The Office 365 Hours (#O365hours) Bi-Monthly Live Stream
I’ve long been a fan of the interview-style live stream format, and was happy to take over the Office 365 Hours (#O365hours) reigns from fellow MVP+RD and Chief Brand Officer at AvePoint, Dux Raymond Sy (@meetdux). We rebooted the series a couple months back, with twice-monthly interviews now running on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month, live streaming to LinkedIn and YouTube at 8am Pacific.
I’m building out the schedule for these 30-minute (roughly) interviews, drawing upon the MVP and RD communities, as well as from some of AvePoint’s Community Champions. Embedded below are the four most recent entries, as well as Dux’s last segment from last fall. There are quite a few out there on the AvePoint YouTube page on the playlists tab, and we do plan on recording a few additional segments outside of the twice-monthly schedule so that some of our APAC partners and friends can also participate.
#O365hours, not to be confused with #M365 Community Office Hours
For those who follow my blog, you’re aware that myself and a small band of fellow community folks are closing in on our 60th weekly episode of something called the “Microsoft 365 Community Office Hours.” Unlike the #O365hours series, this is very much a community-driven panel discussion in which we discuss the latest news from the Microsoft 365 Message Center, and answer (or at least attempt to answer) questions directly from the community. We draw upon several Facebook community pages including Teams, SharePoint, Azure, and Power Platform, as well as from the unanswered questions posed to the Microsoft Tech Community site. We also love to receive questions during the live stream, which lives on my personal profile but it shared at the start of each broadcast with some of these community pages. Additionally, this blog provides a detailed outline of every topic covered during our live streams, so feel free to search through this history — and send me any unanswered questions for next week’s show.
Episodes Now Available
And with that, here are the current episodes available on YouTube. If you have questions about any episode, or have an expert or topic to suggest, please connect with me via this page (comments are on) or through social.
#O365Hours: Building for the Employee Experience
In this most recent episode, I am joined by Sharon Weaver (@sharoneweaver), a fellow Microsoft Regional Director, and the Founder and CEO of Smarter Consulting based in Lenexa, Kansas. Sharon is a newer member of the AvePoint Community Champions, and a long-time SharePoint community member and event organizer. In this discussion, we talk about Microsoft’s expansion of the Microsoft 365 platform, the introduction of Microsoft Viva (#MicrosoftViva), and the importance of an end user or employee-focused development approach. Microsoft is talking more and more about M365 and Viva, specifically, as an experience management platform (#EXP). Sharon and I explore what that means, and where we think this space is going.
#O365Hours: Microsoft 365 Compliance
In this episode, I was able to grab some time with former Office Apps & Services MVP-turned-Microsoft-employee Erica Toelle (@ericatoelle), a Senior Product Marketing Manager for Records Management and Information Governance at Microsoft. Erica and I go waaaay back, having co-organized SharePoint Saturday events in Redmond and other western US states for a good portion of the last decade (before I moved to Utah). After a brief pitch of her new book “Microsoft 365 Compliance: A Practical Guide to Managing Risk” which is currently one of the leading titles in the Microsoft ecosystem, we explore some of the latest governance and compliance features and capabilities in Microsoft 365. If you own these areas at your company, definitely pick up her book — and check out this video!
And be sure to check out this great summary blog post by AvePoint’s Sherian Batalliones: Office 365 Hours: Getting Started with Information Governance and Records Management
#O365Hours: Collaboration Tech Benefits for Small/Emerging Businesses
In this episode, I was able to sit down with long-time SharePoint community leader, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Shadeed Eleazar (@mrshadeed), a Content and Software Licensing Strategist at Managed Path Solutions based in Baltimore, Maryland, and another AvePoint Community Champion. I met Shadeed back in 2009 when he was helping organize SharePoint Saturday events on the East Coast. For this discussion, we tapped into some of his entrepreneurial and philanthropic experiences to discuss Collaboration Technology Benefits for Small and Emerging Businesses. As experts, consultants, and Microsoft partners, we are sometimes so fixated on our enterprise clients that we ignore the needs of the long-tail within business: small to medium businesses, which drive a considerable portion of the global economy. Shadeed has worked closely with city governments and various partners to start and grow profitable businesses within this space. Definitely worth a watch.
#O365Hours: Evolving Microsoft 365 Analytics
On the topic of Evolving Microsoft 365 Analytics, including a discussion of what is coming with the new Microsoft Viva Insights, I connected with Ed Senez (@edsenez), President of UnlimitedViz Inc. and the makers of the popular tyGraph analytics solution for Microsoft 365. I always learn something when i connect with Ed, especially due to the rapid pace of change happening around Microsoft 365 analytics. Check it out:
Live! Office 365 Hours: How to Maximize Microsoft Stream
And finally, here is the final episode of the #O365hours series before I took over this year, with Dux Raymond Sy (@meetdux) having a discussion with fellow MVPs,and Community Champions Matt Wade (@thatmattwade), Co-Founder of JumpTo365, and Adam Levithan (@collabadam), Principal of Product Management at Withum Digital, as they discuss ”How to Maximize Microsoft Stream”! Be sure to check out the #O365hours playlist for more great topics!
And IF you would like to be notified of future #O365hours segments, be sure to go here and sign up for LinkedIn notifications! Thanks
