September 2017 Content Wrap-Up

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Reporting live from the #MSIgnite 2017 keynote

So much content, and so many activities in September that it feels like I haven’t slept in weeks. Because I haven’t. And it’s not going to improve any time soon, as I depart tomorrow morning for a 3-week road trip to Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town South Africa, followed by a couple days hanging out with Dux (@meetdux) in Richmond, Virginia. And then I’m for a day (!) before departing for #SPSTC (Minneapolis). But more on travel plans in a minute.

Reporting live during MSIgnite 2017Since the list below is so long, I’ll keep the summary short: As you are probably aware, Microsoft Ignite happened this past month, and I was one of 10 MVP Community Reporters invited to provide interviews and panel coverage of the event, including an all-day live program on Day 1, which included the vision keynotes. While I did not get my selfie on the main stage with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (I’m still working on that…maybe during MVP Summit next spring?), it was an amazing experience getting to know some of the fantastic folks who make these events happen, as well as get to hang out with some of my favorite fellow-MVPs. I also ran daily #CollabTalk tweetjams, which was a TON of work to make happen, which were sponsored by AvePoint, Colligo, the Microsoft SCCM team, and, of course, the team at tyGraph.

Believe it or not, I was involved in other, non-Ignite activities, as well. Lots happening with AvePoint last month and this month, with a bunch of new videos and blog posts on their way. I also hosted two CollabTalk webinars in September: one around marketing best-practices, entitled “7 Steps to Amplify Your Brand” which you can find on-demand below, as well as a fun session with Tom Duff (@duffbert) where we went head-to-head in the first of many webinars where we share our favorite productivity solutions for Microsoft Office and Office 365. We’ll be presenting together on this same topic (but with different tips) at SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities on October 29th, so if you’re planning to attend, please join our session! I’m positive it will be both fun and informative.

Hanging out with Paul Thurrot and Mary Jo Foley at MSIgniteOk, let’s get into the content. I tried to organize things below so that they made sense — lots of video content to watch, but whether or not you attended Ignite, you should find some value out of this video content. Enjoy!

Microsoft Ignite Content

Prior to the event, I began recording live streams via Periscope and Facebook as a way to share some of my thoughts and planning for the event, and to collaborate with fellow attendees on what they were looking forward to at the event:

Fun with the Community Reporters team at MSIgniteWhile at Ignite, I tried to grab time with various Microsoft people and MVPs, and recorded  number of interviews — some one-on-one, but a couple with one of my fellow MVPs and Community Reporters, Sue Hanley:

Seth Juarez, Alistair Pugin and I at MSIgniteBelow are a number of the videos from my Community Reporter activities — some captured by me, others as part of the official Microsoft studio crew. It was a fantastic opportunity, and I hope to participate next year when Ignite returns to Orlando:

Jeff Teper at MSIgniteFrom the Community Reporter desk at MSIgniteThe idea for running five #CollabTalk tweetJams during #MSIgnite was well-intentioned and were aligned with the daily themes of the conference (Data, Cloud, Office, and Windows) but wow, it was a lot of work! I’m not sure I will attempt this again next year without more help and commitments from other participants. The Day 1 tweetjam was kind of rough, as we struggled with the wifi (surprise surprise) and did not have the turnout that we had hoped, but we still managed to have some good discussions. One Day 2, we were joined by Julia White to discuss Azure/Cloud security, and on Wednesday we were visited by Jeff Teper to discuss SharePoint, OneDrive, and Yammer. The biggest turnout, not surprisingly, was Wednesday’s topic on Office productivity and automation — but that’s been our core audience for almost 6 years. Thank you again to our sponsors and all of those who participated!

Dan Holme at MSIgniteAnd yes, I did have an actual session at Ignite, talking about the results from the CollabTalk and BYU Marriott School study around hybrid SharePoint:

Content that was NOT about Ignite

In September, I was able to record some new #DigitalSackLunch in-depth interviews, as well, and you should see more of these in the next month:

CherPoint t-shirts on Mike and Anna at MSIgniteAnd yes, I am still writing a lot of content….much of it is just behind-the-scenes for customers. I have quite a few partially-written blog posts that I need to complete and push out, many of them part of the “365 in 365” challenge I am doing around Microsoft 365. Check out the latest content below:

Having fun with my fellow MVPs at MSIgniteAnd finally, I wanted to include some of the most recent mentions from others within the community. I always appreciate the shout-outs, so please let me know if you’ve quoted one of my talks or articles, and I will definitely promote your links:

Dan Stevenson and Karuana Gatimu at MSIgniteAnd THAT is my wrap-up for September. I’m on a flight tomorrow morning to Atlanta, and from there over to Johannesburg for 3 weeks on the road…which I have not done for years. I am looking forward to once again attending and speaking at SharePoint Saturday events in Durban on October 7th, Johannesburg on the 14th, and then Cape Town on the 21st. In-between, I’ll be spending time with Warren Marks (@markswazza) and the AvePoint team in South Africa to speak at partner events and visit customers around the country, which I’m sure will be an amazing experience. Looking forward to visiting that beautiful country again. And then I’m back in the US on the 23rd, spending a couple days in Richmond with Dux to conduct a workshop around Groups and Teams adoption, courtesy of the Richmond, Virginia SharePoint User Group, before heading home (to do some laundry) and then fly to Minneapolis to visit my daughter and her husband, and speak at SPSTC.com

See you on the road!

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Christian Buckley

Christian is a Microsoft Regional Director and M365 Apps & Services MVP, and an award-winning product marketer and technology evangelist, based in Silicon Slopes (Lehi), Utah. He is a startup advisor and investor, and an independent consultant providing fractional marketing and channel development services for Microsoft partners. He hosts the weekly #CollabTalk Podcast, weekly #ProjectFailureFiles series, monthly Guardians of M365 Governance (#GoM365gov) series, and the Microsoft 365 Ask-Me-Anything (#M365AMA) series.