PowerShell Summit 2026: Eight Years In
Personal, PowerShell Summit ·PowerShell Summit 2026: Eight Years In
In 2017 I wrote a scholarship application to attend my first PowerShell Summit. I wrote it as a PowerShell script.
<#
.NOTES
Created on: 9/29/2017 7:00 PM
Created by: Andrew Pla
Filename: Get-PowershellDevOpsGlobalSummitScholarship.PS1
.DESCRIPTION
This is my application to be considered for the PowerShell + DevOps
Global Summit Scholarship Program.
#>
I was 24. I had two young kids. I was just off the helpdesk. I had never spoken at a conference, never contributed code publicly, and had never been on a plane to a tech event. I wrote in that application that my long-term goal was to become a PowerShell MVP.
I hit submit and tried not to get my hopes up.
That scholarship covered the flight, the hotel, and the ticket. It was 2018. And that week genuinely changed my life.
I’ve been back every year since.
Every time I come to this conference it works as an annual checkpoint. A lot of the people here I only see once a year, and seeing them is how I measure where I am. Not against them, but against who I was the last time I stood in that room. It’s one of the only places in my life where I get that kind of long-range view of my own growth.
This year was different (this sounds AI, but it seriously was)
Summit Community Director
At the end of last year I was invited to serve as Community Director for PowerShell Summit. It was a brand new role for me and I was new to volunteering in this capacity. I genuinely did not know what to expect.
What I didn’t anticipate was doing all three things at once: organizing, speaking, and being a sponsor. If I’m being real, it was a lot. Mind-bending, even. But stepping back and looking at the week as a whole, it was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve had in a long time.
Years of small steps. Years of showing up. And this year, for the first time, I could actually see and feel what all of that had added up to.
Measurable
I use that word intentionally.
The number of messages I got this week. The people who walked up and said they were here because they heard about Summit on the podcast. First-time conference attendees who paid their own way to be in that room. And scholarship recipients, people in the exact same position I was in back in 2018, whose lives are about to shift in ways they can’t fully see yet.
Every dinner I went to this week was 20 plus people. I got to finally meet folks I’ve known for years through the PDQ Discord. Watched people I’ve been following for a long time walk into that room for the first time. Took photos with people I’d never met in person before but felt like I already knew.
I don’t know of another conference that offers scholarships covering the flight, hotel, and ticket. It’s genuinely exceptional. And if you’re reading this wondering if you should apply, the answer is yes.
The Journey Is the Point
Here’s something I want to say plainly: PowerShell changed my career in ways that are hard to overstate.
Since I started down this path I have over tripled my salary. The kind of job I’m qualified for looks completely different than it did when I started. But more than the money, the way I think has changed. The way I approach problems, systems, structure. The frameworks in my head are fundamentally different than they were when I started this journey.
I’m not saying this to brag. I’m saying it because someone needs to hear it.
If you’re early in your journey, or you’re in the middle of it and can’t tell if it’s working, I want you to know: I am proof that showing up consistently, learning one small thing at a time, and surrounding yourself with the right people actually works. It’s just slow. And that slowness makes it hard to trust.
I’ve had low moments in this journey. Real ones. And I’ve had high ones.
This week was one of the high ones.
The After Dark Session
One of the things I wanted to create this year was a special moment for the people who have been showing up consistently. I didn’t hype it up. I didn’t mention the guest. I just put it out there for the folks who have been vibing with the podcast and getting something real out of it.
I shared my PowerShell journey, and then it turned into a live podcast with Jeffrey Snover, the creator of PowerShell.
It was intimate. It was unscripted. There were funny moments and there were heavy ones. The audience asked questions. I asked questions.
I did a lot of crying in the days leading up to that session as I reflected on my PowerShell journey thus far.
Looking back through old photos will do that to you. I came across one that stuck with me. It’s a photo of me sitting at my desk with my son in my lap. What the photo doesn’t show is the full picture. We were living in an apartment that belonged to someone who had passed away. It was going to be returned to the bank, but the legal process takes time. We lived there during that window, for free, and borrowed WiFi from the coffee shop nearby.
I’m not sharing this for sympathy. I’m sharing it because that photo and that moment on stage are the same story. One is the before. One is the after. And the distance between them is just time, consistency, and people who believed in you before you believed in yourself.
Getting to share that in a room with Jeffrey Snover and the people who have been on this journey with me is something that I’ll carry with me for a long time.
Watching Others On Their Way Up
One of the things I’m most proud of this week has nothing to do with me.
I know folks who were painfully shy not that long ago. Taking their first steps, unsure if they belonged. I got to watch them thrive this week. I got to see mentees I’ve been working with show up having earned scholarships, standing in the same place I once stood, with that same look on their face.
All of us are at different points on the journey. But getting to see people through theirs, and then look back and see myself through mine, I don’t really have the right words for that.
The Truth About Community
There’s a tendency for people to point at me or other community leaders and try to give us all the credit for this amazing community. And I understand why. But I need to be honest with you: that is not the full story. Not even close.
This community exists because of people who step up quietly and make it what it is. People I’ll keep naming because they deserve to be named. They show up. They create warmth. They are an extension of what makes this place real.
I might be a public face. But the face is not the thing. We all have an opportunity to contribute each day.
Full Circle
I want to go back to something I wrote in 2017, in that scholarship application. The closing paragraph:
“Everything in work and life is pointing me towards PowerShell and I am loving every minute of it. I think that I am a great candidate who is primed and ready to absorb this amazing opportunity. I can’t think of a better way to generate momentum for the rest of my career than the Summit. I also can’t think of a better opportunity for me to enhance my career and help take myself to the next level. Thank you so much for taking time to read this and for providing this opportunity for community members.”
I wrote that as someone hoping to get in the door.
Now, I hold that door open for others and get to watch their growth.
You will never be able to fully measure your impact. The kind thing you said to someone three years ago that you’ve completely forgotten. The post you wrote. The question you answered in a Discord at 11pm. Someone is carrying that with them right now and you have no idea.
Being a kind and supportive person is one of the most impactful things you can do. Every single day.
We aren’t selfless. We are wise. We understand that when the community is healthy, we all benefit.
We are better together.
See you next year.