Recapping the Microsoft 365 Conference
A solid week of learning, sharing, networking, and gifting SWAG 🧦👲 in Las Vegas | MGM Grand Hotel
Hi Peer,
I am grateful. Grateful to everyone who came to the event - willing to open up and provide insights, while having a little fun learning and networking. Products and community only get better when people share their highs and lows with open minds and inclusive hearts - being aware, respectful, and welcoming. Sharing is caring.
The Microsoft 365 Conference (@M365Conf) was just that. This go around took place in Las Vegas (April 3-8, 2022), at the MGM Grand Hotel. ~ 1,000 attendees flowed in, with ~ 100 MVP and community members alongside 50 Microsoft experts delivering loads content and experiences: 4 Microsoft keynotes, 3 product AMAs, 200 breakout sessions (43 MSFT led), and 20 workshops (3 MSFT led), plus a co-sponsored event party titled, “Viva Las Vegas” - which in my ShareHeart will always be a good ol' #SharePint + Elvis 👑; and yes, the Viva team 💖s the party pun.
It was a community-driven event that gave back and paid forward - feedback, best practices, tips, and tricks AND memories. This article shares my pov on it all.
Tap into the #M365Conf hashtag via Twitter to catch up on all the images, sentiment, and goings on. Below are a few insights on content on a few sessions I supported and presented…
The Microsoft 365 Conference opening keynote
The event kicked off with Jeff Teper’s “Hybrid Workplace Innovation” keynote (KEY01), co-presented with Stephen Rose, Liz Sundet, Lincoln DeMaris, Naomi Moneypenny, Chris Bortlik, and Ed Averett - product experts from Microsoft.
Jeff and team focused on the challenges of going hybrid and how technology can support the needs of remote and onsite employees. In this move, a culture of inclusivity and engagement evolves, while being secure, reliable, and compliant. Through numerous scenarios and demos, the team showcased the latest innovations across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive - with a few fun reveals spanning updates to employee engagement, knowledge and information management with Microsoft Viva and Microsoft Lists; something for everyone: end users, BDMs, IT Pros, and devs.
My two breakout sessions and the fun of MC’ing two AMAs
Breakout #1 | “What's new for file experiences in OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams in Microsoft 365”
In this session, I covered upcoming innovations that empower you to work with all files across Microsoft 365 — to share and collaborate seamlessly with people inside and outside your organization. I got the chance to demo the latest features for web, PC, Mac and mobile as well as share our upcoming product roadmap (you can take a peek at it in the linked PPTX below).
Kudos and thanks to Ankita Kirti for helping me prep.
Review the MS37 session PowerPoint (PPTX) - includes updated OneDrive roadmap 🛣️
Breakout #2 | “Using SharePoint pages and news for internal communications”
The focus of this one was to share what's new for SharePoint pages and news, including integrations inside Teams — in the context of internal communications. Pages and news help communicate with peers or the entire organization. I got a chance to demo pages in Teams, new templates for pages/sections/sites, the publishing experiences, and all the points of consumption across Web, mobile, SharePoint app bar (sneak peek at the new ‘Create’ experience), and Teams.
Kudos and thanks to Cathy Dew for helping me prep.
Review the MS15 session PowerPoint (PPTX)
Microsoft 365 AMA
This could’ve easily been titled “The Giant MS SWAG Giveaway!” There were so many great questions - and each questioner walked away with Lists/Teams/Viva socks, a SharePoint bag, Teams power bricks, etc.. It was a blistering 60 minutes of questions spanning API troubles, Teams meeting UX preferences, AI & VR plans, MS Search asks, and more. My role was mic wrangler - to give voice to the audience and hand out the goodies.
Microsoft Teams AMA
This was a fun one, one where I, too, learned along with the attendees - always more to learn about Microsoft Teams. The questions came fast and furious - from in-room devices for Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR), to admin capabilities, to architectural decisions, to broad strokes about adoption best practices. Beyond being a sponge for all the answers, I again hustled the mic and gifted the SWAG. No phone battery would die after all the Teams-logo’ed power bricks landed on most everyone lap.
The King 🕺🏻- the moves, the voice, the fun
And what would a trip to Vegas be without seeing The King 🎤. The event party had a wonderful mix of food, games, networking, and much impersonation; yes, I said, “Thank you, thank you very much” several times - he the king, I the jester ;). This Elvis brought it! He had a great voice, great swagger, and energy. I’m sure it’s gets a little tiring to be Elvis at a corporate event, but that didn’t slow down this version of Elvis Aaron Presley - he was Elvis all night long; he rocked and we rolled.
Final thoughts…
… and I’d do it again! My community plate is full — thank you (attendees), thank you (peer presenters), thank you (event organizers). My feet got their steps in. The throat is a little froggy. And the brain a little weary. Feeling OK about today’s cookie and a touch of quiet.
See you next go around?
Cheers, Mark “Event-in-a-Kashbox” Kashman
P.S. (Pun Sharing)
Get your eye rolls ready to bake… one pun from me, @mkashman 🙄, and one from the world:
