Texas

Pre-Conference Workshops - Monday

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room A

Enhance Business Efficiency with Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Power Platform

Daniel Christian

Daniel Christian

YouTuber | MVP |MCT | Solutions Architect

William Huneycutt

William Huneycutt

Upskill Tech

Discover how to transform your business efficiency with the powerful features of Copilot for Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform. This hands-on workshop is designed to equip you with practical skills and insights to optimize your workflow, automate tasks effectively, and significantly enhance productivity.

Join Microsoft MVPs Daniel Christian and Andy Huneycutt as they share their expert tips and tricks to transform your workday and help you become a Copilot star. In this session, they will dive into the powerful features of both Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot for the Power Platform, demonstrating how Copilot can revolutionize your approach to everyday tasks.

Key Takeaways:

  • Copilot for Microsoft 365: Explore how Copilot integrates with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Forms, Loops, Outlook, and Teams to boost efficiency and collaboration.
  • Copilot for the Power Platform: Learn how Copilot enhances Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio, enabling you to build, automate, and create copilots with ease.
  • Practical Demonstrations: Watch live demos showcasing real-world applications of Copilot, helping you see its potential in action.
  • Expert Tips and Tricks: Gain insights from Daniel and Andy's experiences, including best practices and advanced techniques to maximize Copilot's impact on your workflow.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn from the experts and transform your work routine with the power of Microsoft Copilot. Whether you're new to these tools or looking to deepen your understanding, this session will equip you with the knowledge and skills to excel in your role.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room B

Power BI Bootcamp for SharePoint Professionals

Treb Gatte

Treb Gatte

Marquee Insights, make better, faster decisions with smarter data.

NOTE: YOU WILL NEED A COMPUTER WITH THE LATEST VERSION OF POWER BI DESKTOP INSTALLED PRIOR TO WORKSHOP TIME. THIS IS A HANDS ON BOOTCAMP.

Need to create stunning dashboards from your SharePoint data?

Yes you do!

In this bootcamp, we’ll show you:

  • How should I approach my BI need?
  • What things should be considered when creating dashboards?
  • What are the best practices?
  • How much is this going to cost me to license?
  • What security aspects should concern me?

Who should take this course: If your company uses Office 365 or SharePoint 2013/2016 and you are a:

  • Manager
  • Business Analyst
  • Power User
  • SharePoint Administrator
  • Consultant

If you work in these areas, you will see value:

  • Marketing
  • Information Technology
  • Finance
  • Sales
  • Social Media

The class assumes no prior knowledge of Power BI and Data Concepts.

What is required for this class: Install Microsoft Power BI Desktop on your laptop (recommended but not required). We'll provide an Office 365 site for you to use for exercises

In this workshop you will:

  • Learn how to create Production Dashboards using Power BI, from SharePoint list and document library data
  • How to use Power BI in a multitude of situations, including ad hoc analysis and the creation of formal dashboard.
  • Learn the Power BI components: Power BI Desktop, PowerBI.com, Power BI mobile applications and how they can be used with Office 365 and SharePoint
  • Receive an introduction into the core functions of Power BI; Data extraction, loading and transformation using Power Query Formula Language (“M”) and DAX.
  • Receive some guidelines on how to extract Project data in fast manner.
  • Discover some data modeling practices that will ensure you have maximum flexibility in analysis. You'll also learn some visualization best practices to ensure you can tell your digital story effectively
  • Learn best practices for maintaining content with your organization

This workshop provides an end to end view of Power BI for SharePoint reporting, so that you are able to use Power BI immediately for your needs.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 1

Establishing SharePoint Online Admin Rockstar Status

Brian Alderman

Brian Alderman

Six-year MVP Alumni, 28-year MCT, Author, Speaker, Consultant

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.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 2

Extend Copilot for Microsoft 365 to get the most out of your investment!

Andrew Connell

Andrew Connell

I Help You Be the Best Microsoft 365 & Azure Full Stack Developer

You’ve rolled out copilot for Microsoft 365 and now your organization has entered the AI revolution. Mission accomplished… or is it? In this session, learn how you can unlock the power of copilot by customizing and extending it with your organization’s data. From populating the semantic index with Graph connectors to implementing the RAG pattern & injecting real-time data into copilot queries with plugins using Teams message extensions or OpenAPI endpoints, you can make copilot more “yours”! But that’s not all you’ll learn in this workshop for pro-code/full-stack developers… You’ll also learn how to create declarative copilots for specific scenarios and even bring copilot into your own apps with custom engine copilots.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room C

Power Apps and Power Automate (Flow) for M365/SharePoint Bootcamp

Scott Shearer

Scott Shearer

Microsoft Power Platform Evangelist and MVP

Wes Preston

Wes Preston

Founder and independent consultant working with platform alignment and no-code solutions with M365 and Power Apps

Work through a common business use case to see how Power Apps and Power Automate - and their Copilot capabilities - fit into your toolset extending M365, SharePoint, and Teams.

We'll start with some brief foundation info, dig in with demos, and then let you "take the wheel" walking through hands-on examples to build a solution as we work through the day building on top of Microsoft Lists.

You'll learn about the different types of Flows that can be used with Power Automate and will create basic Flows yourself. Then, see how Flows integrate with Power Apps you've built and the list data behind them. Your instructors will be there to assist throughout the day with your questions.

Attend this workshop to get a foothold with the Power Platform. Gain the skills you'll need to immediately start customizing your Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Teams sites with Power Apps and Power Automate.

Notes and Requirements: To participate in the hands-on portion of this workshop, attendees should bring a laptop computer. Attendees who bring tablets, even with keyboards, will likely experience difficulties in successfully completing the labs.

We will be using Power Apps, Power Automate, Microsoft Lists, Teams, SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 components in our labs. Attendees may choose to use a personally owned or corporate Microsoft 365 tenant. If not, please register for a free Microsoft 365 Developer tenant prior to the workshop here: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/dev-program

If you will be using a company-provided laptop and will not be using your corporate tenant, please verify that you are able to connect to the Microsoft 365 environment that you will be using prior to arrival.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room D

Microsoft 365 & The Power Platform - The Ultimate Starter Kit

Daniel Glenn

Daniel Glenn

Microsoft MVP, Owner and Microsoft 365 Consultant at CollabFront

Microsoft 365 is the world's leading productivity suite that empowers you to work from anywhere, on any device, with a range of cloud-based apps and services. Microsoft’s Power Platform is a set of low-code or no-code solutions that enable you to build custom apps, automate workflows, and analyze data. In this workshop, you will be provided with a detailed exploration of these platforms, incorporating examples from real-world applications. We will of course look at how Copilot integrates with each product along the way! This information is useful if you've moved to the cloud, are thinking about moving, or are still exploring its value.

Some of the topics covered: • An overview of Microsoft’s cloud platforms and the evolution of collaboration. • An introduction and best practices for collaborative work in Microsoft 365, encompassing Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Viva Engage. • A primer on the Power Platform's favored tools: Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power BI. • An in-depth look at the workings of Microsoft 365 Groups. • Hands-on exercises and examples for integrating the Power Platform and Microsoft 365 to achieve business goals – bring your laptop and have company permission to use the services covered.

This starter kit is designed to enhance your understanding of the features within your cloud platform and learn how it can be leveraged within your organization.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 5

Deep Dive into Data Protection with Microsoft Purview

Antonio Maio

Antonio Maio

Protiviti - Managing Director & Enterprise Architect

Effectively implementing a Data Protection Program with Microsoft Purview requires a clear understanding of the capabilities available along with industry best practices for deploying these solutions. Purview protects data by identifying what is sensitive, detecting and preventing accidental or malicious data loss, retaining data according to policy, reducing your attack surface, and even alerting you to insider risks. Successful adoption of these tools requires a robust change management program that helps users remain productive while also implementing and automating protections as much as possible. In this all day workshop, we'll review how to implement an enterprise wide Data Protection Program for unstructured data. We'll deep dive into configuring and deploying Microsoft Purview Information Protection, Data Loss Prevention, and Insider Risk Management. We'll also review industry best practices for change management to help roll out each solution so that users remain productive and protections are automatically applied.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 6

Workshop: Modern Development using the SharePoint Framework (SPFx)

Don Kirkham

Don Kirkham

Microsoft MVP & MCT | Enterprise Architect, DMI

Level 200-300. SPFx is now a mature Framework for building solutions for Office 365, Microsoft Teams and the newest product, Microsoft Viva. This workshop will cover how to get started in SPFx by configuring a very flexible development environment and creating our first SPFx solution. We will then expand our sample solution to interact with data in SharePoint. Our solution will use the latest development acceleration tools from the Microsoft-led Patterns and Practices (PnP) community effort to build modern solutions in webparts, extensions, and adaptive cards for SharePoint Teams and Viva.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 7

Advanced Power Apps and Power Automate: Workarounds for Common Problems

Paul Papanek Stork

Paul Papanek Stork

Don't Pa..Panic Consulting, Owner

Spend any amount of time in the Power Platform forums and you will begin to see a lot of similar questions asked over and over again.

In this workshop we will look at some of the most common issues Citizen Developers encounter when trying to develop applications and workflows in the Power Platform. We'll examine each type of problem, analyze why they occur, and provide workarounds that you can use when you encounter them.

The workshop will be divided into two parts. In the first we'll concentrate on Power Apps and in the second we'll look at Power Automate.

Here is a general list of the overall topics we will cover: • Morning: Power Apps ○ Delegation ○ Working with Dates and Times ○ Conditional Formatting of data ○ Passing Data to and Retrieving Results from a Flow • Afternoon: Power Automate ○ Using Conditions and Switches effectively ○ Handling Loops and Parallel Branches ○ Working with Large Data Sources ○ Implementing Error Checking/Correction ○ Improving Performance

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 8

Information Architecture (IA) for Enterprise AI

Michelle Caldwell

Michelle Caldwell

Michelle is a workplace experience leader with over 25 years of experience delivering transformative solutions to diverse organizations powered by Ethical AI

Unlock the transformative power of AI for your enterprise at our full-day workshop, "Information Architecture (IA) for Enterprise AI."

Dive into the world of AI as it explodes across enterprises, and learn how to use it to drive real value for your organization. This comprehensive event is designed to equip you with the knowledge to confidently initiate and deliver Microsoft AI across your organization.

Discover the diverse types of AI in the enterprise and understand how to organize, structure, and label enterprise content corpuses to ensure AI can best leverage existing content. Learn about popular technical stacks, LLMs, cognitive services, and how to identify the right tools for your unique needs. Prepare to run a proof of concept, find hidden opportunities for AI value, and leave with a clear roadmap for next steps.

This session is for you if:

  • You're curious about AI but unsure where the immediate benefits are.
  • You want to understand how AI can help your organization and deliver ROI.
  • You're eager to understand what programs can be used for long-term growth & scaling.
  • You need an AI strategy and a getting started checklist.

Don't miss this opportunity to unlock the incredible potential of AI for your business. Secure your spot today!

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