Special Topics Track

Monday, June 12th 2023, 9:00 am

  • Brian Alderman

    Microsoft MCT, MCSA, MCSE & Master's in CIS

Becoming a SharePoint Online Admin Expert

SharePoint Online has many services that you need to be familiar with to successfully manage your collaboration content. In this full day workshop we are going to learn about these different services and how to manage them so SharePoint Online is properly configured, secure, and optimized. We will begin by creating a new Microsoft 365 tenant, explore how we can customize the M365 administrator dashboard to provide us only information related to the Microsoft 365 services we are working with like SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. We will create and assign users to access SharePoint Online both as an end user or and administrator. We will then roll up our sleeves and configure SharePoint Online using both the GUI and PowerShell including; creating and configuring site collections, configuring user profile settings, creating and implementing a structured taxonomy using the term store, configuring the search service to ensure your users are able to quickly find the information they need, and explore several other SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business settings. During these configurations you will learn how these settings differ from those in SharePoint Server. When you leave, you’ll have all the skills necessary to configure and manage the different SharePoint Online components using both the SharePoint Online Admin Center, and PowerShell. In addition to these skills, you will have a live Microsoft 365 trial tenant that you can use when you get back to the office and you can use while attending other conference sessions. Check out my workshop preview: https://youtu.be/rroc2fVFSgU

Monday, June 12th 2023, 9:00 am

  • Jay Leask

    Microsoft MVP & PMP
  • Joy Apple

    Microsoft MVP

Deploying M365 to Solve Business Problems

Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, Planner, Lists, OneDrive, the Power Platform, Viva (and its 72 modules). Microsoft 365 has stepped away from "deploying SharePoint" and into a full suite of technical capabilities designed to solve any problem. But how do we know what business problems we’re truly being asked to solve? Now that "ship it and forget it" is off the table (or should be), how do we define successful deployment of M365 capabilities? With a definition of success, how do we ensure that what the business is asking for will actually solve their problems? How do we build mutual respect so the business will listen to our recommendations on how technology can best meet their needs? Do our recommendation work? We know you are attending a technology conference but if you want the technology to work for you and your organization you must take a Human First approach to deploying Microsoft 365. Join us for the first day of your conference to explore how to ensure you are solving for the right problems, and then spend the next four days learning how the technology can solve them for you. During this session Joy and Jay will help you understand why M365 has changed how we deploy technology: - Consequences of Shadow IT - How IT as a service provides a framework for success - How to engage with the business - A holistic approach to requirements gathering - Defining success - Embracing "it's never done" as a good thing Check out our workshop preview: https://youtu.be/abXmtkuazHY

Tuesday, June 13th 2023, 9:00 am

  • David Drever

    Microsoft MVP
  • Joanne Klein

    Microsoft MVP

Microsoft 365 Compliance: Implementing information governance, risk, and compliance management

Microsoft 365 gives enterprises and government organizations the tools they need in the modern workplace to identify their risky information and to govern their data effectively to meet regulatory compliance needs. These tools help protect sensitive data from accidental and malicious data loss, and they protect the organization from risk by ensuring we retain our data appropriately following regulatory controls such as GDPR, NIST, and CIS. Implementing these compliance solutions requires a clear understanding of the capabilities available in the Microsoft cloud and industry best practices for establishing a data governance framework. In this all-day workshop, David Drever and Joanne Klein will help you learn how to develop a framework for information governance for enterprises and government organizations, including planning a record retention schedule and implementing retention labels/policies. They’ll teach you how to leverage disposition reviews, implement event-based retention, and automatically apply retention labels to your data. They’ll discuss how utilizing Compliance Manager, and Insider Risk Management can further govern your environment. Finally, you will learn how to use eDiscovery to facilitate legal holds and “Freedom of Information and Privacy” (FOIP) requests. Join David and Joanne to discover how to implement data governance and compliance in Microsoft 365! Check out our workshop preview: https://youtu.be/0uFJnqQYP60

Tuesday, June 13th 2023, 9:00 am

  • Sarah Haase

    Microsoft MVP

Microsoft 365 User Adoption Master Class

A smooth deployment isn't enough. Driving effective utilization of SharePoint and Microsoft 365 is more than building effective migration strategies, training users on key features or sending out marketing emails. This master class provides a deep-dive on the components of user adoption. You'll learn why user adoption programs succeed and fail, gain practical experience designing adoption strategies and learn how to leverage innovation games to build consensus. During this workshop, you will: - Learn the basic foundations of user adoption, including key intrinsic and extrinsic motivators - Understand how different types of users in your organization can make (or break) your chances of user adoption success - Understand how innovation games can help drive shared understanding, uncover user requirements and drive engagement/enthusiasm - Examine real-world user adoption programs and determine how and why they were successful

Wednesday, June 14th 2023, 9:50 am

  • Sarah Haase

    Microsoft MVP

Getting started with Microsoft Syntex

This session introduces Microsoft Syntex and its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities. You’ll learn how to build document processing models that classify documents, apply retention labels, and extract key pieces of metadata. We will also explore how a strong information architecture optimizes your AI and machine learning results.

Wednesday, June 14th 2023, 1:40 pm

  • Bobby Chang

    Power Platform Global Black Belt at Microsoft

Automate Your Way with RPA

Let's demystify Robotic Process Automation (RPA)! This session will focus on how to automate legacy web and client applications using Power Automate. We'll demonstrate how to leverage Desktop flow with Power Automate Desktop, and how/when/why you would combine desktop automation with Power Platform connectors and AI to provide end-to-end workflow solutions for your organization.

Wednesday, June 14th 2023, 1:40 pm

  • John Peluso

    Microsoft RD

Content Management in Microsoft Syntex: The Content is Here, Now What?

There is little doubt that the capabilities of Microsoft Syntex can revolutionize the way organizations leverage SharePoint as a modern, intelligent content platform. But with so much value in moving content-related automation into your Microsoft 365 strategy, how will you deal with the already-difficult task of managing, securing, and ensuring compliance of all of that new content you are now piping in as a result of your adoption of Microsoft Syntex? In this session, we’ll explore some of the less “exciting” but JUST AS IMPORTANT features of Syntex that can help you make sure you are optimizing your overall content management strategy for security, cost, and sustainability.

Wednesday, June 14th 2023, 1:40 pm

  • Antoine Snow

    US Public Sector Solutions Leader at AvePoint
  • Jay Leask

    Microsoft MVP & PMP

Electronic Records and Me: Meeting M-19-21 in M365

M-19-21 in a nutshell: manage your permanent records electronically by 2019; create, manage, and maintain permanent federal records and related metadata by 2022; shut down your records storage facilities by 2022; maintain a program that complies with the Federal Records Act. But, in Microsoft 365, what IS a record? And where do I store them? How do I categorize them? Can I move them to another system? Do I still need my legacy records database? Can I export my records to NARA? During this session we'll review the latest guidance from NARA and discuss these important topics for modernizing your paper records processes using office 365 to support full information lifecycle management: - How can I automate tagging of records in M365? - Can I manage temporary and permanent records in M365? - How do I build a RIM workfow in M365 that supports my file plan AND decreases storage costs?

Wednesday, June 14th 2023, 3:30 pm

  • David Drever

    Microsoft MVP

You Have Sensitive Information. Now Let's Protect It.

Every organization has data considered sensitive to their business, employees, or even the industry they exist within. Data breaches happen too often and are increasing. As a result, protecting its data has become a priority for many organizations worldwide. Microsoft provides several tools for identifying sensitive information within the organization and protecting it from being provided to sources that should not have it. In this session, we'll cover features and processes such as Microsoft Information Protection (MIP), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and more to help protect your organization's sensitive information from leaving your control and falling into those hands that should not have it.

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 10:40 am

  • Vlad Catrinescu

    Microsoft MVP & MCT

Creating Power Virtual Agent Chatbots for Microsoft Teams

Power Virtual Agents empowers users to easily create powerful bots using a guided, no-code graphical interface without the need for data scientists or developers, and you can even deploy them in Microsoft Teams! In this session, Creating Power Virtual Agent chatbots for Microsoft Teams, you’ll learn to create Power Virtual Agent chatbots for Microsoft Teams. First, you’ll explore the basics of Microsoft Power Virtual Agents. Next, you’ll discover how to create a chatbot using the Power Virtual Agents Teams app. Finally, you’ll learn how to publish your bot in Microsoft Teams.

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 10:40 am

  • Prashant G Bhoyar

    Microsoft MVP & MCT

ChatGPT, Azure Open AI and Power Platform: Better Together

With ChatGPT, other large language models and generative AI has caught the attention of global consumers, enterprises, and c-suite. In this demo-driven session, we will cover the key concepts and how organizations can use ChatGPT, Azure Open AI, and Power Platform services to build next-gen enterprise-grade applications. We will cover : * Azure Open AI Key Concepts * ChatGPT key concepts * Co-Pilots in the Power Platform * How can fusion teams take advantage of Azure Open AI, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Power Platform? * How organizations can build next-gen enterprise-grade apps using ChatGPT, Azure OpenAI, and Power Platform services?

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 10:40 am

  • Andy Sulak

    Vice President of Business Development at LAE Software

Getting to the Good Stuff: How to Remove Roadblocks to Your M365 Adoption

Microsoft continues to add more features and offerings to its M365 platform, but existing legacy systems, software, and processes stand in the way. Many IT organizations are just trying to catch up on the project list before anything new can be implemented from the M365 suite. This session will focus on real-world examples of this technical debt and how to get your M365 initiatives “unstuck” for rolling out or expanding the use of Teams, OneDrive, Viva, SharePoint, Power Apps, and others.

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 1:20 pm

  • Mike Fitzmaurice

    Vice President of North America at WEBCON

Building Business Processes that Can & Will Evolve: Product-Neutral Principles

Far more than data management apps, workflow solutions need to factor in the need for frequent change. You should expect even the best-designed models and applications to be regularly modified -- and that's a good thing. This has an impact on how to design processes, how to create forms and reports, how to connect to external data, and how to maintain internal data. This session will talk about reasons why workflow solutions need to be modified so often, why you should embrace this, and strategies and tactics for addressing it. Its advice can be applied to Microsoft Power Automate (Flow), SharePoint Designer, WEBCON BPS, FireStart, Nintex, K2, or most anything else.

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 1:20 pm

  • David Drever

    Microsoft MVP

Increasing Adoption in Microsoft 365 Information and Records Management

Businesses are ramping up the adoption of information and records management (IRM) within their organization. However, the problem many are facing is that IRM can require a lot of user interaction to be fully effective. These increased requirements on the user greatly affect the adoption of IRM processes. Microsoft 365 provides several powerful and robust features that can increase records management within the organization while decreasing the load on the end-user. This session will cover many topics such as auto-classification, retention inheritance, and trainable classifiers to assist organizations with their information and records management adoption.

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 2:40 pm

  • Rima Reyes

    Principal Product Manager for Microsoft Teams Engineering at Microsoft

How to get what you deserve at work through self-advocacy

Are you the one unintentionally holding yourself back from the career you want? Join Roxy Ndebumadu and Rima Reyes as they share about their career progressions and offer tangible ways you can grow your career while being your most authentic self. We will cover everything from building a personal brand to refining your stakeholder strategy to getting a promotion.

Thursday, June 15th 2023, 4:30 pm

  • Liam Cleary

    CEO | Microsoft MVP | Microsoft Certified Trainer

Data Security Breach in Microsoft 365, Now What?

In today's world, it is almost inevitable that your organization will experience a data and security breach, no matter the on-premises or cloud software. Microsoft 365 is no different. Even though it contains many fantastic security controls and features, many organizations do not implement them for varying reasons. In order to protect from a data security breach you need to know what you would do if that were to happen, as well as the controls and features to enable. In this session, we will step through where to start in the event of a data and security breach within Microsoft 365. We will walk through how to analyze logs, identify which services to review, how to identify the breach, and then how to protect from future events.

Friday, June 16th 2023, 9:00 am

  • Amarender Peddamalku

    Practice Lead at Perficient

Automate content processing using AI & Microsoft Syntex

We'll learn how to use Microsoft Syntex that uses advanced AI and machine teaching to amplify human expertise, automate content processing, and transform content into knowledge.

Friday, June 16th 2023, 1:50 pm

  • Mike Fitzmaurice

    Vice President of North America at WEBCON

Stages and State Machines: The Ideal Way to Model and Manage Workflows

If you've heard of Power Automate Business Process Flows; they're an implementation of stage/state machine logic available to companies with Premium licensing. SharePoint Designer 2013 supported stages, and third-party options range from emulation (Nintex) to engine-level support (WEBCON). This session will start by explaining how stage-based designs and processes work, move on to why they're often far better than classic sequential flowcharts, and conclude with examples of how to build and run such solutions. It's the most useful workflow "secret" you can possibly learn.

Friday, June 16th 2023, 1:50 pm

  • Bobby Chang

    Power Platform Global Black Belt at Microsoft

AI the Easy Way

What does it mean to "democratize AI"? Join this session to see it in action! This session will provide illustrations on how business users and citizen developers could leverage AI and Machine Learning when building apps, without needing deep technical background. We will walk through how to leverage AI Builder capabilities of the Power Platform, train AI models, and utilize those intelligence in your applications and workflows.

Friday, June 16th 2023, 1:50 pm

  • Liam Cleary

    CEO | Microsoft MVP | Microsoft Certified Trainer

Automated Investigation and Response within Microsoft 365

As an administrator within Microsoft 365, you are undoubtedly used to the many alerts you might receive. Some of these might be for permissions and access, support issues, and some may be security problems within the tenant. However, often there can be so many of them that security issues can slip through, causing even more problems within the Microosftb365 tenant. When security alerts are triggered, it is the security team's job to examine them and take remediation steps. Luckily Microsoft 365 provides Automated investigation and response (AIR) capabilities to help automate the investigation processes in response to threats that exist today. In this session, we will look at the Automated investigation and response (AIR) features and how you can benefit from them as a system administrator and organization.