With just under 2 weeks until ESPC21 Online, Europe’s largest gathering of the Microsoft 365 and Azure community in Europe it’s time to start browsing the programme and build your agenda for the week.
Gold Sponsor Nucleus Cyber’s CMO Irena Mroz sat down with Microsoft MVP Jeff Willinger to get his thoughts on the sessions he’s personally looking forward to and recommends if you’re not sure which sessions to take in.
If you aren’t able to make the any of the recommended sessions, there is good news; the on-demand sessions are available to all Upgrade Ticket holders. Let’s dig into Jeff’s top session picks.
Irena Mroz: Jeff what are your thoughts on this year’s program and presenters?
Jeff Willinger: Many of these sessions offered at this year’s EPSC21 Online are presented by individuals who are the very best in their field and never fail to deliver. If you are like me, I get burned out pretty quickly so in addition to the topics discussed, I am picking sessions where the speaker is a rock star that I know personally.
Irena Mroz: Great! So, tell me which sessions would be your top picks and why?
Jeff Willinger: That’s a hard question. There’s so many great sessions and presenters to choose from. While I’d like to say go to them all, I’ll limit myself to recommending just a few sessions per day.
Taking place on 28th May and I would recommend the following Pre-conference Tutorials:
- Information Architecture for SharePoint Intranets by the fabulous Sue Hanley. She is a wonderful engaging presenter with great content.
- If you are in need for a power BI tutorial, I would recommend John White’s session on A Grand Tour of Power BI.
Day 1
My top picks for Tues June 1st are as follows:
- Do not miss Charles Lamanna’s keynote, What’s New and What’s Next for the Microsoft Power Platform. Power Platform is a line of business intelligence, app development, and app connectivity software applications. Microsoft developed the Power Fx low-code programming language for expressing logic across the Power Platform. To respond to the growing demand for digital solutions, organizations are increasingly looking for ways to drive accelerated app innovation. Low-code platforms like Microsoft Power Platform help IT professionals move faster through collaboration with the business allowing for delivery of more solutions with greater efficiency, security, and compliance.
- I am a BIG fan of Microsoft Viva, so Seth Patton’s Meet Microsoft Viva: a New Kind of Employee Experience is spot on and he is on the Viva product team!
- Sean Squires and Chris McNulty are co-presenting Turn Content into Knowledge with Microsoft SharePoint Syntex which I can never get enough of. I am certain there will be a BIG announcement from these guys!
- I am super curious what Microsoft is doing with Yammer. One day it is Microsoft’s darling, and the next it is an afterthought. This session with product manager, Mike Holste on Engaging Employees with Yammer and Microsoft 365 should provide a roadmap and clarity on why we need to start using or kick start our Yammer story in our organizations.
- Security is on every organization’s mind, and more important, their short ‘to-do’ lists. Paula Januszkiewicz is delivering day 2 keynote on Top 10 Biggest Threats When Working From Home. She is also presenting Unlimited Sherlock: Deep-Dive into Current Threats and Mitigations on day one which promises to be chock full of informational nuggets!
Day 2
- After the keynote on June 2, check out the amazing speaker April Dunnam as she does a deep dive into The Developer’s Guide to the Power Platform Galaxy. Her talks are very informative and educational.
- The always entertaining and educational, Maarten Eekels, is presenting on Your Security in Microsoft 365 is Set Up. Now How About Compliance? It is a DO NOT miss if you are thinking about your security and compliance.
- There is NOTHING better than a good case study, and Mott MacDonald’s Simon Denton will have a lot to share during his session Creating Opportunities and Connecting Thinking with Project Cortex.
- To close the conference, I recommend a woman that needs no introduction or a last name in the Microsoft community, the fabulous Karuana, on the future of hybrid work.
Irena Mroz: Jeff, I know I’m excited to check out your recommendations. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us. Any closing thoughts?
Jeff Willinger: The incredible ESPC21 Online Program Team has gathered 90+ of the world’s foremost product leaders and industry experts to show how Microsoft 365 & Azure technologies are shaping the future of technology. Some of the best speakers sharing expert insight with 100+ sessions, across 8 dedicated Tracks, covering all the important topics: Power Platform, SharePoint, Teams, Azure, Governance, Viva, PnP PowerShell, Microsoft Graph, Migration, ALM, Power Automate, Security, Power BI, GitHub, IaC, AI & Bots, M365 Groups, Project Cortex, GraphQL, Microsoft Information Protection and so much more. I am looking forward to an exciting couple of days with friends in the community and learning from the best of the best.
That’s a wrap on the recommendations. The Nucleus Cyber is team looking forward to ESPC21 Online! We hope to meet you there! Feel free to stop by our virtual booth to say hello.
