARM, what does the future look like, is it scary, how to prepare for the future? Find out in this presentation!

December 2023 Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Heartland Developers Conference

Gave two talks one on Azure Open AI and one on ARM V Bicep

October 2023 Omaha, Nebraska, United States

DevOps Days Des Moines

Gave a talk on intro to Pulumi in Azure to everyone after lunch and the conference. This was to talk about infrastructure as code, Pulumi as an alternative to terraform, and getting started to show how easy it is to start.

September 2023 Des Moines, Iowa, United States

KCDC

June 2023 Kansas City, Missouri, United States

KCDC 2023 Sessionize Event

June 2023 Kansas City, Missouri, United States

Microsoft Build

Staffed an expert booth at Microsoft Build discussing identity and governance in Azure.

May 2023 Seattle, Washington, United States

Azure Open AI (Gimmie Cloud Talks)

May 2023 Detroit, Michigan, United States

SciFiDecCon

May 2023

SciFiDevConMayTheFourthEvent 2023 Sessionize Event

May 2023

Kansas City Microsoft Azure Meetup

In this presentation, we are going to be going over building an API for Santa's workshop in .Net 7 using minimal APIs. This will include auth and deploying our application to an Azure container app!

December 2022 Kansas City, Kansas, United States

Omaha .Net Ignite Post Party

Topic:
.NET Conf 2022 Highlights and more by Mike Douglas, Alec Harrison
.NET Conf 2022 wrapped up a few weeks ago and announced .NET 7, C# 11, and a number of improvements in Azure. Join us to highlight of some of the most impactful improvements and a deeper dive in Azure Container Apps using .NET 7 and minimal APIs.

December 2022 Omaha, Nebraska, United States

Festive Tech Calendar 2022 Sessionize Event

December 2022

DevOps Days DSM

ARM Versus Bicep Deploying Via Azure DevOps
Since Bicep is the new kid on the block many companies have already adopted ARM or know it well enough to hide from it. However, the new leap with Bicep should encourage everyone to adopt it or quickly move away from other products to give it a chance! We will use it to deploy a site to Azure!

October 2022 Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Azure Back to School 2022 Sessionize Event

September 2022

Sci-Fi Dev Con

When you are looking to host sites in Azure you always want to limit costs and spend money where it really matters! During this presentation, we will walk through the costs of hosting a static site in Azure, how to deploy your first app through infrastructure as code, and CI/CD pipeline to Azure as easily as possible. Presented by Alec Harrison!

May 2022

Hosting and Deploying Static Sites in Azure

When you are looking to host sites in Azure you always want to limit costs and spend money where it really matters! During this presentation we will walk through the costs of hosting a static site in Azure, how to deploy your first app through infrastructure as code, and CI/CD pipeline to Azure as easily as possible. Presented by Alec Harrison!

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Alec Harrison is a software enthusiast who spends his time solving problems with technology and processes. During his day job he spends time working as a software engineering manager at Growers Edge, and at night he helps run the Iowa Microsoft Azure User Group and learning more about Azure!

April 2022 Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Using and Deploying Azure Static Sites

When you are looking to host sites in Azure you always want to limit costs and spend money where it really matters. Join us on February 8th for a presentation by Alec Harrison sponsored by Source Allies! We will walk through how to deploy your first app through infrastructure as code and a CI/CD pipeline to Azure as easily as possible! We hope to see you there!

February 2022 Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Microsoft Ignite recap round table

This event will be a recap of all of the new features announced at ignite in a round table format. We will facilitate a discussion on features cool to us and have an open discussion about any features that might be cool to you! Look forward to hearing from you all!

November 2021 Des Moines, Iowa, United States

ARM vs Bicep Deployment via GitHub Actions

ARM vs Bicep Deployment via GitHub Actions with Alec Harrison
Join Alec Harrison to discuss the future implementation of Infrastructure as Code! Is it better than ARM, what does the future look like, is it scary, hot to prepare for the future? Find out in this meetup!
Alec Harrison is the President of the Iowa Microsoft Azure User Group and has recently joined Growers Edge as a full stack engineer. Prior to that I was at Source Allies working on full stack web app in .Net Core Angular all hosted in Azure. You can catch Alec hosting the Iowa Microsoft Azure User Group, blogging at https://www.azurebarista.com, and speaking at events! Feel free to reach out to Alec on LinkedIn for any further questions https://www.linkedin.com/in/alec13355 !

August 2021 Atlanta, Georgia, United States

ARM Versus Bicep Deploying Via Github Actions

Join me as we discuss the future implementation of Infrastructure as Code! Is it better than ARM, what does the future look like, is it scary, how to prepare for the future? Find out in our next meetup!

July 2021 Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Develop with Deere

January 2019 Chicago, Illinois, United States

Alec Harrison

Lean Techniques, Software Consultant

Omaha, Nebraska, United States