Upcoming Events

Back in 1993 I took on a side project as a technical writer to create instruction manuals and illustrated guides for ADT security devices. It was an interesting set of projects that allowed me to leverage some of my undergraduate design skills to create product packaging, as well as al of the necessary documentation for installing and configuring their security devices. Running through reviews with the client and some customers was very instructive about the technical writing process, and some of my takeaways have stuck with me throughout my career. One key takeaway: never assume that people know the basic steps.

That’s always a tough one. Even when presenting 200 or 300-level content to mostly technical audiences, you still need to provide some degree of background information on the product or service or solution that you are presenting. Years of presentations on SharePoint has shown this to be true. You want your audience to operate from the same baseline of understanding.

This week I will be joining fellow Office Apps & Services MVP Richard Harbridge (@rharbridge), CTO for 2toLead, to co-present on the topic of Microsoft 365 management best-practices. This is a great example of creating content while trying not to make assumptions bout our audience. The target audience members are administrators and managers of one or more workloads within the Microsoft 365 platform, but not everyone has our collection of backgrounds. What is remedial to you may be new to someone else. Participants may be familiar with one or more of the topics we’ll be covering, but most people will walk away with a better understanding of some of the management pitfalls and how to mitigate those risks.

Here’s our abstract:

The Biggest Microsoft 365 Management Mistakes (and how to solve them)

April 14th @ 11:00 am Eastern

There is excellent guidance on how to migrate your environment the right way or how to configure Microsoft 365 to work well. However, not a lot of guidance on the mistakes made and how to find your way out of those situations.

Understanding these things and how to manage Microsoft 365 services is a requirement for any IT Professional or leader working with Microsoft 365. Would you be surprised to know that there are many other things IT Professionals and leaders should know about Microsoft 365 but often don’t?

Join AvePoint Brand Alliance Director & Microsoft MVP + RD, Christian Buckley, & 2toLead CTO and Microsoft MVP, Richard Harbridge, as they go beyond Microsoft 365 fundamentals for IT Professionals and leaders and dig into the top 5 critical mistakes that many IT Professionals seem to make when it comes to managing Microsoft 365 and what you can be done about to avoid them.

In this webinar, Richard and Christian will tackle:

• • How do organizations keep pace with Microsoft?
  • How do organizations keep up with industry & organizational change?​
  • How should organizations best approach multi-tenant & multi-cloud?​
  • What are the top mistakes Microsoft 365 managers make?​
  • What tools should more Microsoft 365 managers leverage more?

Also on the 14th, I’ll be attending the SMB TechFest event in Irvine, California. Here’s a quick summary:

SMB TechFest Quarterly Conference & Expo

SMB TechFest is the quarterly technology conference to attend. It provides Solution Providers, MSPs, VARs, Cloud Partners, Security, Telecom, IT Pros, Application Partners and more with industry expert speakers and content. The Expo Hall is filled with leading Solutions and Products. The IT Mixer provides social mixing to gain leads and new partnerships for more projects together. The sessions contain subject matter experts and you will learn today’s latest technologies, best practices, marketing, sales, and more.

AvePoint will be attending as a sponsor, and after the morning webinar with Richard, I’ll spend the day in the expo hall meeting with partners and fellow sponsors. I’m really looking forward to getting back out into the field and meeting with people again.

For those not venturing out into the physical world just yet, there’s another #CollabTalk TweetJam on your horizon:

#CollabTalk TweetJam: Protecting Yourself and Your Data From Ransomware

The rate of growth of ransomware and other cyber attacks on our systems and data is growing at an alarming rate. One of the chief mistakes that organizations make is in thinking that because they use well-known and secure collaboration and communication platforms, like Office 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, etc. that they are secure. Unfortunately, there are still major risks out there for your data. Are you taking the necessary steps to mitigate these risks?

Join us on Thursday, April 28th as members of the community join together for another monthly #CollabTalk tweetjam to share stories and best practices on protecting your data from ransomware and other risks,

In May, I will once again participate in the IT Nation Evolve event taking place in Dallas, Texas. Here are the event details:

IT Nation Evolve Quarterly Event

IT Nation Evolve is a member-based community designed to help you find success in your personal and professional life. A team of coaches and consultants help you define and achieve measurable outcomes that will propel you to new heights. Through each service, you’ll walk away with the tools you need to build your business, and your legacy.

IT Nation Evolve is not anything like your typical IT-focused event. It’s really about developing and supporting peer groups and accountability for MSPs. As a Solution Provider partner and sponsor, our goal is to develop relationships with the members of these peer groups, sharing information about how our company (AvePoint) can help them reach their growth and service revenue goals. Really looking forward to attending my second event and further building out some of these new relationships.

Unfortunately, the IT Nation event in Dallas overlaps the EduCon Seattle (formerly SPFest) event, and again overlaps the EduCon Dallas event later this year. I was really hoping to attend all of those this year, but right now it looks like only EduCon Chicago works with my schedule. Hop to see y’all there!