Yesterday was a whirlwind of excitement and connection, starting with the Ambassador breakfast at the Omni Hotel in Boston, where all the HashiCorp ambassadors gathered. It was an amazing opportunity to connect with familiar faces and new ones. I met Mattias Fjellström at registration, where I was issued a blue attendee badge. They reserved the green speaker badges for those leading full sessions (not Hallway Track sessions, like mine), and the red sponsor badges for the booth exhibitors. Cole Morrison from HashiCorp made a friendly joke in line about taking the open registration lane, which sparked a connection that led to a later conversation about my book. I was pleasantly surprised and flattered to hear that several ambassadors had mentioned it some of the social media events that Cole was doing.

The day continued with two (2x) “Product Day” sessions focused on Security Lifecycle Management (SLM) and Infrastructure Lifecycle Management (ILM). I was fully present for the first session, but unfortunately had to miss most of the second due to work meetings. During the breakout discussions of the first session (SLM), I found myself in an engaging conversation on hybrid cloud with Ned from “Ned in the Cloud,” and a great group of people including a new friend, Welly from AWS. Our discussion touched on the evolution of hybrid cloud, especially as most enterprises have largely embraced the public cloud. We revisited the evolving definition of “hybrid cloud” versus “multi-cloud”. It was enlightening to hear everyone’s experiences, and it felt like we were all really in sync, driving the conversation forward together. Very valuable. The next breakout session was focused on Governance and in particular the sometimes competing interest of “GRC” — that is Governance, Risk, and Compliance vs. Security. I had the distinguished privilege of learning from Michael Aldridge who had insights to spare!

I bounced in and out of the Microsoft booth and met up with colleagues Steven Ma, Mark Gray, and Zijie He. I shared some “Azure Terraformer” T-shirts and stickers, as well as my favorite “The Terraform Duck” meme stickers and got to see Mark Gray’s absolutely awesome 3D Terraform / Azure logo statue that he 3D-printed! Very cool! Hopefully any conference goers will enjoy all this swag we have for them this year!

It was Zijie’s first time at HashiConf and he wasn’t aware of the “Product Day” that was ensuing so I made sure he got plugged into the ongoing workshop and got his Ambassador Swag Bag.

Lunch brought more opportunities to connect with others, including a technical conversation with Kartik Lunkad, the Lead PM for Vault, and his team. We dove deep into some integration challenges they were facing with Azure, and I was able to offer my insights, even stepping out into the hall for a mini design session with them. It was really satisfying to be able to help, even if it was just offering guidance or connecting them to the right resources within Microsoft. They shared their integration plan — no intellectual property, just an outline of what public Azure APIs are available that they plan on integrating with and how — the stuff I live and breathe everyday on the Azure engineering team.

During lunch, a few people approached me to sign their copies of my book, which was a humbling experience. I signed copies for Glen Yu and Chris Williams. I’ve known Chris and collaborated with him on his YouTube channel “vBrownBag” but Glen I’ve only admired his work online. We had a great chat about the book and my approach in writing it.

My Hallway Track was selected and scheduled for Wednesday @ 12:15–12:30 PM. My talk is a mashup of Packer and Terraform with Azure and Minecraft. So for fun, I thought it would be totally NOT a career limiting move to bring a Minecraft “Steve” and “Creeper” mask. Steven Ma even joined in the gag and dawned the “Steve” mask while I walked around the expo as a “Minecraft Creeper”, hoping to bring some light-hearted energy to the booth. Reactions were mixed — some people smiled and waved, while others seemed a bit confused, maybe not familiar with Minecraft, but it was all in good spirits.

The expo itself had fantastic food, including some delicious lobster rolls — a Boston classic — alongside mozzarella balls with pesto and meatballs. I even managed to catch up with the CEO of HashiCorp, Dave McJannet, when he stopped by the Microsoft Azure booth to say hello. It was a friendly conversation. Good to see him again after first connecting down in Sydney at HashiDays this past June.

As the expo wound down, I snagged a few pictures with friends from Australia and Chris Williams, which — I think — perfectly captured the energy of the day. Dinner was with the Microsoft team, which consisted of all folks from Azure Core. We laughed about how many people thought my online presence was part of my official role, when really the “Azure Terraformer” is my passion project — a hobby I cherish. It helps me stay in touch with the real-world challenges our customers face, even though my current job is focused on internal engineering of the Azure core platform.

Reflecting on the day, it was a perfect blend of technical deep dives, fun moments, and meaningful connections. I feel lucky to be part of such a vibrant community and grateful for the opportunity to learn, share, and make an impact.

Hope to see you all tomorrow — whether its at the Microsoft Azure booth in the expo hall or at my book signing in the “Ask an Ambassador” space. More to come!