Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room A313

An Introduction to Microsoft 365 Tenant Administration

So, you were just handed a Microsoft 365 (M365) tenant in the cloud. Congratulations are in order! Now that we’ve dispensed with the pleasantries, you’re probably wondering what the heck you’re supposed to do with that tenant. If so, you’re in luck, as this workshop is designed specifically for you and others who find themselves with the same basic question.

In this workshop, we approach M365 tenant administration from the perspective of someone who now has tenant administration responsibilities without necessarily knowing what that means or encompasses. We’ll spend some time learning the terminology, bounds, and different pieces of tenant administration.

We’ll also investigate how the admin experience is partially coupled to how your organization is licensed. We’ll cover what you need to do to establish your new tenant, and we’ll take a tour of the various admin surfaces available to M365 administrators.

By the end of this workshop, you’ll have a functional understanding of M365 administration and the tools you have available to implement your organization’s cloud vision.

Tuesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room A402

Establishing SharePoint Online Admin Rockstar Status

SharePoint Online (SPO) integrates with 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 the integration with them by exploring and discussing SharePoint Online best practices for configuring, securing, optimizing, and implementing redundancy.

We will begin by discussing and creating a new Microsoft 365 tenant, followed by exploring how to customize both the M365 and SharePoint administrator dashboards so they only display information related to the Microsoft 365 services and SPO-related components like SharePoint Online and OneDrive.

We will also explore how to create and assign users to access SharePoint Online as both an end user and as administrators.

Being most scenarios require the migration of content, we will discuss several options for migrating content from many different sources to SharePoint Online and OneDrive.

Most migrations require at least an interim hybrid configuration, so we will introduce and explore the components that can be configured for a hybrid environment as an interim solution, or as a long-term solution.

We will then roll up our sleeves and explore the configuration of several components of SharePoint Online using both the GUI and PowerShell. These SPO components and configurations include;

Creating, configuring, and managing site collections

Configuring the user profile service (UPS) to ensure your Active Directory data is included in your search index

Exploring several search service configuration options, to ensure your users are able to quickly find the information they need, along with how to access some search-related reports, as well as some suggestions on how to help your users submit better search queries for more accurate search results

Discussing both SharePoint Online and OneDrive configuration options for managing and securing your collaboration content

Create and implementing a structured taxonomy to provide consistent and reliable data in SPO by using published tenant-level content types and managed metadata fields via the term store, as well as other custom column types, that can all be managed by information architects.

As we discuss these topics throughout the day, I’ll be sharing best practices, as well as tips and tricks that every SPO admin should know about while working with SPO.

When you leave the workshop, you’ll have all the skills and best practices to migrate to, configure, manage, and secure SharePoint Online and OneDrive components using the SharePoint Online Admin center, OneDrive admin Center, and PowerShell.

Tuesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room A410

Building Your Data Protection Program with Purview, Defender, and Microsoft Copilot

In recent years, the amount of digital content moving to the cloud has been dramatic. This has undoubtedly made collaboration easier and more versatile, but it's also brought with it a new set of problems, such as oversharing, data exfiltration, and non-compliant destruction of data. Organizations like yours must ensure data is available when required and protected when sensitive.

Microsoft 365 provides a multitude of tools and features that can assist any organization in protecting its data. Any one of these features can help a business protect its data, but it's the deployment of multiple tools and features that will help organizations build a true data protection program.

In this workshop, your data protection expert will take you through the many features of Microsoft 365 that can assist your organization in protecting its information. Attendees will learn about features such as Microsoft Purview Information Protection, Data Loss Prevention, Endpoint Protection, Insider Risk, and much more. They will also learn how Microsoft Copilot for Security can bolster your data protection program and support your cybersecurity team in protecting your organization.

Wednesday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room A314

Essential Microsoft 365 security features crash course

Security is top of mind for any business moving to the cloud and even more so for those who had to move out of necessity without a clear action plan. Knowing where to start and what is available can be half the battle. This session will cover some of the top concepts when it comes to securing and monitoring your Microsoft 365 environment, the best tools to start with, and which admin center you can find them in. Including but not limited to a look at the Microsoft Purview compliance portal and Microsoft 365 Defender admin center and the osmosis process that has happened since parting ways from what was formally known as the Security and Compliance center. The best part is that some of these are available in your subscription now at no extra charge!

Wednesday 11:40 AM - 12:50 PM · Room A402

Nailing Down Performance Issues in SharePoint Online Sites (2025 Edition)

SharePoint Online (SPO) has been with us for over a decade, and in that time it has received numerous changes and adjustments intended to optimize performance. Despite the work that has gone into the platform, some organization still find users reporting a poor experience and "bad performance."

In this session, we will look at development and design approaches that will enable SPO to deliver optimal performance when your organization begins using it. We'll review the current state of tooling available for our use (like the Page Diagnostics for SharePoint tool) and how it can be used to guide analysis of performance issues. We will also look at elements in any environment that can negatively impact SPO performance to make it look like the "bad guy" when SPO is actually innocent.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will have the confidence needed to troubleshoot, classify, and possibly resolve performance-based issues in their SPO tenant.

Wednesday 11:40 AM - 12:50 PM · Room A314

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.

Wednesday 2:00 PM - 3:10 PM · Room A314

5 security best practices you should implement in Microsoft 365 today!

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, securing your organization's data and resources is more crucial than ever. This lightning talk will delve into the top five Microsoft 365 security best practices you should implement today to safeguard your digital environment. We will explore essential strategies such as protecting credentials, safeguarding your content, and securing devices. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped with actionable insights to enhance your organization's security posture, better protecting your environment against emerging threats. Join us to learn how to fortify your Microsoft 365 environment with these important security measures.

Wednesday 4:00 PM - 5:10 PM · Room A312

Teams and Microsoft 365 Sharing - Unstructured and Structured

Teams and Microsoft 365 external sharing is all about publishing or collaborating with people outside your organization. Users will find ways to do it with or without IT support (typically through email or shadow IT), so it's important for IT to provide an easy way for them to do it effectively and securely.

Sharing can be done in a number of different ways. Unstructured sharing to a small set of external users works well with the OOTB SharePoint and OneDrive features. External users can also be invited in as full Microsoft Teams guests for collaboration. Teams Shared Channels can be used to improve the user experience for external users, eliminating the need for tenant switching in Teams.

As the scale increases, structured sharing with many external users needs alternatives such as Azure AD B2B, custom code or third party solutions. We'll discuss options available and what makes sense where using real world examples.

In this session we will cover both configuring sharing appropriately, and the user experience for both content sharers and recipients. We'll go through a number of different scenarios.

External sharing in Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint Online Azure AD B2B (Business to Business) Teams Shared Channels and Azure AD Direct Connect Microsoft's Entitlement Management portal's Access Packages for external users Custom and third party options leveraging the Graph API We'll also touch on how to leverage Microsoft's security stack to improve the security of your Microsoft 365 Extranet.

Thursday 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room A404

Introduction to Microsoft Copilot for Security

Staying ahead of security risks requires cutting-edge tools and technologies. This session will explore how Copilot for Security revolutionizes threat detection, response, and automation. Discover the key features of Microsoft Copilot for Security, learn how to configure its capabilities, and see examples of its impact. Whether you’re a seasoned security professional or new to the field, this session will equip you with the knowledge and tools to enhance your organization’s security posture.

Thursday 1:00 PM - 2:10 PM · Room A405

Data recovery options for SharePoint/OneDrive

SharePoint and OneDrive include several content recovery options for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business administrators, site collection administrators, and end users. Educating your end users on SharePoint recovery options like the site recycle bin, versioning, and site collection recycle bin can lighten the burden on your admins.

Using either a GUI or PowerShell you can backup and restore your entire SharePoint Server farm or components of it. In SharePoint Server you can also perform more granular content backups by exporting site collections, site, libraries, and lists, and there are options for recovering these site collections, sites, lists and libraries from content databases that are no longer part of your SharePoint Server farm.

With a vast majority of your SharePoint Server content stored in SQL Server it is imperative that you have an efficient way to recover items or entire databases as quickly as possible.

This discussion will introduce the Best Practices framework that will allow your SharePoint Server administrators to configure SharePoint as well as SQL Server for quick content recovery, minimizing the downtime and providing shorter and achievable Service Level Agreements (SLA’s).

Thursday 1:00 PM - 2:10 PM · Room A316

Teams First Information Architecture and Governance

When planning out or updating a Microsoft 365 implementation, SharePoint is still important, but it really needs to start with Teams, and then the underlying SharePoint structure for a big part flows out of that. It's not just answering planning questions, but also ensuring that everyone understands that Teams is much more than a meeting and chat platform.

Topics we'll cover in this session include:

Introducing a maturity model on how organizations leverage Teams, SharePoint, Email, and OneDrive Level setting on how they work together Understanding the differences between Standard, Private, and Shared Channels, and the underlying SharePoint site collections Where do standalone Communication and Team Sites fit into the Teams and SharePoint structure Guests versus B2B Direct Connect in Teams, and external sharing in SharePoint Open source scripts and Power BI dashboards to inventory and analyze your file shares, SharePoint on-premises, and SharePoint Online Answering the question - what does a Team and a Channel represent in my organization MindJet as a tool for planning your IA Commercial and open-source solutions for implementing your IA Real-world scenarios and case studies

Thursday 4:10 PM - 5:20 PM · Room A315

Reaching Airspeed Velocity to Get Your New Intranet Off the Ground

The creation of the first intranet happened in the latter part of the 20th century, but no one would recognize that as an intranet by today’s standards. Since then, intranet implementations and the platforms they’re built on have matured significantly and grown more complex.

In this session, we’ll be looking at the modern intranet through the lens of SharePoint. There are plenty of decisions to consider and points to deliberate even before you jump into action. We’ll discuss optimal team composition, roles that should be factored-in, technological considerations, stakeholder involvement/representation, project lifecycle needs, launch considerations, and more.

I’ll be sharing my experiences, highlights, triumphs, and painful lessons learned architecting intranets of varying sizes for the last decade or so.

In short: we will be covering all of the things I wish I had known before I ever started building intranets in the hopes they will spare you some of the pain I endured.

Friday 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room A404

Keep your content fresh and discoverable for Microsoft Copilot with SharePoint Advanced Management

Join us as we explore the power of SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) found within SharePoint Premium. SAM can help you keep your content fresh and discoverable for Microsoft Copilot. We will delve into strategies for managing your content lifecycle, including how to enable discovery and collaboration on hundreds of file types, as well as how SAM empowers other facets of SharePoint Premium.

You will learn how to leverage the capabilities of SharePoint Advanced Management to streamline your business processes and enhance user experiences. You will walk away with practical knowledge and actionable strategies to:

• Safely keep your SharePoint content fresh and up-to-date
• Enable discovery and collaboration on a wide range of file types
• Manage your content lifecycle with SharePoint Advanced Management

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room A403

Navigating Document Approval in SharePoint: A Practical Case Study

At a medical research non-profit, different departments rely heavily on SOP documents, or Standard Operating Procedures. These documents have to go through annual reviews that are several layers deep, in addition to needing a group approval of the final SOP. In this session, Lindsay will break down exactly how she built SOP approval processes for six different departments using just SharePoint document libraries, Power Automate, and Approvals that have served their purpose effectively and efficiently for years.

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room A315

Exploring Microsoft 365 migration considerations and tools

Congratulations, on your decision to move to Microsoft 365. If your mind is running rampant on how to complete the migration, this session is for you.

We will begin by exploring the steps necessary during the following migration phases • Before the migration • Completing the migration • Managing the cloud-based content after migration

As you can guess, you’re going to need to know what the best approach is to complete the migration, so we will also discuss what your migration options are, and what tools are available, including out of the box tools like the SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool (SMAT), the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT), Migration Manager, as well as several other tools to help streamline and successfully complete your migration to Microsoft 365.

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room A316

What You Need to Know Before You Build Your Modern SharePoint Disaster Recovery Plan

Building a modern disaster recovery (DR) plan these days is no walk in the park. You may have an on-premises SharePoint farm, but you may be among those who are letting Microsoft or another cloud partner manage their SharePoint environment. In these sorts of situations, what should you be focused on with your DR plan? Are your partner’s service-level agreements and approaches to data protection appropriate for your organization? Are you even aware of what the folks who are managing your SharePoint environment do to protect your data? These questions, and many others, are what we will be answering within this session. We will cover the questions you should be asking when you create your own DR plans, as well as the questions you should be asking your cloud partners about theirs. At the conclusion of this session, you’ll leave with the firm understanding and the knowledge that you understand what’s important and what’s not when it comes to SharePoint Disaster Recovery Planning.

Friday 12:30 PM - 1:40 PM · Room A316

Implementing Purview Information Protection with the Traffic Light Protocol

With the speed of AI development and the need for Copilot readiness, robust data governance and protection strategies are paramount. This workshop delves into the integration of Microsoft Purview Information Protection with the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) to enhance safe sharing practices within organizations. We will explore the implementation of sensitivity labels aligned with TLP designations, enabling a clear and consistent approach to categorizing and controlling access to sensitive information.

In this workshop we'll cover:

• Business overview of the need for Purview Information Protection and what the Traffic Light Protocol is
• Explore what Entra ID Conditional Access Policies and Authentication Contexts are
• Review the Azure Information Protection Service
• Go over inventory tools for reviewing the current Microsoft 365 tenant setup
• Setup a dev tenant and get hands on
	○ Create an Authentication Context
	○ Create Conditional Access Policies
	○ Configure MFA requirements
	○ Define and publish the TLP sensitivity labels
	○ Configure auto-labelling rules
	○ Define external sharing rules
	○ Apply labels to 
		○ Sites, libraries, folders, and files
		○ Emails and meetings
		○ Teams, channels, and conversations

Friday 1:50 PM - 3:00 PM · Room A312

Git Integration and Azure DevOps for Power BI - Implementing CI/CD

Can BI development follow application development lifecycle? Answer is "YES!" Power BI Deployment Pipelines help us achieve the "Deploy" part of the CI/CD life cycle in a manual way, but with Fabric the Git integration now makes it easy to use Azure Devops. Versioning, automation of deployment can be achieved and enterprise BI teams can bring application lifecycle management to their power BI environments. The session will focus mainly on Power BI objects (reports, datasets) in the a Fabric workspace. Agenda: Understand Git Integration Manage workspace with git Test & Deploy Type : Light on slides, heavy on demo This session is perfect for those who are looking bring application life cycle management (ALM) to the their Power BI development space.

Friday 1:50 PM - 3:00 PM · Room A316

Managing Microsoft 365 using Azure Functions and Runbooks

Managing Microsoft 365 services efficiently is essential to the productivity of any organization. With the rise of cloud services, IT professionals are constantly seeking ways to automate routine tasks, streamline workflows, and ensure security at scale. In this session, you will learn how to automate your Microsoft 365 operations using the power of Azure services. We will discuss the following:

Introduction to Azure Automation: Learn how Azure Automation simplifies Microsoft 365 management. Explore Azure Functions, Runbooks, and Logic Apps and know when to use them.

Azure Functions for Microsoft 365:

• Learn serverless computing with Azure Functions.
• Create functions that respond to events in Microsoft 365.
• Write scalable code and pay only for the resources you use.

PowerShell Runbooks: Automate workflows with Azure Automation Runbooks. Develop, deploy, and manage Runbooks for routine tasks in your Microsoft 365 environment.

This session is for IT professionals, system administrators, and cloud architects responsible for managing Microsoft 365 environments. Whether you are new to Azure Automation or looking to enhance your existing skills, this session will provide valuable insights into automating and optimizing your Microsoft 365 operations.