Category: Microsoft Community

Microsoft Ignite 2022: My Schedule, 10 for Teams and Everything Else I’d Recommend

Ignite is here! And hands up I only got back from a two-week vacation in the US yesterday, and it was one where I finally managed to disconnect, get off grid and focus on family, health and pretty much everything but IT - including going through a Cat 4 Hurricane Ian. It was wild. However, the flip side of all this is that I am very much coming into this one hot with a ton of backlog, so this preview will probably be a bit shorter than usual, and it'll all be on the fly

Microsoft Inspire 2022: My Schedule, 10 for Teams and Everything Else I’d Recommend

Inspire. Number Five. Two in-person and three now virtual. But the million dollar question is - will we ever see the likes of the big one out in Vegas again? I'd never say never. Yet on paper it's probably safe to say that the days of singing it up at the Q and being out on the tiles in sin city doing business in the Hard Rock, Mortons, The Venetian and Nine Fine Irishman have come to an end. And whilst it's easy to point at things like superspreading and the transmission of the virus, its sustainability and the virtualized experience of lockdown which is driving the experience. In the first instance, Microsoft has a commitment to carbon negativity - that's a much more difficult objective given a significant proportion of it's 40,000 attendees flying halfway across the world and staying for a week or two. It's hard to argue given the challenges we face collectively. But digital events? The data Microsoft received and analyzed showed that, basically, more tuned in. They tuned in to the extent of 100% more. Now I know just from being in the community and being on the circuit that in-person events are having a revival. Healthcare systems are mitigating the impacts of Covid, the barriers to travel are coming down and the desire for immersion and getting out amongst the people is high. But the blueprint for how future conferences will play out is likely what we have already seen at Build. It'll be hybrid. Travel will be contained regionally and what is referred to as the digital core will be served up and broadcast online. It makes sense. On paper. How do we get the breadth whilst being sustainable, whilst being responsible in terms of the virus, whilst also keeping in mind rises in the cost of living. It's like an economic equation. But the thing is - humans are neither simple nor predictable so it'll be interesting to see how regionalism pans out the next few years.

Microsoft Build 2022: My Sessions, Teams and Everything Else I’d Recommend

A year ago feels like a long time. It also feels like an incredibly short time. 2021 was the first year I spoke at Microsoft Build and having spoken at Ignite three times previously getting to another one of the big four felt like such an achievement. Of course it turned out to be as great as you would expect. I participated in several sessions. I did a blog. Knowing me I probably also got involved in a few AMA's at the time. Yet when these things come around annually it feels a bit like a birthday. You reflect. You look at how far you've come. At least I do. And what I have found in the last few days is that whilst much has remained the same: as in me being flat out; Vesku being the biggest Metaverse fan I know; and Deltinger still speaking about channels in some form out on the circuit, much has also changed. Firstly, Build is hybrid this year. That's right. Whilst much of the content will be digital and consumable online there will be regional spotlights which are in-person events held at the Microsoft HQ's in those countries. So this is not just a return to Build. This will be the first in-person event I have spoken at since Commsverse - and I don't mean the one at Mercedes Benz world I am talking about the original event which was held at the Microsoft Store in Oxford Circus about a month before we all went into lockdown. Secondly, it's been quite a year in terms of my personal life. I was hospitalized with Covid. I narrowly avoided burnout and one of my best friends and biggest supporters - my dad - recently passed away from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). So I very much feel like I am coming into this one older. More weathered. Finally, Teams Nation came to an end this year. Vesku and I felt like we had taken it through to its logical conclusion and wanted to go out on a high. I guess aggregating all these things together - plus the fact that we are living in such interesting times means that I am looking forward to Build more than I did last year. Much more. You know, I just want to go there stay up in Reading for a few days and just have fun with people who genuinely want to make the world better. Now whether you are joining it virtually, or have the opportunity to attend in person I could go on about Build being the bellwether and all that. I could reiterate what I said in the blog last year. But really? Come and have fun. Let's get behind the makers. My father had such a passion for carpentry that he used to say that when he retired he would do it full time. And he did. And you know what? It brought him so much joy. I love you dad.

12 features I would like to see land in Microsoft Teams in 2022

I was writing up an answer in the Microsoft Tech Community today when it struck me that Teams is nearly 5 years old. That's right - 5 years! Nearly as old as my son. Yet apart from feeling like time has gone by inexplicably fast - as you so often do as a parent, I also felt two things really brought home the fact that I am still incredibly invested in it. One - I still feel the best is yet to come: that even after five years of maturation we all know it can still be so much more than it is. And two, the longer I work with Teams the less I find myself concerned with the flash and more about the fundamentals; those little vital things which make it better to use on a day to day basis