Microsoft 365 2024 Conference Discount Code

Formerly known as the SharePoint Conference, the Microsoft 365 Conference will be back in Orlando in May 2024, with three days of sessions and three days of workshops. The conference will be at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, Orlando, FL, from April 28, 2024 to May 03, 2024.

I will be speaking at the conference and you can use my discount code MAAD100 to get a $100 discount for each registration at the Microsoft 365 Conference.

Register today: https://m365conf.com/#!/register?utm_term=MAAD100

#m365conf #m365conf24 #microsoft365 #microsoftviva #spconf Microsoft Collaboration Conference SharePoint Conference

Microsoft Ignite 2023: SharePoint Premium

At this year’s Microsoft Ignite, it was brought forward that Microsoft Syntex has been evolving into a new content management and experience platform. This new platform, Microsoft Premium, combines the powerful features of SharePoint and Microsoft Syntex by integrating AI and machine training to understand content, processing, and compliance services to automatically classify and organize documents in an organization’s SharePoint library. Microsoft Premium will leverage Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), or content intelligence service, to transform data into knowledge. AI-driven solutions will not only prepare content for AI and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 but will also automate workflow at scale and empower users for greater productivity and collaboration.

Key SharePoint Premium Capabilities

Focused on content services and intelligence, the key capabilities of SharePoint Premium include:

  1. Content Processing

    SharePoint Premium is ready to tag, classify and secure documents, streamline workflows, and maximize content value through the use of AI-driven automation. This includes document processing and content assembly services, and eSignature capabilities, and it offers pay-as-you-go services for handling sensitive information and translation. By classifying, building, and tagging documents, content is being prepared for Copilot, the next-generation, productivity-transforming AI assistant.
  2. Content Experiences

    Productivity is enhanced by driving file collaboration and keeping content fresh and discoverable. Critical business document processes, including invoices, contracts, SOWs, and more, can be optimized, with workflow, AI, and security. These experiences will be elevated further with the integration of Microsoft Copilot into SharePoint Premium.
  3. Content Governance

    With simple but powerful tools, content creators and owners will manage content at scale, prevent oversharing, control access, and manage content lifecycle. To enhance security and compliance, tools such as Data Access Governance (DAG) insights, sensitivity labeling, and site access reviews are included with SharePoint Premium.

Key SharePoint Premium Features

The key features of SharePoint Premium include:

  1. Premium Content Centre

    The starting point of setting up and enabling SharePoint Premium is the creation of a content center. The content center is a special site for managing the Premium models, previously known as the Syntex Document Understanding Models. The content center will also provide the ability to integrate workflows and metadata while allowing configuration for compliant automation. Within the content centre, there is a model creation tool. The model creation tool provides the capability to teach SharePoint Premium to read and process documents in the same manner that a user would manually do so.

    These models are then used by SharePoint Premium to automatically recognize content, extract key and important information, and apply metadata tags. The effectiveness of each of the models is tracked by the integrated visual analytics in SharePoint Premium.
  2. Object Recognition

    By accessing a visual dictionary that contains thousands of commonly recognized objects, SharePoint Premium can automatically tag images. Additionally, it can recognize and convert handwritten text into tags. These tags are then used for further processing by the search engine.
  3. Document Understanding

    SharePoint Premium can be taught how to read content in the way that the organization wants it to be read. These AI models can be built without the use of code. SharePoint Premium can also automatically create or suggest metadata, attach compliance labels to enforce retention, invoke custom Power Automate workflows, or record management policies.

    Document understanding models are based on Language Understanding models in Azure Cognitive Services. As these models are managed and created in a SharePoint Premium content center, publishing, and updating models can be done in any library and any content center throughout SharePoint Premium.
  4. Form Processing

    Based on AI Builder, SharePoint Premium’s powerful forms processing engine will automatically recognize and extract common values from semi-structured or structured documents. Common values can include dates, names, figures, or addresses. These models are also built without code and require few documents to produce reliable results. Of note, this is separate from Machine Teaching models.
  5. Advanced Taxonomy Services

    Through SharePoint hub sites, shared content types can be published to Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. By publishing content types from the central gallery to hub sites, commonly used content types can be quickly and easily deployed and upgraded across broad sections throughout an organization when and as needed. The sites connected to the hubs will automatically receive updated content types as well as content that is being published. Enhanced with content understanding and flexibility, this is the fastest way to enhance the deployment of content.

Every organization’s success is dependent on the management, accessibility, and currency of its content. Content is the basis and result of collaboration between teams and individuals.  It drives customer satisfaction and corporate growth. But content can become overwhelming, lost, unruly, and useless if it is not managed correctly. With SharePoint Premium and AI assistance, the content will automatically have metadata inserted, documents will be tagged, sensitivity labels applied, lifecycle governance and security, and access managed to prevent oversharing. For users, ease of accessibility to the most current and valued content will ensure improved productivity, improved workflows, and faster delivery of deliverables. With content being prepped for Copilot, the future of SharePoint as the go-to cloud platform for collaboration and content management is becoming more and more exciting.

Join me at the Digital Workplace Conference 2024 in New Zealand!

The DW Conference is an in-person event taking place in Christchurch, NA to Seattle on February 27 and 28, with workshops on February 26 and 29! Registration is open and to secure your spot, register here: Registration – DWCNZ

I’m honored to be presenting 2 sessions and 1 workshop about Microsoft Search, SharePoint Premium and Power Apps, and the workshop on M365 Apps.


Session 1: Unleash Your Creativity: Design Power Apps Like a Pro with SharePoint Premium

Abstract: Transform your Power App design process and drive business results with data from SharePoint Premium. This AI-powered technology streamlines the data extraction process, providing you with the information you need to create custom Power Apps that meet the unique needs of your organization. With Power Apps, you can focus on designing the app that will deliver real business value, while it takes care of the technical details.

Time: Tuesday February 27 at 3:15 pm

Session 2: Transition from SharePoint Search to Microsoft Search

Abstract: Search in Microsoft 365 has been evolving for the past 2 years, transitioning from the classic SharePoint Search to a modern advanced Microsoft Search.
While we were able to customize classic search, we want to have the same experience in Modern Search and Modern SharePoint.

Time: Wednesday February 28 at 1:45 pm

Workshop: Practical Microsoft 365 use cases for power users

Abstract:

This Half Day Workshop provides practical productivity tips for:

• Using Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook, Teams, Viva Connections, Loop, Viva Engage, OneNote, Planner, To-Do, OneDrive, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Lists, and Power Automate

• You will learn how to best use the many apps we have in Microsoft 365, and what works best in different scenarios

• We will also go through how you can use multiple apps together to achieve your productivity goals and save time

• Hear what experts have seen work well for power users in other organizations

Time: Thursday February 29 at 1:00 pm


The full schedule of the conference is posted here: Agenda – DWCNZ

Microsoft 365 Collaboration Conference

You can save during registration by using this discount code: MAAD100.

Register here: https://m365conf.com/#!/register?utm_term=MAAD100

Formerly known as the SharePoint Conference, the Microsoft 365 Conference will be back in Orlando in May 2024, with three days of sessions and three days of workshops. The conference will be at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, Orlando, FL, from April 28, 2024 to May 03, 2024.

I will be speaking at the conference and you can use my discount code MAAD100 to get a $100 discount for each registration at the Microsoft 365 Conference.

Register today: https://m365conf.com/#!/register?utm_term=MAAD100

I will presenting one session and one workshop:

  1. Session 1: Get Started with Microsoft Copilot
  2. Workshop: The Ultimate M365 Copilot Workshop for End Users and Power Users

SPTechCon San Francisco

I am excited to announce that I am returning to speak at SPTechCon San Francisco on the week of February 17, 2020. SPTechCon is THE training, problem solving, and networking event for those who are working with SharePoint, OneDrive, and Office 365. This includes the varied uses and approaches to managing SharePoint; On-Premises (2013 thru 2019), Hybrid Variations, and SharePoint Online.

I will be delivering 2 sessions and a half-day workshop:

  1. Session # 1: SharePoint Classic to Modern Migration
    Abstract: Many organizations have used SharePoint classic with their on-premise version, or when they originally moved to Office 365. Many of us resist the change and do not intend to embrace the new SharePoint modern as quick as we want, with the fear of loss of functionalities in the modern UI. This session will cover the following topics to embrace the new SharePoint modern UI and what you need to do to get yourself ready for it:
    1. Differences between Classic and Modern
    2. Steps to moving into modern
    3. Developing in modern using SPFx
    4. Customizing your list with column and view formatting.
  2. Session # 2: Build an Intranet with modern SharePoint
    Abstract: Learn how to build a world class Modern Intranet by leveraging Office 365. Intranet should no longer be a single portal with multiple site, but it should span across multiple features and capabilities to deliver the platform you are looking for. Explore how to use Microsoft Teams, Modern SharePoint Team Sites and Communication sites, as well as Hub sites to create this unique modern site that can be glued all together to provide the future of the intranets.
  3. Workshop: OneDrive Deployment from Start to Finish
    Abstract: n this half-day workshop we will walk you through the key areas you need to know to help you deploy OneDrive to your organization and to enable collaboration within your team. We will cover key topics like how to best plan, deploy, upgrade, manage and secure OneDrive, how to use. The session will focus on:
    1. Why OneDrive
    2. Deploying your OneDrive Sync Client
    3. Automation
    4. Security
    5. Collaboration with SharePoint and Teams

This is a conference not to be missed! you can use my code MikeM20 to save $200 on your registration.

SPTechCon San Francisco 2020 Banner
SPTechCon San Francisco Banner

North American Collaboration Summit: April 2 – 4, 2020

I’m excited to announce that I will be presenting two sessions and facilitating a workshop at The North American Collaboration Summit (NACS) this spring from April 2nd through 3rd in Bronson, Missouri, USA (You can use my last name: Maadarani, to get a $50 discount). There is an additional and optional day of workshops that will take place on the 4th.  This is a must-attend conference. The session topics will be of interest to IT professionals, developers, business leaders, end-users, and generally, anyone who wants to expand their knowledge base. At this multi-day conference, the focus is on Microsoft: SharePoint, Microsoft 365 and Azure. Throughout the conference, you will learn how these three components and other Microsoft components come together to be the powerhouse that drives clear communication, collaboration, and organizational effectiveness throughout your organization.

The NACS is a unique conference as everyday users, implementors, and developers, such as  Microsoft MVPs, RDs, MCMs, and Microsoft employees, provide insights on how SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Flow, PowerApps, Azure, and Power BI provide real life, technological advantages when implemented into your organization. Ideas, collaboration, teaching, learning… there is so much to take in! There are over 60 speakers, 70 sessions in 7 tracks, over 400 expected attendees, and 10 countries being represented at this year’s conference.

Many of you are familiar with me as an Office 365 MVP, a Senior SharePoint Architect, Search and ECM expert, and all things SharePoint. Many of you also follow my blog and know I am greatly invested in SharePoint, Office 365, and Microsoft. This is why I am super excited that I will be providing two presentations and one full-day workshop at the NACS! Yes! A fullday workshop!!

The first session under the Administrator track is Best Practices to Manage Mergers and Acquisitions in Office 365. A common strategy in today’s business world is to grow organizations through mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions not only provide quick growth, but they allow companies to evolve quickly. With acquisitions, new markets open up for the parent company. Microsoft’s FastTrack program helps companies move to Office 365, but it does not address the complexity of combining and dividing Office 365 tenants and all the features associated with them. Currently, there is no tool in existence to address this or to make it a simple, straightforward migration.

Planning this type of merge and migration requires in-depth planning for features and platforms, including identity, security and compliance, mailboxes, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, power platform tools, planner, and so on. While some features are easier to move than others, it is important to pay close attention to details to proactively prevent issues further down the migration line.

In this session, we will examine real-life scenarios, how to prepare your organization for the migration and implementation, and how to smoothly achieve the goal with a well laid out plan. Join me for this 60-minute session, beginning at 1450h, on Thursday in Room 3!

The second session, under the Business Essentials track, is Build an Internet with Modern SharePoint.  Learn how to leverage Office 365 to build a world-class, modern intranet that spans across multiple features and capabilities, delivering an informative, dynamic, and collaboration-focused intranet to your end-users. This unique and modern site is created by combining flexible power and dynamic AI knowledge inherent in Microsoft Teams, Modern SharePoint Team Sites, Communication Sites, and Hub Sites.

This is going to be an exciting, knowledge-packed, and sneak peek into the future of modern intranets! Don’t miss this session on Friday, Room 5. We will begin at 1100h.

I am super excited that Noorez Khamis and I will be delivering a workshop together about Develop in Microsoft Teams Without Being a Developer! Noorez is also a Microsoft MVP in SharePoint and Office 365 technologies and currently is a Cloud Solutions Architect at Creospark.

This is going to be an incredible workshop! Wondering how the average IT Pro or Citizen Developer can create innovative and modern solutions on the Microsoft Teams platform? No more wondering because we will guide you through some of these processes. In this workshop, we will demonstrate how services in the Power Platform can be leveraged to deliver amazing end-user experiences. These Power Platform services include Microsoft Flow and Microsoft PowerApps. Best of all, it can be done with minimal coding!! We will also teach you how to leverage SharePoint Online lists and libraries as data sources to render amazing experiences in your tabs and apps. We will also address common scenarios building bots and adaptive cards.

Security and compliance are always at the forefront of our planning and implementation processes. During this workshop, we will review and address the issues on how to assign different policies in your tenant. We will also perform these tasks through the Security and Compliance settings as well as through the Teams Admin to show you how you can secure your organization’s Teams Deployment.

If this isn’t enough to get you excited and into your seat at our workshop, then let me entice you with this. You will leave our workshop not only with the knowledge already outlined, but you will have a better understanding of the Microsoft Teams apps, their capabilities, and how you can utilize and leverage these to easily create, propose, and implement your solutions. Don’t miss out on our workshop which begins at 0900h on Saturday in Room 2 and ending at 1700h.

I really can’t stress what a great Microsoft community event this will be! I’m looking forward to facilitating our workshop and speaking to you in the two sessions. But the only way I will see you is if you have registered! If you haven’t, then get to it! You can still register for The North American Collaboration Summit on their registration page (don’t forget to use Maadarani as the discount code to get $50 off).

See you there!!

SharePoint Fest Chicago 2019

I am excited to announce that I am returning to speak at SharePoint Fest Chicago on the week of December 2019. SP Fest is one of my favorite conferences; well organized, great crowd, and awesome speakers’ lineup, and I am really looking forward to connecting with friends and enjoy the city and its food. It is going to be a short visit for me, because I have to head out to Istanbul to deliver a Keynote for their annual SharePoint Saturday event.

In Chicago, I am delivering 3 sessions:

  1. Session # 1: The Evolution of SharePoint Enterprise Content Management to Content Services
    Abstract: Modern content management is essential in today’s world for organizations to increase the workforce collaboration and drive productivity. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is rapidly evolving into modern content services, where SharePoint Online and OneDrive are the center of the collaboration and content management.
    In this session, we will review the new feature of content services and the information management lifecycle, through creating, collaboration and securing your data in Office 365. This includes demoing ECM capabilities in modern SharePoint such as content types, bulk editing, retention policies, intake, etc., to make sure content management is easier than ever in the modern lists.
  2. Session # 2: Discover Private Channels in Microsoft Teams
    Abstract: This session will cover what are the Private Channels in Microsoft Teams, how they behave and what is the underlying design of them.
    We will over the functional limitation, architecture, and the use cases to deploy a Private Channel vs. a New Microsoft Team.
  3. Session # 3: OneDrive for Business – your next Collaboration Hub
    Abstract: OneDrive for business is not just your personal drive but lot more than that. In this session we will go over how OneDrive play key role when using various Office 365 services like SharePoint Online, Office 365 Groups and Microsoft Teams. This session will provide real life collaboration scenarios e.g. sharing (internal/external), co-authoring, files on-demand to get most out of your OneDrive for Business.

This is a conference not to be missed! you can use my code Maadarani100 to save $100 on your registration.

SharePoint Fest Chicago
Mike Maadarani Code

Speaking at SPS Nashvile

I am excited to announce that I am returning to speak at SPS Nashville 2019 on June 15th for the third time. Nashville is one of my favorite cities and I am really looking forward to connecting with friends, learn more and enjoy the city.

My session is title “What’s new in SharePoint 2019”.

Abstract: SharePoint Server 2019 launched few months ago with many great new features from Office 365 including Communication sites, modern Team sites, modern experience for lists, pages, sharing and search, integrated PDF viewer, more powerful site creation, and many other features already familiar to Office 365 / SharePoint Online users. At the same time a few features were removed, including code-based sandbox solutions and other specialty configs. In this session we will dive into what’s new and what’s out for SharePoint Server 2019 so you can plan for your on-premises upgrade today!

You really don’t want to miss this event. You can explore the list speakers, sessions and the full schedule on the SPS Nashvile site.

SPS Nashville 2019

SharePoint Fest DC 2019

Chicago Fest Chicago is April 29th to May 3rd, 2019, a full week packed with workshops, breakout sessions, Ask the Experts panel, and podcasts. This is one of my favorite conferences, and I am honored this year to present one workshop and 3 sessions:

  1. Workshop – 4/29/2019: OneDrive Deployment from Start to finish. This video gives you a quick overview of the workshop.
  2. Session 1 – 5/1/2019: The Evolution of SharePoint ECM to Content Services
  3. Session 2 – 5/2/2019: Increase your collaboration with Azure Automation
  4. Session 3 – 5/3/2019: Build an intranet with modern SharePoint

There is a great lineup of speakers, so make sure you check out the agenda and register for this awesome conference.

You can use Maadarani100 code and get a $100 discount.

SP Fest DC