Takeaways from #SharePoint Conference North America (#SPC18)

The big news this week within the SharePoint and broader Office 365 community is, of course, that the SharePoint Conference is back in Las Vegas this week, with ‘SharePoint Conference North America’ kicking off today in coordination with the SharePoint Virtual Summit. While being run by a 3rd party team in coordination with and sponsored by Microsoft, it is the world’s largest SharePoint-focused technology event, and is taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as the 7th SPC event since 2006. The Virtual Summit is in it’s 3rd year, and this morning’s keynotes were live streamed — and are available on-demand following the same link. There has been a lot of anticipation around this conference, as the SharePoint community has been clamoring for their own event again since the various individual product events were consolidated into what is now Microsoft Ignite, taking place again this fall in Orlando, Florida.

In this month’s CollabTalk tweetjam, we will be discussing “Deconstructing SPC18 and the SharePoint Virtual Summit” to give us all an opportunity to share our takeaways from the various announcements, sessions, and social activities from those here in Las Vegas, or who participated in the virtual activities from afar. Join us on Friday, May 25th at 8am Pacific / 5pm CEST via Twitter and the #CollabTalk hashtag using your favorite Twitter dashboard (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Buffer, etc) to take part in the dialog. Come join in on yet another great online discussion!

The keynote / virtual summit was divided into the six pillars upon which Microsoft is developing SharePoint as a platform: sharing and working together, informing and engaging with employees, harnessing collective knowledge, transforming business processes, extending and developing on SharePoint, and protecting and managing information. There were announcements made around each area — and we hope you’ll share your thoughts on the hits, and misses, of this event!

You do not need to be an “expert” to participate in the online conversation, and can ask questions, comment on the questions posed, or just “lurk” in the background. These online discussions are open to anyone — you do not have to be on the panel to participate.

This month’s tweetjam is once again being sponsored by our good friends at tyGraph.

If you have never participated in one of the tweetjams, it’s pretty simple: anyone can jump in and share their thoughts, or watch from 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. How it works is that 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 and #SPC18 hashtags 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, re-tweet others, and engage with the audience.

The questions we will discuss during this month’s tweetjam include:

1. What was the biggest announcement made during the week, and why?
2. Was there anything not discussed that you expected Microsoft to talk about?
3. Did you pay attention to partner and vendor announcements, and if so, what caught your attention?
4. Based on what you learned this week, what will be the impact to your business?
5. What sessions or speakers do think people need to pay particular attention to from this event, and why?
6. What were the top 3 hits – and top 3 misses – for #SPC18 and the Virtual Summit?
7. As the SharePoint continues to thrive and grow, what can the organizers (and sponsors) do to support and improve the community?

Our panel this month will continue to expand, but the folks who have confirmed so far include:

• Bill Baer (@williambaer), senior technical product manager at Microsoft
• Tom Resing (@resing), senior content developer, modern assistance and support experience at Microsoft
• John White (@diverdown1964), SharePoint MVP and cto at UnlimitedViz Inc.
• Max Fritz (@TheCloudSherpa), identity management, Office 365, AzureAD, and SharePoint expert at Now Micro
• Chris Johnson (@LoungeFlyZ), co-founder and cto at Hyperfish
• Tobiasz Koprowski (@KoprowskiT), Data Platform MVP, independent consultant
• Ruven Gotz (@ruveng), SharePoint MVP, technology & innovation director at Avanade
• Antonio Maio (@antoniomaio2), SharePoint MVP and senior SharePoint architect at Protiviti
• Liz Sundet (@percusn), Microsoft MVP, platonic friend to ferns everywhere
• Ed Senez (@edsenez), president at UnlimitedViz and TyGraph
• Theresa Eller (@SharePointMadam), SharePoint consultant at Constellation Solutions
• Nicolas Georgeault (@ngeorgeault), machine learning specialist, Office Servers & Services MVP, and founder of MuBrain
• Scott Restivo (@crowcanyonsw), ceo of Crow Canyon Software
• Jordi Plana (@joplana), founder and ceo of Beezy
• David Leveille (@crushnetworks), president of Crush Networks, Inc.
• Joel Oleson (@joeloleson), Microsoft Regional Director and senior IT manager at Blizzard Entertainment
• Ryan Schouten (@ShrPntKnight) Office Servers & Services MVP, senior SharePoint architect and evangelist at ZAACT
• Dean Swann (@sdeanswann), social collaborator, growth hacker and product manager for UnlimitedViz
• Drew Madelung (@dmadelung), SharePoint and Office 365 MVP and architect at Concurrency Inc.
• Nick Brattoli (@Byrdttoli), founder and lead consultant at Byrdttoli Enterprise Consulting
• Stacy Deere-Strole (@sldeere), SharePoint MVP and owner of Focal Point Solutions
• Martina Grom (@magrom), co-founder of atwork.at, Office 365 MVP and Microsoft Regional Director
• Sean McDonough (@spmcdonough), SharePoint MVP and chief technology officer at BitStream Foundry LLC
• Alistair Pugin (@alistairpugin), SharePoint MVP and productivity evangelist at Britehouse
• Vlad Catrinescu (@vladcatrinescu),SharePoint and Office 365 MVP, speaker, and author
• Brian Culver (@SPbrianculver), SharePoint MCM and founder, president of Expert Point Solution
• Eric Riz (@rizinsights), SharePoint MVP and ceo of Empty Cubicle
• Patrick Curran (@pcfromdc), director, federal group at Planet Technologies
• Erica Toelle (@ericatoelle), evangelist at Record Point
• Paul Swider (@pswider), cto at RealActivity and enterprise SharePoint strategist
• Randy Drisgill (@drisgill), SharePoint MVP and branding and design expert at Rackspace
• Maarten Visser (@mvisser), founder and product manager at Meetroo, business architect at Connected Services
• Barry Jinks (@BJinks), founder and ceo at Colligo
• Kanwal Khipple (@kkhipple), Office 365 MVP and founder of 2toLead
• Juan Carlos Gonzalez Martin (@jcgm1978), SharePoint MVP, co-director of the magazine CompartiMOSS, consultant and solution architect at LKS
• Adam Levithan (@collabadam), Office 365 MVP and senior product manager at Exostar
• Sebastien Levert (@sebastienlevert), Office365 MVP and specialist in Azure, SharePoint, and O365
• Sascha Fredrich (@saschaF80), IT consultant of Microsoft solutions at bei Bechtle AG
• Marius Constantinescu (@c_marius), Office Servers and Services MVP and managing consultant at blue-infinity
• Virgil Carroll (@vcmonkey), head monkey at High Monkey
• Nikkia Carter (@ladygwenavear), director of collaboration and training at C3 Integrated Solutions
• Raphael Koellner (@ra_koellner), Office Servers & Services MVP, consultant at Bechtle IT-Systemhouse Cologne
• Jonathan McKinney (@ucomsgeek), senior unified communications architect, Skype for Business MVP, and Lync Certified Master at Time2Market
• and your host, Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Microsoft Regional Director & MVP, cmo at revealit.io, and the founder & ceo of CollabTalk LLC

If you missed the keynotes, be sure to watch them on-demand here.

And as always, anyone and everyone is invited to the online discussion. And thank you again to tyGraph for your support of this CollabTalk tweetjam! If you are interested in being a sponsor of a future tweetjam, please contact me at CollabTalk.com