December 2020 Content Wrap-Up

December was a big month. In the midst of preparing for a new partnership announcement and a major CollabTalk service launch, I got a phone call the first Wednesday of the month, which turned into a formal job offer a few days later, and here I am now 3 weeks later in a new job with AvePoint. I’ve had to quickly shut down a couple projects, bringing in help with two clients, and abruptly shelving that service launch. You can read more about the role in the links below, but from a community activity standpoint — I’m not going anywhere. If anything, I’ll have more time to write about topics of personal interest here on the buckleyPLANET blog. We’re still figuring out a few of the details for the Office Hours live stream and Productivity Tips webinar series, but most other things remain unchanged. In January 2021 we kick off our 10th year of the CollabTalk TweetJam, and a handful of new MVP interviews. Looking forward to the new adventure, and sharing some of the details as things progress.

As for December activities, I kicked off the month with a GlobalCon4 panel discussion and Exclaimer webinar, both looking at impacts of the Work From Home (WFH) movement and COVID-19, and both recordings available below. The Office Hours ran each Monday at 8am Pacific, with the panel answering 15-20 questions from the community within each recording. And Tom and I held our 26th webinar in the Productivity Tips series, which means we’ve shared 260 tips to date — that is quite the accomplishment, if I don’t say so myself! And then, of course, to round out the month, I started the new job on the 21st, we had Christmas and New Years, and here I am compiling my monthly summary blog post, thinking about the upcoming month.

In January, I’ll once again host the CollabTalk TweetJam, although details have not yet been set, and Dux and I have a webinar scheduled toward the end of the month. We’re reconfiguring the Office Hours and Productivity Tips formats, so I don’t have dates to share just yet, but they’ll both be back this month or next. I’m also planning to increase the volume on the expanded tips blog posts on this site, providing more detailed walk-throughs of each of the tips that I share (and maybe some of Tom’s tips) with resource links. I’ve been wanting to do more of that kind of content, and plan to make time starting this month. So watch for that. Here’s the (published) content that I produced last month:

GlobalCon4 Panel

The Collab365 crew put on some of the best online events, and I was happy to participate once again. The call for speakers for GlobalCon5 is still open, if you’re interested in presenting. I’m thinking about it, too.

• GlobalCon4 panel discussion on the WFH impacts due to COVID (on-demand recording) [Facebook]

Exclaimer webinar and email signatures as a marketing tool

I’ve worked with Exclaimer a few times in the last couple years, and was invited to participate in a webinar focused on remote working. You can find the recording and slides below, as well as a follow-up article I posted to LinkedIn that covers the oft-missed opportunity of email signatures as a marketing tool. Check it out.

• A “Missed Opportunity”​ in Digital Marketing [LinkedIn]
• The Importance of Email Signature Management for Remote Working (on-demand webinar recording) [BrightTALK]
• Microsoft 365 Email Signature Management in the Age of Remote Working [SlideShare]

New job at AvePoint

The big news of the month, for sure. I’m sure it took a few folks by surprise, but it shouldn’t, really. AvePoint have been a client and partner for years, and we’ve been talking about possible roles for almost a year. Looking forward to sharing more…and while writing/speaking/evangelizing is not in my job description, per se, I’ll be adding to the company blog and participating in online and in-person events on a regular basis.

• Ending 2020 with a Change [LinkedIn]
• Joining AvePoint [buckleyPLANET]
• Microsoft Regional Director (RD), Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and Collabtalk Founder Christian Buckley Joins AvePoint As Microsoft Go-To-Market Director [AvePoint]
• Mentions on PRnewswire and CHANNELe2e, which Yahoo! Finance also shared (image on right)

The big end-of-year CollabTalk TweetJam

I thoroughly enjoy these huge end-of-year tweetjams because it’s a great opportunity to hear from a huge cross-section of MVPs and experts about the topics that they thought were the biggest news stories of the past years — and share their predictions for the coming year. This event did not disappoint. I’m still combing through the responses, all captured within the tyGraph Power BI report, and plan to provide a summary blog post on the AvePoint site next week. Following the tweetjam, I was able to grab time with fellow Microsoft Regional Director, and the Chief Product Officer at AvePoint, John Peluso (@JohnConnected) to hear his thoughts on each of the tweetjam questions.

• Community Musings and Predictions for Microsoft 365 [buckleyPLANET]
• Community Feedback on #Microsoft365 End-of-Year Predictions [buckleyPLANET]
• December 2020 #CollabTalk TweetJam Summary [YouTube]

The weekly Office Hours live stream

I can’t believe we’ve been live streaming this weekly show for 41 weeks now. We all thought it would be a temporary activity during the COVID quarantine, but at some point we all decided we were having too much fun, and to make it permanent. With my move to AvePoint, we’re going to change things around a little bit, but we’ll be back for more.

• Microsoft Community Office Hours, Episode 38 [buckleyPLANET | YouTube]
• Microsoft Community Office Hours, Episode 39 [buckleyPLANET | YouTube]
• Microsoft Community Office Hours, Episode 40 [buckleyPLANET | YouTube]
• Microsoft Community Office Hours, Episode 41 [buckleyPLANET | YouTube]

Productivity Tips

As I mentioned above, Tom Duff (@duffbert) and I completed out 26th webinar in the series, which will be moving underneath the AvePoint brand in 2021, so watch for the next time and date. In the meantime, Tom and I will continue blogging on the various tips we’ve shared within our webinars.

• Gathering Feedback with Polls in Microsoft Teams [buckleyPLANET]
• Transcribe Videos in Microsoft Word for the Web [buckleyPLANET]
• Microsoft 365 Productivity Tips “December Dust-Up” [buckleyPLANET]
• Microsoft 365 Productivity Tips “December Dust-Up” (on-demand webinar recording) [YouTube]
• Microsoft 365 Productivity Tips “December Dust-Up” [SlideShare]

Other Content from December

I have a few unfinished posts in the works which should see the light of day in January, but here are a few things that made it into the light:

• So New Wave, It Hurts Your Brain [buckleyPLANET]
• November 2020 Content Wrap-Up [buckleyPLANET]
• Poll: Top Microsoft 365 Security, Compliance, and Governance Concerns [Poll now closed]

To close out this month, I’d just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year! I hope you all have a safe and prosperous year. I’m looking forward to a few things this year, including an actual updated family photo (my MS Paint attempt to consolidate family members below). I’m looking forward this year to another daughter-in-law (March), a 2nd grandson (May), and a vacation (June…..IF travel is allowed by then). Ciao