Reactions to the SharePoint Virtual Summit

Like many of you, I’ll be watching tomorrow’s SharePoint Virtual Summit event, which takes place from 10am until 1pm(ish) PDT (UTC –7:00) and am excited to hear more about Microsoft’s plans for the next year. After the May 4th, 2016 event in San Francisco, in some ways re-launching the SharePoint brand (well, giving it a much-needed adrenaline shot in the arm), expectations have been growing for this year’s announcements. When I spoke with Microsoft Corporate VP Jeff Teper (@JeffTeper) a little over a week ago, he told me that while there may not be any huge surprises from the event tomorrow, he shared that 2017 could be an even bigger year for SharePoint than last year. For those of you watching the product roadmap closely, you know that its been an almost-constant stream of evolutionary innovation to the platform – and we’ve heard that Microsoft is already starting the planning cycle for the next on-prem version of the platform. In short – don’t miss the virtual summit tomorrow!

Here’s how Microsoft describes the event, which includes a keynote, customer showcase and technical breakouts, and Q&A with Microsoft executives:

At this year’s SharePoint Virtual Summit—a free, online event on May 16, 2017—you’ll learn how to create a connected workplace in Office 365 with OneDrive and SharePoint and integrated with Yammer, Microsoft Teams, Windows, PowerApps and Microsoft Flow. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jeff Teper will unveil the latest product innovations and roadmap. You’ll also hear from industry-leading customers on how they are leveraging these technologies as part of their digital transformation. Jeff will be joined by Microsoft corporate vice presidents James Phillips and Chuck Friedman to discuss how Office 365, connected with Windows and Azure, is reinventing productivity for you, your teams and your organization.

To give the community a platform to discuss what we hear about on Tuesday, this month’s #CollabTalk TweetJam will focus on “Feedback on the SharePoint Virtual Summit” and will be held on Wednesday, May 17th at 9am Pacific using Twitter and the #CollabTalk hashtag, or through our dedicated tweetjam site at http://twubs.com/CollabTalk. This month’s tweetjam is sponsored tyGraph.

If you’ve never participated in one of these tweetjams, it's pretty simple: You don’t need an invitation – just jump in and share your thoughts, or lurk in the wings and absorb the wisdom of the crowd. Either way, it’ll be a TON of content to consume in a single hour. You can follow the live session using the Twitter UI of your choice (Twitter.com, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twubs, whatever).

How it works: I’ll post a series of questions every few minutes, and people will respond to Q1, Q2, Q3 and so forth with A1, A2, A3, always including the #CollabTalk hashtag with their answers. Feel free to reply as often (or as little) as you’d like, ask your own follow up questions, share relevant links, retweet others, and engage with the audience.

Questions we plan to ask:

1. What were the Top 3 highlights of the SharePoint Virtual Summit?
2. With the recent OneDrive updates, will organizations adopt?
3. What is the impact of the SharePoint Framework coming to SharePoint on-prem?
4. Similar question — What is the impact of PowerApps for on-prem?
5. Will the new Communication sites impact your intranet plans? If so, how?
6. With new features and integrations with SharePoint, what is the future of Yammer?
7. Will the new administrative experiences help build confidence in moving to the cloud?
8. In your opinion, was there anything missing from the SharePoint Virtual Summit announcements?

Be sure to participate tomorrow, and then bring your feedback to the online discussion on Wednesday! As always, there will be side-questions, side-conversations, and wise-cracking throughout. The dialog is usually thought-provoking but also fun. Participating on this panel are a number of Microsoft Regional Directors and MVPs, as well as experts and influencers from the Microsoft ecosystem (and beyond). This event is always open to the public, so please join in the discussion! Our panelists this month include:

• Dan Holme (@danholme), director of product marketing at Microsoft
• Michelle Caldwell (@shellecaldwell), Microsoft RD and MVP, north america digital workplace lead at Avanade
• Stefan Bauer (@StfBauer), Office Development MVP, information architect and UX consultant
• Paul Keijzers (@kbworks), SharePoint and Office 365 specialist with Wortell
• Chris McNulty (@cmcnulty2000), senior product manager at Microsoft (and still here)
• Chris Slemp (@cslemp), Office Servers and Services MVP and director of strategy at CarpoolAgency
• Jussi Roine (@jussiroine), Microsoft Regional Director, SharePoint MCM and MVP, chief architect at Onsight
• Joel Oleson (@joeloleson), director of strategy and innovation at Konica Minolta
• Wictor Wilen (@wictor), SharePoint MCA, MCSM and MCM, MVP, and director, digital employee experience at Avanade
• Marius Constantinescu (@c_marius), Office Servers and Services MVP and managing consultant at blue-infinity
• Maarten Visser (@mvisser), chief storyteller at Meetroo
• Andrew Connell (@andrewconnell), SharePoint MVP, and founder, instructor, chief puppeteer at Voitanos LLC
• Thomas Vochten (@thomasvochten), Microsoft MVP and SharePoint architect at Xylos
• Paul Schaeflein (@paulschaeflein), Office 365 MVP and enterprise architect with Allegient
• Jim Ehrenberg (@LASharePointPro), SharePoint architect and consultant with SharePoint Pros
• Ted Green (@efgreen), ceo and SharePoint architect at Green IT Consulting
• Ruven Gotz (@ruveng), SharePoint MVP, technology & innovation director, northeast at Avanade
• Mo Omar (@muhanado), chief architect at Microsoft
• Eric Overfield (@ericoverfield), Microsoft Regional Director, SharePoint MVP, and founder of PixelMill
• Alistair Pugin (@alistairpugin), SharePoint MVP and productivity evangelist at Britehouse
• Paul Stork (@pstork), SharePoint MVP and MCM, principal architect at BlueChip
• Noah Sparks (@noahsparks), community igniter and strategy manager at Brainstorm
• Antonio Maio (@antoniomaio2), SharePoint MVP and senior SharePoint architect at Protiviti
• Roberto Yglesias (@robertoy), business technology director at Buildingi
• Bradley Geldenhuys (@bradgcoza), founder and ceo of GTconsult, ice cream fanatic
• Scott Restivo (@crowcanyonsw), ceo of Crow Canyon Software
• Jennifer Mason (@jennifermason), SharePoint MVP and director of innovation & strategic solutions at Planet Technologies
• Eli Robillard (@erobillard), SharePoint MVP, musician, fly-fisher, collaboration technology guy
• Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), Office 365 MVP and director of collaboration and social business at Rightpoint
• Dean Swann (@sdeanswann), social collaborator, growth hacker and product manager for UnlimitedViz
• Heather Newman (@heddanewman), co-founder and cmo of ContentPanda
• Stacy Deere-Strole (@sldeere), SharePoint MVP and owner of Focal Point Solutions
• Ed Senez (@edsenez), president at UnlimitedViz and TyGraph
• John Peluso (@johnconnected), vice president of product management at AvePoint
• Jeremy Thake (@jthake), vp of product technology at Hyperfish
• Rob Windsor (@robwindsor), .NET/SharePoint developer and MVP, trainer, and author
• Oliver Wirkus (@OWirkus), Office 365 MVP and senior SharePoint consultant at Softlanding
• David Drever (@DavidMDrever), SharePoint MVP and SharePoint services lead at Solvera Solutions 
• Sean McDonough (@spmcdonough), SharePoint MVP and chief technology officer at BitStream Foundry LLC
• Hans Brender (@hansbrender), Office Servers and Services MVP, consultant at BitTitan
• D'arce Hess (@darcehess), Office Servers and Services MVP, strategic advisor at AvePoint
• Simeon Cathey (@simeoncathey), ceo and co-founder of ContentPanda
• Vlad Catrinescu (@vladcatrinescu),SharePoint and Office 365 MVP, speaker, and author
• Sebastien Levert (@sebastienlevert), Office365 MVP and specialist in Azure, SharePoint, and O365
• Talbott Crowell (@talbott), founder and chief solutions architect at ThirdM
• Isaac Stith (@MrIsaac), solution developer at WWC Software Solutions
• Robert Toro (@SharePointToro), SharePoint practice director at Slalom
• Doug Hemminger (@DougHemminger), SharePoint MVP and evangelist with SPR Consulting 
• Christina Wheeler (@cwheeler76), SharePoint consultant, trainer and developer with CM Portal Solutions
• David Willis (@Exclaimer), senior marketing executive at Exclaimer
• Scott Restivo (@CrowCanyonSW), ceo at Crow Canyon Software
• Kipp Sorenson (@kbes), SharePoint consultant at Soren Innovations
• Melinda Morales (@trulymelinda), solution consultant at 3Sharp
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle
• John White (@diverdown1964), SharePoint MVP and cto at UnlimitedViz Inc.
• Randy Drisgill (@drisgill), SharePoint MVP and branding and design expert at Rackspace
• Gokan Ozcifci (@gokanozcifci), Microsoft Regional Director, SharePoint MVP, and IT infrastructure consultant at Neoxy
• Nikkia Carter (@carterMcGServ), ceo at CMW LLC and tech speaker
• Brian Culver (@SPbrianculver), SharePoint MCM and founder, president of Expert Point Solution
• Michael Greth (@mysharepoint), Microsoft MVP, SharePoint and Office 365 specialist, podcaster and speaker
• Erica Toelle (@ericatoelle), evangelist at Record Point 
• Patrick Curran (@pcfromdc), director, federal group at Planet Technologies
• Ryan Schouten (@ShrPntKnight) senior SharePoint architect and evangelist at ZAACT
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Office Servers and Services MVP, founder & ceo of CollabTalk LLC

If you’re an expert and would like to join our panel, please drop me a line. Otherwise, everyone is invited – and I’ll see you online this Wednesday. And if you can’t make the time – don’t worry. I’ll capture the entire discussion in Storify and post the link to feed via @buckleyplanet, so watch for updates.

And thank you once again to this month's sponsor – tyGraph!