Featured

Microsoft Ignite 2017

The Microsoft Ignite conference this year is being held in Orlando, Florida USA from September 25th – 29th. There will be tons of learning opportunities (1000+ hours) on topics ranging from IoT to Office 365 and SharePoint.  The week is a great time of networking, learning, and finding new opportunities to get plugged into the community.

I will be part of the REgarding 365 team doing various activities, including broadcasting live interactions with attendees, speakers, and experts from around the world.

I am also very happy to be presenting two sessions at Microsoft Ignite this year: How to use Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Office 2016 to achieve more and Create a compelling dashboard in 20 minutes. You can check out the sessions and add them to your schedule (login to MyIgnite to add the sessions to your schedule) by clicking the image below:

Microsoft Ignite Sessions
I hope you are able to join us in Orlando this year!

Memphis PASS User Group – September 14, 2017

On September 14th 2017, I will be speaking to the Memphis PASS User Group! I will present SharePoint Business Intelligence options, including out of the box features, Excel, and Power BI.

Find details on the topic, as well as register on the Meetup page.

[UPDATE]
Thank you to the great group tonight – I enjoyed presenting and I hope you will have me back to dive deeper into some of the technologies we discussed.

Here are my slides: Business Intelligence Using SharePoint and Power BI – Memphis PASS

There were a few questions during meeting that I answered but wanted to make sure I followed-up on them – the list of questions & my answers are below:

  1. There was a question about Microsoft Flow and if it was ‘on par’ with the features in SharePoint Designer for workflow. Here is the Known issues and resolutions page Microsoft is maintaining for Flow: https://ms.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/release-notes/#known-issues-and-resolutions
  2. When Adding a Power BI report to a modern SharePoint page, are filters and options taken into account when show on the page? Yes they are!
  3. Is the Power BI report show on a modern SharePoint page a snapshot of the visuals or live data? If live, how is the data refreshed? The visuals shown are ‘live’ and will be refreshed when the report is changed or data is refreshed (scheduled within the Power BI service).

Microsoft Ignite 2017 Mobile App

[UPDATE]
It has been confirmed that a mobile version for all mobile platforms will be coming!


——————————-
The Microsoft Ignite conference app has been updated to show the content for 2017. It really helps to keep your schedule and help with taking notes during sessions.

Make sure you install the latest update to the app on our phone (all screenshots below are from the iOS app).

MSIgnite App
MSIgnite App

You can view my first review of the app in the video below.

As I said in the video, I suggest your first action in the app be to check your profile settings. You can get access to your profile by selecting the menu in the top left and then selecting your name.

MSIgnite App Menu
MSIgnite App Menu

Within your profile, you can edit your details, view your session notes, and read your messages. Make sure your sharing options are set the way you want them to be by editing your settings.

App Profile Settings
App Profile Settings

#MSIgnite is happening September 25th – 29th in Orlando, Florida, USA. Conference details can be found on the MSIgnite site and in the app.

IT/Dev Connections 2017

Please join me in San Fransisco for IT/Dev Connections! I will be speaking on October 24th and 25th – I would love to have you join me.

On October 4th, I will be presenting Transition Your SharePoint Designer Workflows to Microsoft Flow and on the 25th my presentation will be all about Business Intelligence Using SharePoint and Power BI.

If you plan to be at the conference, please let me know so we can meet up!

You can register now and join us!

 

Solar Eclipse 2017

I am lucky enough to live in an area that was in the “path of totality” for the solar eclipse that took place August 21st, 2017. Being the largest city in the 100% coverage path, Nashville was expected to receive visitors from all over the world for the event and I had a front-row seat from my home!

The hour leading up to the event was plagued by clouds.


Thankfully, the clouds parted before the total eclipse happened so I could see it clearly and take some pictures!

This is a time-lapse video using my iPhone capturing the shadows and changes in light from before, during, and after the eclipse.

The pictures below were taken with a Canon Rebel with an EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III lens. Click the image for a larger version.

Right before totality - Solar Eclipse 2017
Right before totality – Solar Eclipse 2017
Explosion before totality - Solar Eclipse 2017
“Explosion” before totality – Solar Eclipse 2017
Totality - Solar Eclipse 2017
Totality – Solar Eclipse 2017
Return of the sun - Solar Eclipse 2017
Return of the sun – Solar Eclipse 2017
Clouds return - Solar Eclipse 2017
Clouds return – Solar Eclipse 2017

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Learn more about the #SolarEclipse event by visiting the NASA page.

Office 365 Msg Center: The week that was

Keeping up with all the features and updates to Office 365 can be overwhelming. Microsoft is doing a better job of giving you insight into what is coming to your environment by posting to the Message Center within the Office 365 Admin Center. But if you don’t check in with the message center often, you might miss something very important that has huge impact to you and your users. What about the announcements that aren’t even in the Message Center – how do you stay informed?

To help you be in the know, Darrell Webster and I will be going through the Message Center every week and giving you the information you need to know – Live! at 12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern Time. If you can’t join us live every week, you can always go back to see the recordings on our Youtube Channel. Please take a moment and subscribe to the RE:Office 365 channel so you know when we go live and when recordings are available.

Nashville Modern Excel & Power BI User Group August 2017

I will once again be joining the Nashville Modern Excel User group to speak. On August 17th I will be speaking on “Using Your On-prem Data in a Cloud World” – walking through the benefits of using your on-premises data with cloud-based tools such as Power BI, Microsoft Flow, and PowerApps.

Details can be found on the Nashville Modern Excel Meetup page.

[I will update this page after the meeting]