SharePoint Saturday St. Louis 2018

Another great SharePoint Saturday is scheduled for St. Louis on January 20th and I’m so happy to be a speaker! I am giving two sessions at #SPSSTL, one on using on-prem data with cloud tools and the second one on using Microsoft Teams!

Check out the SPS St. Louis site for registration and details!

[UPDATE]
I had a fantastic time at the event and I can’t wait to connect with the attendees on follow-ups!

Oh, and I recorded two interviews with international speaker Erica Toelle and Microsoft MVP Mike Maadarani. Be on the lookout for posts on the videos!

Nashville SQL Saturday 2018

Join me at the largest SQL event in Middle Tennessee – Nashville SQL Saturday (#SQLSatNash) on January 13th, 2018.

I’m giving a session first thing in the morning – Using Your On-prem Data in a Cloud World. We will be looking at how you can use your data, wherever it is, with Microsoft’s cloud tools. During the session, I will do a live install and take you from the concept, all the way to being able to utilize on-prem SQL data in the cloud.

Event registration and info can be found on the site: Nashville SQL Saturday 2018 (SQLSat 698)

SharePoint Fest Chicago 2017

[UPDATE]
I had a great time spending my week with the attendees at SharePoint Fest Chicago! The #SPFest team always does a good job organizing the events and this time was no different.

I had a great group of attendees who filled the room during my Thursday session.

The group had questions galore and it was great to see the excitement of using on-prem data with the cloud tools. My slides are available to attendees via the event app.

Here are some questions and the links I have so far to provide answers to questions that were asked during the session:

Microsoft Flow Known Issues and Resolutions

Can you somehow monitor the Azure Service Bus for requests that are in wait?

What are the feature comparisons of SSRS vs. Power BI? What are the scenarios where you would use one vs. the other?

 

[Original Post]

I will be speaking at SharePoint Fest Chicago this year and I can’t wait to get back to the Windy City!

My presentation, Use Your On-premises Data with PowerApps, Power BI, and Microsoft Flow, is all about how you can use your organization’s data with cloud tools. We will setup a data gateway, connect to on-premises data sources, and discuss how to use that data in Office 365 to create rich business solutions.

I am really looking forward to attending several sessions, including the keynote by Dan Holme [Twitter], Director of Product Marketing (SharePoint & Yammer) Microsoft – Accelerating your digital transformation with SharePoint and Microsoft 365. Dan will be sharing with us which tool to use when” and “where to share” – which should be a really good conversation!

 

 

 

Blockers for Moving to Office 365 with Vlad Catrinescu

There is a big push to get organizations to adopt Office 365 and many are encountering challenges with moving their existing processes “to the cloud.” I recently spoke with Vlad Catrinescu [Blog – Twitter], Microsoft MVP and author, about these challenges and his experience in overcoming them.

01:01 Challenges organizations are facing
01:31 Customization in SharePoint
02:00 Rewriting code
02:19 Regulations
03:16 Release schedule
05:01 How to mitigate challenges
06:36 IT Pro job changes
08:28 Training materials need to change

Security Depends on You in Office 365 with Liam Cleary

Microsoft’s Office 365 has built-in features that provide physical, logical, and data security for organizations large and small. While in San Francisco, I sat down with Liam Cleary [Blog – Twitter], Microsoft MVP and popular technology speaker to discuss implications of the impending GDPR legislation, as well as Office 365 security overall.

02:06 GDPR changes now affect any organization that works with any European organization
02:28 Office 365 requirements
02:59 Missing answers
03:01 When it comes to content, Microsoft [has] all the tools that you need
03:33 If haven’t implemented those tools….
04:38 GDPR dashboard
04:49 PNP dashboard – LINK
06:04 Security Compliance Center
07:31 The onus is still on you
08:00 It’s unbelievably simple
09:22 Common sense settings
10:42 You can grow into what you want it to be
11:18 Training is needed
12:06 Genie out of a bottle

IT/Dev Connections 2017

[UPDATED]

It was a great week in San Francisco! The #ITDEVConnections conference is a high-quality event that focuses on real-world technical sessions and the conference delivered. Both of my sessions had good participation from attendees – I enjoyed answering questions and getting to know everyone.

My first session topic was how you can plan and execute a transition from SharePoint Designer workflows to Microsoft Flow. The slides are available via the IT/Dev Connections website, but there was a question regarding the functionality gaps between Designer and MS Flow – in the session I mentioned a website to keep track of the gaps and here is the link: https://ms.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/release-notes/#known-issues-and-resolutions

I also mentioned in the session that you can signup for the PowerApps Community Plan to gain access to PowerApps and Microsoft Flow for free.

On the same day as my first session, I participated on an expert panel discussion where we answered questions from attendees and via the moderator, Liam Cleary.

In my second session we looked at the business intelligence options in SharePoint, as well as Power BI. One of the great BI additions in SharePoint Online capabilities is column formatting that is currently rolling out. I demonstrated how you can easily use JSON code to style and enhance list views and how that can make a huge difference for your users.

There was also a great deal of conversation and questions from the attendees on how to share Power BI content and what licenses are required for sharing. As I stated in the session and is mentioned in the following article, “…to share a dashboard you need a Power BI Pro license, or the content needs to be in a Premium capacity.” If you have any questions or your organization needs help with Power BI implementation, please do reach out to me so we can get you started with secure collaboration and data insights: Contact Page

[ORIGINAL POST BELOW]
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 2ad4th, 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!

 

Talking SharePoint Management Console at SPS Charlotte with Cory Williams

I sat down with Cory Williams [Twitter] at SharePoint Saturday (SPS) Charlotte to get his thoughts on Office 365 administration. Cory is one of the organizers of SPS Charlotte and was a speaker as well!

00:44 Pay attention to the Office 365 Message Center
01:17 Shameless plug for the REgarding 365 web show Office 365 Message Center: The week that was
01:47 New SharePoint Console
02:04 More dates please!
02:35 Release schedule – when are new features showing up in my Office 365 tenant
02:44 Reminders for new features and changes
03:36 Let’s tie Microsoft Flow into the Office 365 Message Center

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.

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.