Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 345-346

Power BI Bootcamp for SharePoint Professionals

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 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 435-436

SharePoint: Zero to Hero

If you are new to SharePoint, this is your workshop. We will start at the beginning with, “What is this thing you call SharePoint?” and then go step-by-step to “Now I can build basic business solutions.” Everything we do during this session will be in SharePoint Online, but also works for On-Premises environments. No Code.

Here’s what we will cover:  1.            What is SharePoint 2.            Getting around SharePoint 3.            How to build and use a solution for your business needs 4.            Discover what metadata is and how it can help 5.            How to make sure the right people have the right access to the right things at the right time 6.            Create a one-stop-shop with a custom page

At the end of this workshop, you will have the information needed to create simple solutions using the tools provided by SharePoint without waiting for IT to build it for you. Buckle up. We’ve got a lot to cover.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 445-446

Driving employee engagement with Microsoft Viva, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Copilot

Hybrid and remote work are the new normal, but work trends indicate the greatest challenges are a sense of community, connection, relationship-building, and inspiration. This full-day workshop explores how Microsoft Viva, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Copilot come together to foster company culture, unlock communication and engagement opportunities, organize content, and spark employee creativity.

Tuesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 443-444

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 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM · Room 431

SharePoint Premium - Implementation

Microsoft advanced content management and experiences - where AI meets content. Whether SharePoint Premium, Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft 365 Archive, or SharePoint Embedded, you now have new ways to engage with your most critical content, while managing and protecting it through its lifecycle.

In this half-day workshop, we'll go hands on for configuring billing, model creation, autofill columns, content assembly,

Wednesday 11:40 AM - 12:50 PM · Room 421-422

Mastering Metadata in SharePoint Online: Unlocking the Power of SharePoint Premium

Metadata in SharePoint Online is essential for efficient content management and retrieval. Entering metadata manually is a simple and powerful way to start organizing your content. However, as the complexity and volume of content grow, this approach becomes difficult to manage. This session will guide you through transitioning from basic metadata management in SharePoint Online to leveraging the advanced features of SharePoint Premium.

We will explore scenarios for choosing SharePoint Premium, focusing on the use case of managing legal documents. Learn how this advanced capability can streamline content management by automatically populating metadata fields, reducing manual entry, and minimizing errors. Discover how SharePoint Premium can enhance document accuracy and compliance, ultimately improving the efficiency of your legal operations. We will also discuss the one-to-many relationship of Matters to Cases and how to manage various content types including Contracts, Pleadings, Affidavits, Legal Briefs, Discovery Documents, Court Orders, Case Files, and Correspondence.

Wednesday 11:40 AM - 12:50 PM · Room 447-448

Real-World Microsoft 365 Governance in the Age of AI

In a time where everyone is expected to innovate faster, deliver more value, and do it all under tight budget constraints, effective governance is more critical than ever. Microsoft is at the forefront of driving this innovation with their Copilot “GenAI-as-a-Service” offering along with create your own custom agents with Copilot Studio & Azure AI Foundry. However, these benefits are not without their challenges including:

· Ensuring AI doesn’t expose sensitive data to those who should not have access to it

· Improving data quality to ensure AI returns accurate answers

· Balancing operational costs while embracing innovation

Join us for a deep dive into best practices for governing Microsoft 365 in this new world of AI & Copilots. We’ll explore some of the tools that Microsoft makes available, while also pointing out some of the gaps. Whether you’re facing complex compliance requirements, struggling with data sprawl, or simply looking for ways to do more with less, this session will provide the real-world strategies needed to thrive in today’s AI-driven landscape.

Wednesday 2:00 PM - 3:10 PM · Room 433-434

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 2:00 PM - 3:10 PM · Room 445-446

Running a High-Performing Service Desk: Structure, Automation and Documentation

A successful service desk depends on the right structure, automation and documentation to ensure efficiency and consistency. This session explores best practices for organizing service desk operations, including queue management, ticket categorization, issue tracking and standardized templates. Attendees will learn how to streamline workflows, reduce inefficiencies and create a scalable support framework that enhances both technician productivity and end-user experience.

Key Takeaways: • How to structure a service desk for efficiency, including queues, ticket categories and issue types. • Best practices for IT documentation to improve knowledge sharing and reduce errors. • The role of automation in enhancing ticket routing, escalation and response times. • Strategies for optimizing workflows to boost technician productivity and service consistency. • How to build a scalable, adaptable service desk that meets evolving IT and business needs.

Wednesday 4:00 PM - 5:10 PM · Room 421-422

Document intelligence in the AI-driven SharePoint Agreements Solution: Practical tips/best practices

The SharePoint Agreements solution is a new offering that encompasses the end-to-end flow of managing agreements both inside your company and with third parties. It ties together functionality across multiple M365 platforms including SharePoint, Teams, Word and Approvals and has AI features integrated throughout. This session will share details about the experiences of early adopters and best practices for organizing content within the solution workspaces along with features coming in the next quarter.

Thursday 9:50 AM - 10:10 AM · Solution Stage

IT Success Story: How a Small IT Team Cut Ticket Resolution Time in Half With Smart Documentation

Discover how Appalachia Technologies, a managed service provider (MSP) with a small but nimble IT team of just five people, transformed their service delivery approach by embracing a documentation-first mindset. By weaving AI-driven IT documentation into their daily operations, they were able to reduce response and resolution times by 50% and reclaimed over 160 hours annually, utilizing an automated password rotation solution.

In this session, we’ll walk through their real-world playbook, from how they structured their documentation to the habits and workflows that helped drive efficiency, consistency and visibility across the team.

Whether you're just getting started with IT documentation or looking to refine your approach, this session will equip you with practical strategies to optimize efficiency and maximize the impact of documentation in your IT operations.

Thursday 11:40 AM - 12:50 PM · Room 421-422

Content Types: Easier Than the Theory of Relativity

Everyone talks about them, but what the heck are they and how can I use them? We will start with some demos of how to use custom content types, then on to what the heck are content types anyway and we will end with another demo to build content types in the browser.

Key Takeaways:

1. What are content types?
2. Planning content types
3. Creating site columns
4. Creating content types
5. Using content types

Thursday 11:40 AM - 12:50 PM · Room 437-439

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) -Ways to limit content from appearing in search

Thursday 4:00 PM - 5:10 PM · Room 421-422

IT Pro meets Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle and Records Management

This session will explain Data Lifecycle and Records Management in Microsoft Purview from an IT-Pro's perspective. With compliance concerns on the rise in the modern workplace, Compliance teams are reaching out to their IT-Pro partners for assistance. This is unfamiliar territory for many IT-Pros, so this session is designed to help clear the path forward. It covers topics like: • Recommendations for mapping a retention schedule into a "software-friendly" Purview File Plan • Using automation to apply retention labels to your content • Using scopes to scale and meet complex retention requirements • SharePoint and Teams architecture impacts • Understanding what configurations can't (easily) be changed after-the-fact

To reinforce the topics, Joanne will discuss the skills IT-Pros should bring to the table when working with their Compliance team partners.

Thursday 4:00 PM - 5:10 PM · Room 445-446

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 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room 421-422

I didn't know you could do that with OneDrive!

OneDrive for Business is the Microsoft cloud storage service that comes with Office 365 or SharePoint Server. With OneDrive, you can securely store all your files in one place, share them with others, and get to them from anywhere.

But did you know that OneDrive can sync SharePoint document libraries using the new and improved OneDrive sync client on both Windows and Mac OS X? Or you can move and copy files quickly and easily with metadata between OneDrive and SharePoint? Or that you can securely share content with users both internally and externally to your organization? How would you like to be able to work with a colleague on the same file, at the same time, in real time? Or perhaps you'd like to use a workflow for content in your OneDrive?

Join me in this interactive, hands-on session where I demonstrate the new features that you should be aware of when working with OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online.

Friday 9:00 AM - 10:10 AM · Room 437-439

Knowledge Management Strategies in the era of Copilot: Beyond the Basics

Microsoft 365 offers a robust suite of tools to support your Knowledge Management goals. This session will explore comprehensive strategies to leverage the full spectrum of Microsoft 365 tools and organizational strategies, from 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, and Copilot-assisted knowledge experiences grounded in your organizational content. You will gain practical strategies for achieving your Knowledge Management goals and a deeper understanding of how Microsoft 365 and Copilot can support your journey. 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.

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 421-422

Microsoft Purview Compliance – Tales from the Trenches

As more and more of an organization's data is stored within the cloud, controlling the amount of data can be daunting. Administrators and compliance professionals are being called on to support content management to ensure it is protected and maintained throughout its data lifecycle.

Joanne and David have assisted organizations for years and helped many enterprises design and build compliance solutions using Microsoft Purview from the ground up. In this session, they'll discuss critical topics organizations should consider when implementing Records Management and Information Protection controls. They will also cover common pitfalls affecting the organization on its compliance journey.

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 432

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

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 437-439

Navigating Communication Channels in Microsoft 365 for Meaningful Engagement

Microsoft 365 offers a suite of powerful tools to support communication including Viva Engage, Microsoft Teams, Viva Amplify, Viva Connections, and SharePoint Online which can transform how organizations communicate and collaborate. Navigating these channels to ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time requires strategic planning. Join this session to delve deep into the better practices for leveraging Microsoft 365 communication tools.

Backed by comprehensive user research, this session will provide actionable strategies for determining what-to-use-when, ensuring your messages are delivered through the most appropriate channels for your outcome objectives. We will explore the nuances of each tool, from the community-building strengths of Viva Engage to the collaborative power of Microsoft Teams, the broad reach of Viva Amplify, the seamless integration of Viva Connections, and more structured information management in SharePoint Online. We will address the critical aspect of managing responses and fostering ongoing engagement. Learn how to cultivate meaningful interactions and maintain productive communication flows within your organization.

Friday 10:20 AM - 11:30 AM · Room 445-446

Ensuring brand consistency with Microsoft 365

Learn how to keep your brand consistent and improve your digital presence using SharePoint, Office, Stream, and Designer.

This session will explore effective strategies for leveraging these powerful tools to maintain a cohesive and recognizable brand identity. By integrating the functionalities of SharePoint, Office, Stream, and Designer, you can create a unified digital experience that reflects your brand's values and aesthetics.

Friday 12:30 PM - 1:40 PM · Room 421-422

Establish a Data Protection Strategy with Microsoft Purview

Data Protection is top of mind for all organizations that work with sensitive information. As those organizations move into the Microsoft Cloud and adopt Cloud services faster and faster, establishing a strong data protection strategy is critical to protecting the information that your business runs on and preventing threats from both external attackers and insiders. Whether you're concerned about unstructured or structured data, risks from accidental or malicious data leaks, external threats, ransomware, external sharing, or any combination of these, having a Data Protection Strategy that protects your data no matter where it lives is a critical part of that strategy. Microsoft Purview provides robust capabilities for protecting that data, both in the cloud, on-premises or shared externally and understanding those capabilities is an important part of rolling out controls to protect your information. Join Antonio as he shares important considerations for establishing a Data Protection strategy for your organization and learn how you can use the extensive features of Microsoft Purview to protect your critical business information.

Friday 12:30 PM - 1:40 PM · Room 443-444

SharePoint Premium - Intelligent Content for Everyone

Microsoft advanced content management and experiences - where AI meets content. Whether SharePoint Premium, Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft 365 Archive, or SharePoint Embedded, you now have new ways to engage with your most critical content, while managing and protecting it through its lifecycle. In this era of AI and Copilot, learn how you can not only maximize content value with security and structure but make sure you prime and manage your content for Copilot too.

Friday 1:50 PM - 3:00 PM · Room 421-422

Revolutionizing content management using the power of AI with Copilot and SharePoint Premium

In this session, we will explore the latest and upcoming news in SharePoint within the realms of content management. We'll delve into new features released with SharePoint Premium. Introducing AI and automation, it redefines how you engage with content throughout its lifecycle, setting the stage for the future with Copilot for Microsoft 365, the next-generation AI assistant revolutionizing productivity.

But the core of the new features obviously are Copilot Agents in SharePoint that help you to find information for a specific scenario. In this session we'll show all different options and ways that you have to create and manage (yes, the security is always one must!) your custom Copilot directly in SharePoint.

Friday 1:50 PM - 3:00 PM · Room 432

Revamp your Communications from Strategy to Technology

If you have ever done some type of communication, this session will help you make sense of where to start, what to use when and how to get your message out. If you are working on a large-scale campaign to the entire company or sending an update to your project team, there are all types of communications that happen in an organization. Learn how to create strategies that flow into governance guidelines and use the technology appropriately for the best results. This session will focus on using your intranet, SharePoint, Viva Engage, Viva Connections, Amplify and Teams as well as how Copilot can interact, and you will walk away with a better sense of where to start.