Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 435-436

SharePoint: Zero to Hero

Tamara Bredemus

The nexus between IT and the business

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 443-444

Best Practices for Intranet Information Architecture: the key to unlocking AI’s full potential

Susan Hanley

Information Architect/Business Analyst

In this workshop, we will explore the basics of Information Architecture (IA) and its role in creating effective intranets using Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Viva Connections. We’ll talk about why IA is so important to AI – and how you can ensure that your intranet content can act as a valuable partner in your AI solutions. Whether you are just starting out or looking to improve your current intranet design, this workshop will provide you with the necessary tools and techniques to make the most of new and upcoming features, capabilities, and best practices.

We'll cover key topics including creating and organizing content, building site structures, creating metadata, and leveraging search functionality.

You will take away:

• Approaches for planning navigation across the entire intranet and on individual sites
• Tips and best practices for audiences, hubs, and home sites
• Page design guidance that supports accessibility and great user experiences
• Effective use of metadata on pages and documents – and whether it is OK to use folders to organize your content.
• How to leverage Viva Connections to bring your intranet to your users in the flow of work – and how to plan audiences to ensure that the right tools and information gets to the right groups.
• How Copilot can help your information architecture and vice versa.

You'll leave with a clear understanding of what IA is, why it matters, and how to get started with creating effective intranets that meet your organization's needs.

Monday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 434 (workshops only)

Microsoft 365 & The Power Platform - The Ultimate Starter Kit

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 425 Workshops & Roundtables - Room 425

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

Sarah Haase

Microsoft MVP | M365 enthusiast | Principal Product Manager | User adoption advocate

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 431

Power Automate Multi-Stage Approval Workflows - Workshop

Amarender Peddamalku

MVP | Practice Lead - Microsoft Modern Work @Perficient

In every organization there are a number of scenarios which require an Approval process. It could be Contract approvals, PTO/Leave Approvals, Event approvals and many other business processes.

In this workshop we'll learn how to design and develop Multi-Stage Approval Workflows using Power Automate. The workflow will move back and forth b/w different stages and will also learn how to restart a workflow from a given stage. We'll learn how to include Dynamic Approvers in the workflow process.

We'll also learn how to design and develop Automated escalations and Automated reminders. We'll implement timeout features in the workflows to escalate it to the next approver in the process. We will learn how to log and retain workflow history beyond what Microsoft Power Automate offers out-of-box. We'll develop a button to kick off the workflow from a SharePoint library/list.

Tuesday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM · Room 432

Data Protection, Collaboration, and User Engagement: Assisting Your Organization in Doing it All

David Drever

Microsoft 365 MVP - Compliance, Data Protection, and M365 Specialist

Sarah Haase

Microsoft MVP | M365 enthusiast | Principal Product Manager | User adoption advocate

With the ever-changing cloud landscape, organizations struggle to help their employees collaborate and be effective in their day-to-day responsibilities. Adding data protection and security could raise the difficulty even more, as the business needs to balance the ability to collaborate while keeping its information and users safe. Ensuring user engagement and adoption is fundamental to success.

In this workshop, David and Sarah will cover the design and implementation of Microsoft 365's collaboration tools, such as SharePoint, Teams, Viva Engage, and more, while ensuring the solution is safe, secure, and fully collaborative. They'll help you understand how you can work together to protect your organization's information and employees in a manner that encourages endorsement from those using the tools.

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

Establishing SharePoint Online Admin Rockstar Status

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.

Tuesday 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM · Room 437-439

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

Susan Hanley

Information Architect/Business Analyst

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 newer capabilities like the Brand Center and Copilot Agents 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.