Microsoft had the honor and pleasure of participating in the 2016 Chicago Southland Mini Maker Faire here in the southwest suburbs of Chicago two weeks ago. This was the third year of the faire held at the Pipefitters Local 597 Training Facility in Mokena, IL. The faire was organized by SpaceLab and the Mokena Mayor’s Technology Committee and local business sponsor Ozinga, showcasing their Born to Build campaign!
What an incredible event full of technology enthusiasts from the community ranging from infants to seniors! We provided interactive experiences at our booth to show our support and passion for the Maker Faire Movement. With several Microsoft Surface devices on display for kids and adults to make their own masterpieces with Fresh Paint, to a large touch screen device with a built in camera for playing with find your age Windows 10 App! People even got to experience the Microsoft HoloLens and step into the world of high-definition holograms! Michael Blumenthal also joined us with his Windows 10 IoT Core and the Raspberry Pi Gizmo. We also shared information with many interested parents and grandparents about the DigiSenior program and Microsoft Youth Spark events. All while raising money for local charities with our raffle of the ALL NEW XBOX ONE S!
Special thanks to the Microsoft Team that made it all happen with me: Paula Brkich, Rebeca Mead, John Wildes, Michael Blumenthal and Mary Monroy-Spampinato!
Alisa Swann is an Enterprise Cloud Solution Specialist at Microsoft. Alisa works with Global Enterprise customers enabling them to harness the power of cloud to drive new business revenue streams and efficiency by using Microsoft Azure. Alisa’s team is instrumental in delivering on Microsoft’s mission; to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. In her 15-year career at Microsoft, she has held several roles spanning deep technical sales engineering to enterprise architecture supporting Global organizations. She brings several years of experience building high performing teams, maximizing long term revenue growth and increasing customer satisfaction.
Alisa holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University, Bloomington. She is actively engaged in the community serving as a mentor and volunteer for Microsoft DigiGirlz, Girls Who Code, Chicago Cares, Chicago Public Schools’ Career and Technical Education Job Shadow Program and a member of Loyola University’s Computer Science Advisory Board. But most importantly, her passion is sparked by her two daughters. See them pictured below proudly completing their Smart Game Coding course last summer!