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.

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:

• Architecting your intelligent intranet with SharePoint hubs, branding, and site designs
• External file sharing with OneDrive and Microsoft 365
• Introducing new content capture and process automation services with Project Cortex
• Introducing new knowledge services with Project Cortex
• Microsoft OneDrive deployment and adoption deep-dive
• What’s new and what’s next: SharePoint spaces and mixed reality

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.