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events

Looking forward to SPC20

We have turned the dial into a new century since the last big Microsoft event of 2019. We are now ready to look forward to 2020 and what the next big SharePoint Conference will bring.

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SharePoint Conference 2020 is coming back to Vegas May 19 – 21 at the MGM Grand. If you are are working with the Microsoft 365 collaboration world of SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream & more than this is a great conference to find a way to get to. This is the biggest Microsoft collab specific conference every year with can’t miss sessions, learning opportunities and primarily networking with peers. There are 2 primary release timelines from Microsoft and that includes SPC in the spring and then Ignite in the fall. Register today as the sooner you do the more you save.

What can you expect at SPC20?

Sessions and Roadmaps

The primary reason we go to conferences is to learn about topics that interest us. SPC20 has a massive amount of great content lined up with amazing speakers from Microsoft and the community. This is one of the few conferences where there will be a plethora of Microsoft speakers talking about what’s coming. Some specific Microsoft sessions I am excited to attend include:

Partners & Products

Don’t skip the expo hall. To often I see companies trying to build their own custom solution for a problem they have. After you walk the expo hall at SCP20 you can most likely find a partner or product that can help you faster if you build it yourself. Microsoft 365 is built to be built on and the partner ecosystem is incredibly strong. Partners are becoming more important in a cloud first world because it is nearly impossible to keep up with the change we have in Microsoft 365. Now picture building something custom and then trying to keep that up to date with all the changes you see every week in the roadmap and other solutions in Microsoft 365. Partners are built to help support you through those hurdles so you don’t have to.

Take the time to learn about what is out there to help you. Spend a lunch talking to each vendor about what they do. I have had conversations where I didn’t know this vendor existed and by the time I was done I personally wanted to partner with them because I heard the strength of the uses cases it solved. Also you may have a chance to win some pretty cool prizes.

Networking

It’s not just you. The community that is built around this ecosystem is hard to describe. It is open, engaging, educational, and fun. We are all peers at these conferences and there is no better time to enjoy a lunch, a hello in the hall, or some after session conversations about who you are and the work that you are doing. Having a network to go to and share knowledge with will motivate you and excite you to get back to your day to day work. I have attended a large amount of conferences and this is always my favorite part. I have built lasing friendships and connections that have helped me through my career through networking at conferences. Some tips for networking:

  • Introduce and ask questions to your fellow lunch mates
  • Go to the MS booth area and just listen for a period of time (this is one of my favorite things to do)
  • When in a session earlier, ask people sitting next to you where they work and what they do
  • Stay after the session to listen to questions asked to speakers even if you don’t have any
  • Ask speakers questions wherever you are, they will help
  • Enjoy at least 1 night at a vendor or MS event after hours
  • Engage in Twitter before, during, and after the conference – nearly every speaker is on Twitter

My sessions!

I’m honored to be speaking again at SharePoint Conference. This is always a fun one to speak at because of the size and excitement throughout the week. I will be presenting 2 sessions this year:

Everything you need to know about sharing files in OneDrive, SharePoint & Teams

Sharing files is a necessity within the intelligent workplace and it is powered by SharePoint. Being able to understand how sharing is brought together across Microsoft 365 will help you plan, manage, support, and effectively drive adoption of SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.

In this session, you learn learn what you can do with modern sharing experiences, how they work under the covers before and after you share a file, and what management options are available to you. Getting content securely to the right people at the right time keeps a company moving.

You can’t spell SharePoint without ‘Share’!

How To Automate Your Modern SharePoint Site Provisioning Solution

I am presenting this session with the one and only Vlad Catrinescu

Creating modern SharePoint sites only takes a second but what if you want to customize or control that process? It can be a challenge to keep up with all the sites in an organization and can affect support and governance a SharePoint environment. In this session, we will learn how to use Microsoft’s latest tools such as Site Designs, Site Scripts, PnP Site Provisioning, PowerApps and Flow to create a full Site provisioning system with custom templates, custom branding and easy approval before creation.

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Register today!

Will you be at SharePoint Conference 2019? I will!

I am excited to share that I will be speaking and attending the next SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas during the full week of May 20th in 2019. This is a can’t miss event that will keep you up to speed with all of the great new things coming out in the collaboration and communication space at Microsoft in 2019. Last year we got the introduction into SharePoint spaces! You will want to be there in person to see what’s next.

You can register early to take advantage of some early swag (like an Xbox!) and even save more money using the code MADELUNG when you register!

Why you should try to go

  • Networking & networking & more networking. I love events of this scale because of the opportunities to meet new people and learn from others experiences. There is no better spot than after a great session at a lunch table or after sessions are done and you are out at a great dinner in Vegas! Strike up conversations and who knows what kind of nuggets of great info you might find.
  • It’s not just about SharePoint anymore. Yes the name is SharePoint Conference but this event is really about bringing together all of the Microsoft workloads around communication and collaboration and how they work together. This includes primary focuses outside of SharePoint and OneDrive like Teams, PowerBI, Yammer, Planner, and larger topics like Microsoft Search and Azure.
  • Interactions with Microsoft. What is that super specific question or issue or scenario that has been nagging you or your company? An event like this is a great time to connect directly with people on the product team about how things work and why they were done the way they were. These discussions can provide priceless value that you can take back with you that you can’t find anywhere else.
  • It’s in Vegas and Vegas is awesome.

My sessions

From start to finish: How to create your modern SharePoint site provisioning solution

Creating modern SharePoint sites only takes a second, but what if you want to customize or control that process? It can be a challenge to keep up with all the sites in an organization and can affect support and governance of a SharePoint environment. In this session, learn how to use Microsoft’s latest tools such as Site Designs, PnP Site Provisioning, PowerApps and Flow to create a full site provisioning system with custom templates, custom branding, and easy approval before creation!

This is a session I am doing with Vlad Catrinescu and will be a deeper dive into what we presented at Microsoft Ignite in 2018. Here is a video sneak preview of what to expect!

Kudos to Adam King for help with the video! (and the security guard)

Taking OneDrive for Business administration to the next level

OneDrive for Business is a key workload in Office 365 and is an integral part of your collaboration and content strategy. Whether you are looking to roll-out OneDrive for Business or are already are utilizing it, there are important things that you should know about for administration. Do you know what is possible for admins? Do you know if your content really is secure? Do you know who can and can’t share? You also can’t have a great OneDrive for Business experience without sync but there are things you need to know about deploying and managing sync across your enterprise. This session will go through real world experiences of managing OneDrive for Business and what you really need to know to be successful.

Can’t wait to see everyone at #SPC19!

Ignite 2016 Info and Thoughts on Announcements for SharePoint – OneDrive – Office 365

2016-09-28-14_49_22-ignite-sharepoint-onedrive-office-365-info

I put together a Microsoft Sway through my Concurrency tenant that wraps up all of the announcements and my thoughts from the collaboration space at Ignite 2016.  This includes info on everything I was able to attend and intake while here in Atlanta.  I used Microsoft Sway so I could continuously update the Sway throughout the conference and after the conference for future review.  My changes are made in real-time and it’s super easy to update.

Link to Sway

Speaking at Collab365 Global Conference and SharePoint Engage

I was lucky enough to be selected to speak at a few more upcoming events this year! Both events I will be speaking about Office 365 Groups.

Here are the details on the sessions that I will be giving

Office 365 Groups enable teams to work together by establishing a single identity in Office 365. Office 365 Groups are a new and modern solution for collaboration in Office 365. There is a lot of confusion on what Groups can do and should be used for. This session will be a deep dive into all things Office 365 Groups focusing on the technical aspects.

We will spend a large amount of this session demoing Office 365 Groups. This session will include demos of:

  • How to create, access, and navigate
  • What are the core things to do
  • How are they technically structured
  • What administration is available and how to do it
  • What extensibility options are there

I will also walk through the pros and cons of using Groups vs other collaboration options in Office 365. Groups are also one of the fastest changing solutions in Office 365, so this session will bring everyone up to speed on the most recent updates that Microsoft has rolled out and what innovations are next. By the end of the session you should have a better understanding of what Groups can do and if they are right for your enterprise right now or in the future!

Collab365 Global Conference

Collab365 Global Conference 2016

The events ran by the Collab365 team (Collaboris) have evolved into must-attend events. These are fully online events so you can join from anywhere! They are now running 3 events that span a global audience. The best part about these events is that they are FREE to all. That’s right, you can get all of this amazing SharePoint and Office 365 content for free. These events continue to grow and the community for Collab365 has over 38,000 members now. I have spoken at these events before and really look forward to this one.

Register Now for FREE!

SharePoint Engage

SharePoint Institute SharePoint Institute

SharePoint Engage is ran by the SharePoint Institue which is an organization dedicated to the advancement of professoinals through real-world SharePoint certificaiton. The SharePoint Institute’s goal is to provide a standard for SharePoint professionals to gauge their knowledge and distinguish their SharePoint expertise from others. This will be my first SP Engage event and I am very excited to join a great collection of speakers down in Raleigh. If you are able to make it and see me wandering around make sure to come on over and say hello! I really enjoy speaking at conferences like this os I can get to know all the great people in our community and learn more about what other people are doing with SharePoint and Office 365.

Register Now!

SPTechCon Boston Slides & Scripts

sptechcon

Thanks to all who joined my session at SPTechCon Boston.  This was my first SPTechCon event and look forward to speaking/attending again.  The conference was ran great and had a great selection of content.  I did a presentation on a deep dive into Office 365 Groups.  I went through some high level management topics and then went deep into Powershell administration options. I put all of the scripts that I discussed onto Github so people can help contribute.  I will be trying add to this project as I find new handy scripts.

Here are the links to the slides and the slides and the scripts:

Scripts:     http://bit.ly/DrewO365GroupScripts

Slides:      http://bit.ly/DrewO365GroupsSlides

Here is my session abstract:

Office 365 Groups enable teams to work together by establishing a single identity in Office 365. Office 365 Groups are a new and modern solution for collaboration in Office 365. There is a lot of confusion on what Groups can do and should be used for. This session will be a deep dive into all things Office 365 Groups focusing on the technical aspects..
We will spend a large amount of this session demoing Office 365 Groups. This session will include demos of:

  • How to create, access, and navigate
  • What are the core things to do
  • How are they technically structured
  • What administration is available and how to do it
  • What extensibility options are there

I will also walk through the pros and cons of using Groups vs other collaboration options in Office 365. Groups are also one of the fastest changing solutions in Office 365, so this session will bring everyone up to speed on the most recent updates that Microsoft has rolled out and what innovations are next. By the end of the session you should have a better understanding of what Groups can do and if they are right for your enterprise right now or in the future!

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