Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 1

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 A

Maximizing Copilot: Preparing Your Content and People

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the largest user interface paradigm shift in 60 years. It will inherently shift how we interact with content and complete tasks moving forward. How can you organize, secure, and process your content in Microsoft 365 to maximize its value and prepare it for the next-generation AI assistant- Microsoft 365 Copilot?

In this workshop, we will cover:

Technical insights: Understand the differences between natural language search and semantic indexes, along with best practices for information architecture.

Effective search strategies: Explore when to leverage Copilot versus Microsoft search for optimal results to support the findability and discoverability of business-critical content.

Preparing your content: Perform a security and governance audit and adjust search or permission settings before content is unintentionally exposed through new AI tools.

Integrating Copilot into your daily workflow: Understand the new user experience behaviors emerging and learn better practices for launching Copilot to your organization so employees can unlock the full potential of AI-driven productivity.

By the end of the workshop, you will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to effectively organize your Microsoft 365 content in SharePoint Online, enabling you to harness the power of Copilot and unleash the knowledge stored in your organization.

Tuesday 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM · Room C

How to Maximize Your Intranet Potential with Out-of-the-Box Features in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint

Microsoft 365 is packed with powerful tools and features for building an effective intranet. But with so many options, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. In this presentation, we'll take a deep dive into the "out-of-the-box" features of SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 and show you how to leverage them to build an intranet that meets your organization's unique needs.

From creating and organizing content with SharePoint to enhancing communication with Teams and Viva Engage, we'll cover everything you need to get started, including new capabilities like the Brand Center and Copilot for SharePoint.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have a solid understanding of the key features of SharePoint Online and how to use them to build an intranet that helps your organization communicate, collaborate, and succeed. You will also understand what is possible “in the box” and where you may want to invest in third party solutions or custom development.

Wednesday 8:30 AM - 9:40 AM · General Session Room

The Practical Nature of Working in the Future Present

Discover today what you can immediately put into practice tomorrow. Take a bold step and choose your next Microsoft tech adventure.

We’ll share news and demos of recent announcements, with roadmap highlights – to prepare you for what's to come. And then we walk through proven scenarios, examples of what you can do right now – from employing Copilot and AI, to enhancing employee experiences, to integrating content services that streamline your work. It’s all grounded by real-world use and adoption.

Discover ways to optimize your investments in Copilot, Teams, Viva, SharePoint, OneDrive, and more. This keynote is your map – a guide to your future present of Microsoft 365, ripe with opportunity.

Wednesday 9:50 AM - 11:00 AM · Room 8

Navigating Copilot: Unleashing the Power of Intelligent Intranet Content

How do you design your message in the age of AI to successfully communicate necessary information and actions while driving engagement across the organization? On an average day, an office worker is inundated with 121 emails. Within this influx, crucial company updates, actionable tasks, and potentially irrelevant information are embedded. On top of these emails, there are Teams chats and a seemingly infinite stream of notifications, prompting many employees to turn to artificial intelligence for help in summarizing content and addressing queries.

In this session, we will take a user-centric approach to strengthen your ability to communicate in a way that fits the needs and expectations of your audience. We will discuss the steps for writing effectively for the web through organizing content, designing pages, and sharing to relevant audiences.

You will walk away from this session with actionable steps to create more engaging and inclusive content in Microsoft 365 by focusing on the audience's goals and mental models, accessibility, and user experience best practices.

Wednesday 2:20 PM - 3:30 PM · Room 1

Integrating Forms with Teams for Real-time Responses

Do you ever wonder what your Microsoft Team members are thinking or what their thoughts are on a specific topic or initiative? Microsoft Forms is a powerful and versatile tool that allows you to create surveys, quizzes, and polls that can be responded to by your Team members which allows you to view real-time responses from your participants. These results can then be exported to an Excel spreadsheet for additional analysis, and to generate some neat visual charts or graphs using Power BI.

In this session we are going to introduce and discuss the different types of uses for Forms, how to create a form on a Microsoft Teams channel, explore the configuration options for these forms, as well as how to export the results for use in other Microsoft products, like Power BI.

Wednesday 4:20 PM - 5:30 PM · Room A

Empowering corporate communications with Microsoft 365

Creating and delivering compelling and consistent corporate communications messages across multiple channels can be challenging, especially in the fast-paced and dynamic business environment. In this session, you will learn tips and best practices to improve internal communications. We will talk about new and emerging capabilities in SharePoint News and Viva Engage along with premium capabilities available with Viva Amplify and Copilot. Whether you’re a seasoned communicator or a curious novice, this session promises actionable insights, practical tips, and a dash of innovation.

Thursday 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room 1

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.

Thursday 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room 6

Extending Microsoft 365: Exploring the Art of the Possible

Ever felt like the world of Microsoft 365 is a maze? You’re not alone! In this session, we’ll take a journey together through real-life examples where we’ve turned the complexity of Microsoft 365 into simple, automated solutions.

We’ll start from the basics, exploring out-of-the-box and low-code options, and gradually move towards creating custom self-hosted solutions. Extending Microsoft 365 is not limited to just creating web parts and by the end of this session, you’ll be inspired to see how you can make Microsoft 365 work for you in ways you’ve never imagined before. So, whether you’re a beginner or have some experience under your belt, join us as we unravel the exciting possibilities of extending Microsoft 365!

Thursday 10:50 AM - 12:00 PM · Room D

Knowledge Management Strategies for Microsoft 365 in the Copilot World

With the deprecation of Viva Topics in February 2025, Microsoft is losing the “hero” application for Knowledge Management in Microsoft 365. But Viva Topics alone was never enough and certainly not the only app in your Knowledge Management toolkit.

In this session, we will discuss strategies for leveraging Microsoft 365 to achieve your KM goals – from both manual and automatic metadata classification in SharePoint to enhance explicit knowledge to AI-assisted tacit knowledge and expertise location experiences with Viva Engage and Answers in Viva to Copilot-assisted knowledge experiences grounded in your organizational content.

You will take away practical strategies for achieving your KM goals and a deeper understanding of how Microsoft 365 and Copilot can help you in your journey.

Thursday 1:30 PM - 2:40 PM · Room 1

Decoding User Behavior with Heatmaps and Session Recordings of your SharePoint Sites

Want to get inside the minds of your SharePoint users without relying on hit-or-miss surveys to increase digital adoption? This eye-opening session will show you how to leverage the free Microsoft Clarity product for real-time user behavioral analytics in SharePoint.

Learn how to spot popular pages, dead clicks, rage clicks, and more in your SharePoint environment to improve user training and support initiatives. You will learn first how to deploy Microsoft Clarity and then utilize heatmaps, session recordings and other dashboard insights to identify key areas where users struggle so you know exactly what to focus on. Don't miss out on this chance to revamp how you better understand and support your SharePoint users!

Thursday 3:30 PM - 4:40 PM · Room 1

Implementing Microsoft 365 for Small Businesses and Nonprofits

Explore the Microsoft 365 suite through the lens of a grassroots nonprofit. In this session, discover how to move past resource constraints by harnessing free technology resources to improve inefficient processes (like contract management), enhance internal communication and collaboration (through intranet development), and increase productivity (with a seamless cross-functional action item tracker).

We will share practical insights, guiding you through the steps needed to implement these solutions in your environment, and a litany of cost-free resources that can empower your journey using Microsoft 365 to increase your organization's productivity, communication, and collaboration.

Friday 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room 3

Roundtable Discussion - Intranet Design & Information Architecture

Join us for an engaging and informal gathering where participants delve into topics that matter to them. Roundtable Discussions are a space for sharing ideas, perspectives, and experiences with other attendees. Pull up a chair, and let’s exchange insights!

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room D

Intranet Surgery: How Copilot and Viva Connections can give your intranet a makeover

Are you tired of your intranet looking like it’s stuck in the 90s? Do you want to give it a makeover without breaking the bank? Look no further than Copilot, Viva Connections, and some critical best practices for helping your intranet deliver ongoing value to your employees and the organization.

In this presentation, we’ll talk about how to perform intranet surgery using the latest AI-powered tools from Microsoft. With Copilot, you can generate new content for your intranet in seconds, from catchy headlines to informative articles. With Viva Connections, you can customize your intranet to match your organization’s brand and culture and provide a seamless experience for your employees in the flow of work – to connect, collaborate, and learn. With the latest best practices for discovery and governance, you can ensure that your intranet rehab is successful and transforms your intranet powerful tool for communication, collaboration, and innovation.

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 8

What's all the hype about SharePoint/OneDrive hybrid

Microsoft SharePoint Server on-premises now makes it better, and easier, than ever to integrate with SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business providing a rich, robust, and powerful collaboration hybrid solution for your organization.

In this session we will learn what SharePoint/OneDrive hybrid is about, as well as why it may be beneficial to your organization. We’ll explore the several hybrid components including Active Directory configurations, search, managed metadata, connectivity services, as well as other hybrid components and their requirements.

In addition, we'll introduce an overview of the configuration steps necessary in both Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Server on-premises for a successful hybrid configuration.

Friday 12:30 PM - 1:40 PM · Room 8

Knowledge Management within Microsoft 365 without Viva Topics

Viva Topics has been a valuable asset for knowledge management. However, as Viva Topics approaches its retirement in 2025, enterprises must strategically pivot toward more robust solutions. In this session, we will walk through how you can transition away from Viva Topics, help your employees adapt to the change, and build knowledge management into your organization’s everyday work. We will build out your organization’s roadmap to: • Assess the impact of losing Viva Topics, even if you haven’t started using it organization-wide yet. • Ensure you know how migration will work. • The setup of your alternative solutions to keep your knowledge management running. • How to train and ensure proper adoption to make the most out of your ‘institutional knowledge’. • Establish governance with guidelines for content creation, moderation, and quality control.

As Viva Topics bows out, SharePoint and Microsoft Viva Engage emerge as powerful Copilot allies. Come learn how organizations that proactively embrace this transition will thrive in the new era of knowledge management.

Friday 1:50 PM - 3:00 PM · Room D

Enhancing Communication and Collaboration through Customized Search Experiences

In SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams, we are building a flat hierarchy through separate site collections or Teams and creating connections through hub site relationships. This supports organizational change, cleaner permission models, and so much more but can prove challenging when you want to centralize a subset of content across these site collections.

Join us as we explore different approaches for centralizing your content in this modern decentralized world. You will leave with scenarios and best practices for how to structure and deliver content throughout your tenant.

What we'll cover: -Understanding the hub site structure and search scopes -Using the content type gallery for consistent information architecture -Centralizing content through search experiences (including Modern PnP search web part and search verticals) -Creating intuitive microlearning content (through Learning Pathways or Viva Learning)