SPS Events - DC 2015 Summer

Prasanna Adavi (MCT, MVP)

Sr. PPM Consultant | EPMA

Prasanna Adavi (Project MVP, PMP, MCTS, MCITP, MCT) is a Senior Project Management (PM) Consultant. He specializes in helping organizations meet their business needs in the areas of Project Management and Portfolio Management. His main focus is on building “business driven solutions” using, MS Project, Project Server and SharePoint Platforms.

He is a regular presenter at various Project Server, EPM and SharePoint events across the country, and blogs regularly at http://www.prasannaadavi.com.
He also runs a podcast dedicated to MS Project, Project Server at http://www.msprojectpodcast.com
He was presented the Project MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award by Microsoft in July 2014, for his continued contributions to Microsoft Project Community.

Sessions

- Project Management as a service with Project Online, an Office 365 service
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro, End-User, Business
  
  One of the most common requirements in any SharePoint Deployment is from the Project Management Office. The traditional solution to this is to use the Project Sites and then enhance them with needed features. Now provide project management functionality as a service within your Office 365 Deployment with Project Online.
  This session will show the key features of Project Online, and how it all fits into your Office 365/SharePoint Online deployment story.

Brian Alderman (MCT, MVP)

Microsoft MVP, MCT, MCSE, Speaker, and Author | MicroTechPoint

Brian Alderman is a Microsoft MVP, and since 1995 he has held several Microsoft certifications that currently include; MCT, MCSE for SharePoint, MCSA for Office 365, MCITP for SQL Server(R), MCSA and MCSE for Windows Server(R), and also his PMP certification. As a Senior Technical Instructor and Consultant he has 30 years of experience in networking, SQL Server databases, SharePoint technologies, and project management. Brian's publications include Windows 2000 Professional, SQL Server 2000 Administration, SharePoint 2010 Administrator's Companion and Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Administration Inside Out. He is an active speaker at SharePoint Industry conferences including SharePoint Saturday's, SPLive, DevIntersection, SharePoint Fest, Microsoft Ignite and several international SharePoint conferences including London, Milan, and Madrid. Brian has a BS and MS in Computer Information Systems where he graduated summa cum laude from Regis University of Colorado Springs and now lives in Scottsdale, AZ where he enjoys playing golf year round and traveling around the world.

Sessions

- Optimizing SQL Server 2012 for SharePoint 2013
  
  Level: 300
  
  Track: IT Pro
  
  Knowing the vast majority of the content accessed via SharePoint is stored in SQL Server, and also knowing an incorrect configuration of SQL Server can have a detrimental impact on the performance of SharePoint it is important to understand the integration of these two products. Regardless of whether you have a dedicated DBA, or the SharePoint administrator is also the DBA, there are critical SQL Server configurations that can be made that will improve the performance of SharePoint. Often DBA’s are familiar with how to manage SQL Server, but may not be familiar with some nuances that SQL Server has when integrated with SharePoint. In this session we will demonstrate how some default SQL Server settings negatively impact SharePoint and what changes can be made to improve the performance of SharePoint. These changes include database file settings and SQL Server instance settings. We'll also examine how to properly install SQL Server and SharePoint so they work together as efficiently as possible. This discussion will introduce the Best Practices framework that will allow your SharePoint administrator and/or your DBA to configure SharePoint and SQL Server to provide optimal performance for your SharePoint implementation.
- Managing Data Recovery in SharePoint 2013
  
  Level: 300
  
  Track:
  
  SharePoint Server 2013 includes several content recovery options that provides the SharePoint administrators more granular content recovery options. Using Central Administration or PowerShell you can export site collections, site, libraries, and list making it easier to backup, migrate, or archive content stored in SharePoint. SharePoint 2013 also provides the option of recovering site collections, sites, list and libraries from content databases that are no longer part of the SharePoint farm. Furthermore, you can configure your content databases to take advantage of SQL Server High Availability(HA) options like mirroring, log shipping, and AlwaysOn which provides quick recovery of your databases. With a vast majority of your SharePoint content stored in SQL Server it is imperative that you have an efficient way to recover items or entire databases as quickly as possible. This discussion will introduce the Best Practices framework that will allow your SharePoint administrator to configure SharePoint and SQL Server for quick content recovery minimizing the downtime and providing shorter yet achievable Service Level Agreements (SLA’s).

Prashant G Bhoyar (MVP)

Solution Architect | WithumSmith+Brown, PC

Prashant G Bhoyar is a Microsoft AI MVP and Microsoft Certified Professional. He currently works as a Solution Architect at WithumSmith+Brown, P.C. (formerly Portal Solutions), one of the top 30 advisory and accounting firms in the United States. He is a trusted advisor and Subject Matter Expert in Intelligent Business Process Automation, specializing in the Business Process Automation, development and post-implementation adoption of complex custom solutions in Azure, Office 365, and SharePoint. Prashant has supported a multitude of government agencies and non-profit organizations in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Prashant is the co-author of the book “PowerShell for Office 365 “and is the technical reviewer of the book "Pro SharePoint 2013 Administration." He serves on the leadership committee for the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning User Group, DC Metro Office 365 User Group, Azure Data Fest, Artificial Intelligence Fest event, SharePoint Saturday Baltimore event, and SharePoint Saturday Washington DC event. He is a renowned speaker and actively speaks at technical conferences, most recently in Austin, New York, Chicago, Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia. Fun fact??, Prashant is a recipient of the "Antarctic Service Medal of the United States of America" for his outstanding service in Antarctica.

Sessions

- Getting Started with SharePoint 2013 Designer Workflows
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: Developer, End-User
  
  You may have heard the buzz around architectural and functional level changes of SharePoint 2013 Workflows.
  In this demo-driven session, we will cover the architectural changes and new workflow features introduced with SharePoint 2013 Designer workflows. We will explore how to create, deploy, and debug SharePoint 2013 designer workflows. This session will also cover best practices of SharePoint 2013 designer workflows, when to use them and when to avoid them.
  
  Pre-requisite: Familiar with SharePoint, Pages, List and Libraries.
  
  You will learn:
  How to create custom SharePoint 2013 Designer Workflows?
  Architecture of SharePoint 2013 Workflows
  Architecture Decisions for building SharePoint 2013 Designer Workflows
- Getting Started with SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio Workflows
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: Developer, End-User
  
  You may have heard the buzz around Architectural and functional level changes in SharePoint 2013 Workflows.
  In this demo-driven session, we will cover the architectural changes and new workflow features introduced with SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio workflows. We will explore how to create, deploy, and debug SharePoint 2013 visual Studio workflows. This session will also cover best practices of SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio workflows, when to use them and when to avoid them.
  
  Prerequisite: Familiar with SharePoint, Pages, List, Libraries and Visual Studio.
  
  You will learn:
  Architecture of SharePoint 2013 Workflows
  How to create SharePoint 2013 Visual Studio Workflows?
  Architecture Decisions for Building SharePoint 2013 Workflows

Virgil Carroll (MCT)

Principal Human Solutions Architect | High Monkey

Virgil grew up as an Alaskan fisherman, so he knows that life, like business, can be smooth sailing one minute and stormy seas the next. His ability to stay calm and clear-headed through the storms of business has been a valuable asset to many companies and individuals throughout the years. After graduating with his Master’s degree, Virgil decided to put his myriad talents to good use and formed High Monkey and is currently its principal human solutions architect.

When Virgil speaks technology he does it from a business person’s point of view. You won’t find his talks clouded with “tech geek” speak. Virgil has an expansive breadth of knowledge and speaks objectively about a variety of subjects.

Sessions

- Bringing Web Best Practices to SharePoint Intranets
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: End-User
  
  An intranet is nothing more than an internal-facing website, and most people use it like they use any other website on the Internet. Its often only us, in the SharePoint world, that get caught up in the tool and functionality that makes an intranet work.
  
  Join Virgil Carroll as he shares his 16+ years of web building experience in the guise of a top 10 SharePoint intranet best practices discussion. From content to functionality, to how people really use it ... this discussion will change the way you think about how you deliver your intranet today.

Nikkia Carter

WW Modern Workplace Tech Lead | Microsoft

Nikkia T. Carter is the Worldwide Modern Workplace Tech Lead at Microsoft. She is a Microsoft strategist, solutions developer, consultant, and trainer specializing in Office 365, SharePoint, and related technology. Nikkia has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and a Master’s in IT Project Management and is a CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer. She has industry experience since 2001 starting with applications then adding in intranet development. In 2009, Nikkia changed her technology focus to SharePoint and adding in Office 365 in 2009. She has worked with clients in the government, DoD, commercial, and non-profit spaces. Nikkia is a Microsoft MVP in Office Apps and Services, is an accomplished speaker and has spoken at and organized technical and non-technical events. She has authored two video courses, has coauthored one book, and is currently writing another. She is the former President of SharePoint User Group of DC, has organized community events, served on the Microsoft’s VFI (Voices for Innovation) taskforce and is a former board member of the IAMCP (International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners) DC chapter. Nikkia also served on the Microsoft Partner Engagement Board for Microsoft's Inspire Conference.

Sessions

- Intro to the Office 365 Admin Center
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro, Business
  
  You got Office 365 and you need to use it. You need to let others in your organization use it because you were designated the admin but you can't spell Office 365... yet. Where do you start? In this session, you will learn about the basics of administering Office 365 through the Admin Centers.

Bobby Chang (MCT)

Technology Solutions Professional | Microsoft

Bobby is an Office 365 technologist in Microsoft, working with the public sector to identify opportunities and leverage business solutions in the government cloud. Bobby is advocate for end users and an avid supporter of the SharePoint community. He could often be found in conferences and local meetups.

Sessions

- Building mini Amazon.com with SharePoint Cross-Site Publishing
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: Developer, End-User
  
  Exploring Cross Site-Publishing through live illustrations. This session will showcase Product Catalog and demonstrate the power behind SharePoint search-driven paradigm. Applicable to all audience (with a demographic focus on Gen-X and/or SirMixaLot fans). No branding or SharePoint development experience necessary.

Thomas Daly (MVP)

SharePoint Team Lead | SoHo Dragon

Thomas Daly - is the SharePoint Team Lead @ SoHo Dragon. He specializes in implementing custom SharePoint branding as well as delivering custom UI solutions. He is an expert in web technologies and highly proficient in many languages including C#, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS, XSLT. His educational background is composed of a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and a Master’s degree in Software Engineering. Tom is also heavily involved in the SharePoint community speaking on branding at community events. He currently runs the Central Jersey SharePoint & Office 365 User Group at Microsoft - Iselin, NJ as well as the SharePoint Saturday New York & New Jersey.

Sessions

- Intro to SharePoint 2013 Branding
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: Developer, End-User
  
  This session is all about the SharePoint branding process and in particular, the techniques you will need to know in order to brand SharePoint 2013 sites. With the release of 2013 comes a number of enhancements including new theming capabilities, composed looks, image renditions, managed meta data navigation, design manager, snippet gallery and device channels. All of these new features will be covered along with utilizing the design manager process to achieve custom look and feel for your site.

Stacy Deere-Strole (MVP)

Sr. SharePoint Solutions Architect - Business Owner | Focal Point Solutions, LLC

Stacy Deere-Strole is the Owner of Focal Point Solutions LLC, a Cincinnati, OH based company that provides SharePoint Solutions for the Enterprise in the mid-to-large market. Previously, Stacy led a rapidly growing SharePoint practice where she engaged in a wide range of consulting projects across various industries. With 20+ years of experience in the IT Industry, Stacy has mainly focused on Collaboration Solutions such as IBM’s Lotus Notes\Domino and Microsoft’s Messaging and Collaboration Solutions including deployments and SharePoint upgrades.

Within the SharePoint community, Stacy is a SharePoint MVP and is actively sharing her real world expertise through authoring in the blog http://www.spmindmelt.focalpointsolutions.co, http://www.sharepointeurope.com/blog, http://infogovcon.com/ and speaking at various SharePoint Saturday's, Collab365, ITUnity, SPTechCon, SharePoint Fest, SharePoint Engage, and User Group events. She also co-authored two books called SharePoint 2013 and 2010 Using Managed Metadata.

Sessions

- Build It and They Will Come: SharePoint 2013 User Adoption
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro, Business
  
  Everyone has seen the movie Field of Dream where a farmer sacrifices part of his cash crops to builds baseball field. It just so happens after he built it numerous famous baseball players come back from the beyond to play baseball and people come from all around the world to watch and in turn the farmer became rich for charging admission, food, beverages, etc.
  
  SharePoint 2013 and building user adoption share a lot of the same concepts and overall goals to ultimately come out with the same end result. Lots and lots of people from all around the company start utilizing SharePoint and all its features and functionality. In this session you will see first-hand information from a company that I have been working with since they had 2007, 2010 and now 2013. I will review the project and all the steps taken to increase user adoption.
  • Discovery Sessions
  • Governance
  • Build & Implementation
  • Migration
  • Next Steps
  
  To prove the success of the overall project I will show various statistics from the previous versions and SharePoint 2013. We will also take a look at some additional successes that have come from this upgrade and increase in user adoption.

Greg Galipeau (MCT)

CEO/Chief Architect | RePoint Technologies

Greg Galipeau is the CEO and Chief Architect of RePoint Technologies. Greg has been working with SharePoint since the 2001 version and has consulted on over 50 different SharePoint implementations ranging from the private sector to government. Greg has unique experiences in his SharePoint career ranging from consulting directly for Microsoft to being a Government employee as the Solution Architect for the United States Department of the Treasury. Greg has won numerous awards during his SharePoint career including the inaugural Microsoft Apps for Office contest as well as the MSDN SharePoint development Forum top answerer contest winner. Greg is a certified MCP, MCAD, MCSD and MCTS for SharePoint, SQL Server and .Net.

Sessions

- Make SharePoint Not look like SharePoint
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro, Developer
  
  You've seen this title before for sessions, but this will be different. In the past these sessions have been about modifying master pages and page layouts. However, Microsoft has recently been quoted as changing directions on that approach because of Office 365 and continuous improvements. If Office 365 wants to change the Master Pages, how can you change the look of your site? Well, it's possible with Custom Actions, CSS and JavaScript. Yes, that's right, you can register CSS and JavaScript to all the pages in a SharePoint site with a Custom Action. This session will show you how. But, more importantly, this session will show what is possible with just CSS and JavaScript. Change your SharePoint site branding without hurting the integrity of SharePoint. It's possible.

Susan Hanley (MVP)

President | Susan Hanley LLC

Sue Hanley is a consultant specializing in the “people side” of collaboration and knowledge management solutions. She is an Office Servers and Services MVP and is the co-author of three popular SharePoint books that focus on business challenges - Essential SharePoint 2007, Essential SharePoint 2010, and Essential SharePoint 2013: Practical Guidance for Measurable Business Results. She also writes the Essential SharePoint blog for ComputerWorld.com. Her areas of expertise include strategy, information architecture, user adoption, governance and business value metrics.

Sessions

- It’s all About that Case! Demonstrating Clear, Measurable Value from your Enterprise Social Initiative
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: End-User, Business
  
  Are you looking for a way to talk to your leadership team about how Yammer or other enterprise social tools can drive value for your business? Are you looking for successful ways to improve adoption? If so, then this is the session for you! We’ll introduce a proven measurement approach that you can apply in your organization. We’ll showcase examples of how real organizations are overcoming barriers and demonstrating meaningful business value. You’ll take away:
  •    Examples of qualitative and quantitative metrics that you can immediately use for your own enterprise social initiatives, along with recommendations for how to collect these measures
  •    Presentation methods to tell the “measurement story” to your executives – in their language
  •    Insights an ideas from real organizations that are struggling with the same issues that you are
  •    A long list of practical resources and approaches that you can adapt and re-use!

Eric Harlan

Sr. PFE | Microsoft

Bio

In between searching the planet high and low for the best skiing conditions, deepest powder and crazy ‘steeps’, Eric Harlan spends most of his time in the technology field.

Eric has been in the I.T. industry for fourteen years, and heavily involved with SharePoint for eleven years. Starting from a developer role, Eric has moved on to a more architectural role with a focus on configuration and server implementation.

Never forgetting his developer roots, he still jumps in when needed to pick up the slack on custom dev needs. As a SharePoint Premier Field Engineer for Microsoft Eric is the first on the ground to troubleshoot SharePoint issues as well as kick off proactive engagements.

Eric is involved with many volunteer organizations from SPSEvents, Global SharePoint users group, and educational code camps to Co-Founder of the Baltimore SharePoint Users group.

Eric also does many speaking events revolving around SharePoint. Topics range from SharePoint Development, Architecture, tips, tricks and gotcha’s to basic SharePoint sessions for the end user.

Sessions

- The future of SharePoint and Hybrid From the Field
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro, Developer, End-User, Business
  
  Fresh off Ignite, and at what many consider a crossroads for the product we'll discuss the future of SharePoint through the eyes of the engineers that support it. Reset some expectations for the upcoming product releases and talk about some of the investments the Product Group has made based on customer feedback.

Greg Hurlman

Microsoft

PEGI-16. Programmist at Microsoft on the Dynamics365 team. Ex-Jungle Cruise Skipper. PAX Enforcer. Chaotic Good.

Sessions

- Let's Code A Thing: Multitenant O365 SharePoint JavaScript App
  
  Level: 300
  
  Track: Developer
  
  Join us as we live-code a multitenant app from scratch, using only JavaScript -- no Visual Studio in sight! Using Ember as an application framework, Bootstrap for style, Azure for authentication, and Github for source control, follow along as we build an app to pull data from the Internet, mix it up with SharePoint information, and save it all back again.
  
  There will be no slides, Q&A during the session will be encouraged, and all code along with a recording of the presentation (at least the screen and audio) will be available afterward.

Paul Katz

President | EfficiencyNext

Paul Katz is President and Chief Software Architect of EfficiencyNext, a software solutions company in Washington DC. Paul has coded with Microsoft technologies for the last 18 years, and has been an active SharePoint developer over the last 4 years.

Outside of work, Paul enjoys playing tennis and showing off his Windows Phones!

Sessions

- Detangling OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, and Office 365 SharePoint Document Libaries
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: End-User
  
  Microsoft has three cloud-based document storage solutions: OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Document Libraries. Each of these resources can be invaluable to consumer and business users, however, its important to know the capabilities and limitations of each.
  
  This session focuses on:
  - OneDrive and its Consumer Focus
  - OneDrive for Business and its Work Focus
  - SharePoint Document Libraries and How They Integrate with OneDrive for Business Apps
  - How All Three Technologies are Present in Windows 8
  - The Future of OneDrive Synchronization in Windows 10
  
  Come to this session, and see why you should never leave any important documents on your PC ever again! If your organization already has Office 365, unlimited personal storage and cheap shared stored awaits!

Bhakthi Liyanage (MCT, MVP)

Sr. SharePoint Architect, Tech Lead | Bank of America Merril Lynch

I am a hands-on technical Solutions Architect primarily focused on delivering efficient and competitive business solutions on SharePoint Technology platform. I’m passionate about the relationship between business and technology and how the latest technology can be leveraged to solve business problems.

I am also engaged in providing strategy, implementation and support guidance to clients in various industries including Insurance, Pharmaceutical, Health and Manufacturing.

I have been in the industry for well over 16+ years and have been working with SharePoint technologies for more than 10+ years.

Sessions

- Office SharePoint 2013 client-side rendering by using JSLink
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro, Developer, End-User
  
  Have you ever tried changing the look and feel of a list view in SharePoint 2007 or SharePoint 2010 using tedious XSLT or tried to create a custom field control with C# and XML. Do you remember how many hoops you had to jump to get the field control deployed and registered to show that up in the available field controls? All that is history with SharePoint 2013 client side rendering with JSLink feature. In this demo I will show how easy it is to change the look and feel of list view, list forms and custom field controls with only JavaScript and JSLink.

Mike Maadarani (MVP)

Enterprise Architect | MCM Consulting

Mike is an Office 365 productivity specialist focusing on SharePoint implementation and deployment. As an Office Apps & Services MVP, Mike’s areas of expertise in Content Services, Business Process Automation, Migration, Intranet deployment, end user adoption, governance and OneDrive deployments. With over 20 years of experience, he has worked for the past 17 years deploying SharePoint and Office 365 solutions to medium to large clients.He is an evangelist and visionary where he can and provide the business and technical leadership required for delivering successful global SharePoint projects.

When he is not working, Mike enjoys traveling and speaking at various SharePoint events and conferences, where he can share his experience, insights, and advice on the digital workplace, migration, collaborations, and end-user adoption.

Sessions

- Tips and tricks in migrating to SharePoint On-Premise or O365, to avoid a migration headache
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: Business
  
  Migrating data into any platform is a difficult task, especially if you are moving into Office 365. If you are migrating to either SharePoint 2013 On-Premise or O365, you will need preparation, good planning, and detailed execution activities are keys to avoid migration nightmare.
  This session will help you learn a methodology, adopted based on many previous migration, to help you deliver a successful migration project with happy users. We will learn the steps you need in your pre-migration analysis, migration checklists, post migration support, and any issues you might face during and after completing the migration efforts.

Gaurav Mahajan

Sr. Architect | CEI

O365, SharePoint and AI Architect, Speaker, @spsburgh & Harrisburg SP user group organizer, Microsoft PTSP, MBA, MCPD, MCT, occasional blogger & SharePoint VM guy - Checkout my blog for downloads of SharePoint 2013, 2016 and 2019 VMs

Sessions

- Search in SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 - An Overview for Business Users and Information Workers
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: End-User, Business
  
  SharePoint 2013 Search makes it easier than ever for users to find and act on information in the enterprise. Search is all about discovering and organizing relevant information, managing the results, and taking action. Users want to know:
  • Where can I go to find what I need?
  • How do I complete my task?
  • Who can help me?
  SharePoint 2013 Search answers these questions, with amazing speed and an intuitive, comfortable user experience. In this demo driven session we will look at the following capabilities of Search in SharePoint 2013 & Office 365:
  a. Basic Search
  b. Filters and Refiners
  c. Hover Panels
  d. Video Search
  e. Query Rules
  f. Custom Hover Panels
  g. Who can help me?—enhanced People Search
  h. Yammer Search
  i. Search in Delve (time permitting)

Seb Matthews

ProvisionPoint

Consultant, Entrepreneur, Father, Author, Speaker, Lyrical Gangster.

Seb Matthews is a consultant, entrepreneur and community supporter with over 20 years’ experience working with organizations of all shapes and sizes to get the very best out of Microsoft technologies.

Over the last 5 years, he has founded several technology companies providing consultancy, implementation and Cloud services and sits on the board of a number of tech start-ups in an advisory capacity.

When not being entrepreneurial, Seb continues to hone his technical skills providing consulting services to some of Microsoft’s largest customers that are looking to utilize Microsoft technologies in Cloud and Big Data scenarios.

Fortunate to be a frequent speaker at conferences, in the community and at vendor events, Seb is an enthusiastic and active member of the Microsoft community in Europe, Africa and the USA.

Sessions

- Getting SQL Spinning with SharePoint - Best Practices for the Backend
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro
  
  Fact. If you're on-premises, you're reliant on SQL Server.
  Fact. Performance problems in SharePoint are most commonly caused by a poorly configured or ineffectively optimised SQL Server backend.
  In this fast-paced session, Platform Architect and renowned International speaker Seb Matthews will walk through his top 10 tips for ensuring your SQL backend is perfectly pert and performing well for SharePoint.
  Compiled from his experiences in designing, deploying and managing truly Cloud-scale instances of SharePoint and SQL Server this session is one not to miss if you want to squeeze the best out of your SharePoint power-plant.
- Office 365: Taking Your Business to the Cloud
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro, End-User, Business
  
  The next wave of Office 365 has arrived, but what does this Cloud powered marvel mean to your business? In this session, Seb Matthews discusses the business case for moving your business to the cloud. What does it mean to actually move to the cloud? What are the benefits of choosing Software as a Service and more importantly what are the pitfalls? In this session, Seb will provide you with the best bits of his experiences with Office 365 and why your business should, or shouldn't, make the jump to the Cloud. Packed with practical tips, real-world honesty and great advice, this session is one not to miss!

Gina Montgomery

Vice President, Corporate Strategy | Softmart

Gina Montgomery (MCSA, MCTS, MCP, V-TSP) blends thought leadership with new growth initiatives as Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Softmart. Montgomery plays a critical role in identifying and analyzing business development opportunities that build solutions and drive sales for Softmart. Along with driving value-creating insights, making recommendations and bundling solutions across multiple projects, she oversees Softmart's Microsoft Practice and consults in the Microsoft Business Productivity & Collaboration space. Montgomery’s background as a SharePoint and Cloud evangelist coupled with her seasoned speaker experience at technology conferences all over the country make her a trusted advisor for architecting SharePoint, Office 365 and Azure solutions as well as Enterprise Social Strategies. As she continues to plan and implement successful cloud offerings and business solutions that maximize an organization’s IT investment, Montgomery also directs her focus on new strategic initiatives for Softmart’s sales team to bring to market.

Sessions

- Enhancing Relevancy & User Experience with SharePoint Search
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro
  
  Delays in discovering data, especially for end users frequently working with SharePoint, will lead to end user adoption issues. The new search functionality in SharePoint 2013 provides a comprehensive set of tools to manage search relevance. Search in SharePoint 2013 is ready to enable users to find relevant information more quickly and easily than ever before. Utilizing OOTB SharePoint Search functionality such as display templates, document previews, query rules and visual refiners is guaranteed to improve the end user's search experience, as well as, their overall experience within SharePoint. And as we have seen time and again, we know that improved user experience will increase adoption. In this session we will cover the latest SharePoint Search 2013 features that will help your end users to reach the relevant content that they are searching for while providing them an improved user experience.

Tamir Orbach (MCT)

Director of Product Management | Metalogix

Tamir Orbach is a Director of Product Management for SharePoint Migration Products at Metalogix. In this role he drives the product roadmap and develop requirements by working with customers, analysts, partners and internal stakeholders.

Tamir has 20 years experience working with MS technologies, with 9 years at Microsoft in pre-sales engineering and solution sales positions focused on SharePoint and Office. Prior to that Tamir was the co-founder and CTO of thinkXML/Lexign, spent a year programming, and 3 years teaching programming as an MCT.

Tamir holds a Masters degree in Electrical and Software Engineering.

Sessions

- Microsoft’s new Migration API, and what it means for SharePoint Online Migrations
  Documents:
  
  Microsoft’s new Migration API and what it means for SharePoint Online Migrations.pptx
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro, Business
  
  Microsoft introduced a new API for migration to SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business at this year's Ignite Conference. In this session, we will look at the challenges of migrating to SharePoint Online using the traditional CSOM based API and throttling, compare those to migrations using the new API and explain the mechanism behind the new API.

Ravindra Patil

Software Engineer | RDA Corporation

Overall 15 years of dev experience in Microsoft Technologies. 10 years in SharePoint. A SharePoint SME, architect, and developer in all functions of architecture, development, and support in the areas of Microsoft technologies like; SharePoint 2013, Office 365, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2007 (MOSS), Microsoft Azure, C#.Net, ASP.Net, MS SQL etc.

Sessions

- Development with Patterns and Practices
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: Developer
  
  The newest releases of SharePoint (2013, 2016, and SP Online) impose restrictions on SharePoint Developers. Some of these limitations are by the design of SharePoint itself, while others are a lack of understanding on how to achieve the same functionality using the new development techniques associated with SharePoint. In this session we will list the latest Office365 Developer Patterns and Practices and demonstrate how to use these techniques, for both SP On-Premises and SP Online, to keep track of your customization, apply branding, use metadata for navigation and cataloging sites for optimized search.

David Patrick (MCT, MVP)

Trainer | DSA, Inc.

Dave has been developing database applications for over 25 years. An MCT since 2001, he has taught many classes from Intro to Visual Interdev to Advanced SharePoint Development. Dave attained MVP status in 2009-2010 and runs two user groups, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Microsoft Developer's User Group, www.mapamdug.com, and MAD SharePoint, www.madsharepoint.com. Dave also does SharePoint training and development for DSA, Inc., a DoD contractor that does great work for the Army over at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Dave has a bunch of certifications, including the new MCSD SharePoint Apps Developer and MCP DEAD certifications.

Sessions

- Intro to Visual Web Parts
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: Developer
  
  In SharePoint 2010 or 2013, Web Parts are an essential component of ASP.NET technologies used to present dynamic information to users and are arguably the most common customization created for SharePoint. In this presentation, we discuss and demonstrate how to build a web part using Visual Studio 2013 and its visual design tools. We’ll create a visual web part and use LINQ to SharePoint to retrieve data from a SharePoint 2010/2013 list to be displayed in our new visual web part. We’ll then build and deploy our web part to a SharePoint site to see it in action!

Steve Pietrek (MCT)

Practice Manager/SharePoint Application Architect | Cardinal Solutions

Steve Pietrek is the Raleigh/Durham App Dev Practice Manager at Cardinal Solutions Group, a Microsoft Managed Partner, with offices in Cincinnati, Columbus, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Tampa. Steve is a SharePoint Application Architect and Front-End Developer and has been building enterprise applications for over 20 years. He has been working with the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies since SharePoint 2007 Beta. Prior to joining Cardinal, he led the User Interface development team for 13 years at Exact Business Analytics, a business intelligence software provider. You can follow him on Twitter: @spietrek

Sessions

- Building SharePoint Single Page Applications using AngularJS
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: Developer
  
  SharePoint is an excellent platform for hosting line-of-business applications. When little or no-code applications do not meet the business requirements, SharePoint developers can create advanced applications that are deployed to the SharePoint server. However, many companies are moving to the cloud (e.g. Office 365) or have a governance policy in place where only top-of-the-pyramid enterprise level applications can be deployed to the SharePoint server. What about those business applications targeted for the cloud or for the lower part of the governance pyramid (i.e. team sites)?
  
  Attendees of this session will learn how AngularJS can be used to integrate rich, powerful single page applications (SPA’s) into SharePoint. The session will discuss single page applications (SPA’s), SharePoint development challenges, and the benefits of AngularJS development including lower cost of entry for developers, increased productivity compared to traditional SharePoint development, and the ability to quickly deploy AngularJS applications through the browser. The session will then walk through AngularJS basics (two-way data binding, filters, controllers, providers, directives, and modules), retrieving data from SharePoint lists and document libraries using the SharePoint 2013 REST API, tools and debugging techniques, and deploying the AngularJS applications to SharePoint.

John Ramminger

Solution Architect | RammWare Solutions

A proven, results-oriented technology and support professional with more than 20 years of IT experience ranging from system administration, to application development, to support. Possess a wide range of experience in developing applications, overseeing complex systems, and providing consultation to management on the use of technology to improve processes.

Sessions

- Leveraging External Data in SharePoint
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro, Developer
  
  In this session we will dive into surfacing external data through BCS in SharePoint. Starting with SharePoint Designer and then moving on to Visual Studio. We will cover complex scenarios where we associate more than two external content types together and talk about the best practices in doing so. Finally we will talk about searching the external data and building custom display templates to render the data in the most appropriate way.

Amie Seisay (MCT)

Owner | Seisay IT Solutions

The founder and owner of Seisay IT Solutions, Amie Seisay has over 15 years of experience in the IT field, working in numerous professional environments, including the for-profit, non-profit, association, legal, medical, and government sectors.

Amie’s credentials include both a bachelors and masters degree in Computer Science. She also holds a number of certifications, including MCTS 70-667: Microsoft SharePoint, ITIL Foundation, and CompTIA Technical Trainer.

Through the years, Amie has broadened her professional experience and technical expertise through her work with a number of small and mid-size businesses, creating web-based applications and customizing content management systems, especially SharePoint, to include configuring server farms; developing server and client-side code; and providing administration at the server, site collection, and site levels.

It was through this work that Amie discovered her true passion: to work one-on-one with clients to understand their specific needs and develop customized technology and IT solutions to improve their business processes. As a result, Amie decided to formalize her consulting services as a Microsoft Partner under the moniker Seisay IT Solutions in order to provide customized web-based consulting, web application development, and training tailored to her clients needs.

Sessions

- Welcome to Azure App Services
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro, Developer, Business
  
  We will explore Azure Apps Services and review how we can orchestrate the movement of data across platforms/software. Some examples in the Azure Marketplace include SharePoint, Twitter, Twilio, Facebook, Salesforce, Office365, etc. We will cover concepts such as swagger, connectors, authorization, triggers, etc.

Bruce Swenson

SharePoint Architect | Xgility

Bruce Swenson has over 18 years of experience designing, deploying, and maintaining Microsoft technology solutions. He has extensive experience with the SharePoint project life cycle: gathering requirements; architecting, building and administering SharePoint environments; and working with users to build collaboration sites and implement document management. Projects have taken him from Boston to California, and from Stuttgart, Germany to Bamako, Mali. His master’s degree in Information Security, CISSP certification and experience implementing SharePoint in secure environments have given him an appreciation for security best practices in design, build and operations.

Sessions

- STIGS and Securing SharePoint
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro
  
  In this session, attendees will receive an introduction to DoD Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGS) and SharePoint security best practices.

Andy Tabisz (MVP)

Owner & Lead Developer | WorkSmart Database Masters LLC

Andy Tabisz, MCAS, MOS, is a Microsoft MVP and the owner of WorkSmart Database Masters, LLC, a Michigan-based technology firm focused on providing custom database and Access Web App solutions designed to increase productivity. He has been developing databases since 1983 and is a frequent speaker at Microsoft Access, SQL and SharePoint conferences across the country. Andy is also very involved in the user group community as president of the Access Web Apps Users Group and Michigan Access Users Group.

Sessions

- No-Code SharePoint Solutions with Access 2013 & SQL Azure
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: IT Pro, Business
  
  Learn how to build native SharePoint 2013 apps with Access 2013—no coding skills required. With a rich UI and backed by SQL Azure, the apps need little to no IT support. Andy Tabisz, Microsoft MVP will show you how to quickly build and customize native SharePoint applications with Access 2013 without writing any code.

Amit Vasu (MVP)

Senior Consultant - Office 365/SharePoint | Independant

Amit Vasu is Sr. SharePoint consultant, working on SharePoint and related technologies since 2003. For the past 10 years Amit is working at MS Partner Momentum Digital Solutions Inc. Amit's main area of focus is creating business process automation with SharePoint and related technologies. He also has several years of experience building dashboards using Reporting Services. Amit also frequently participates in the SharePoint community events including SharePoint Saturday, SharePoint code camp and local user groups.

Sessions

- Directory Synchronization in Office 365
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro
  
  Directory synchronization is process of synchronizing your on-premises Active Directory users to Office 365. This session will walk users through basics of what is directory synchronizations in Office 365 and different Directory Sync scenarios. In this demo rich session users will also learn about basics of Azure Active Directory and different tools available for Directory synchronization with Office 365.

Dean Virag

SharePoint Collaboration Specialist | Xgility

Dean Virag has over 20 years experience as a technical trainer and SharePoint solution evangelist. He currently supports the SharePoint implementation for a government agency by keeping the servers running healthy, providing support to the end users, and providing solutions using forms and workflows.

Previously he was a SharePoint solution evangelist for a non-profit serving the education industry. There he helped drive user adoption through education initiatives, individual consulting, and out-of-the-box solution development.

He has written several articles for NothingButSharePoint.com and has spoken at several SharePoint Saturday DC events and a SharePoint Saturday Richmond event.

Sessions

- How Forms and Workflows saved a SharePoint Implementation
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: End-User, Business
  
  Forms and workflows are the low-hanging fruit of SharePoint that offer a quick return on investment and help provide interest and excitement in SharePoint. In this session you will hear the story of a not-for profit organization that used forms and workflows to digitize and automate many of their everyday processes. And in doing so, established a solid foundation that protected their investment from being wiped out by new company leadership who came in determined to remove SharePoint. The various automation solutions developed for each department will be highlighted, as will the benefits received from those solutions.

Daniel Walker

SharePoint Developer

Working in SharePoint for over 10 years in both government and commerical capacities. Currently working on a government contract with RMC

Sessions

- Using jQuery Promises In SharePoint Javascript Object Model
  
  Level: 300
  
  Track: Developer
  
  This session will go over using the Javascript object model in SharePoint (CSOM/JSOM). We will cover several functions that you can use. We will also add jQuery Promises to speed up work and reduce repetitive code. From adding items to list to getting large amounts of data into several dropdowns, there is a lot that can be done with JSOM!

Michael Wharton (MVP)

Project/sharePoint | Wharton Computer Consulting

Michael Wharton is a Project/SharePoint Consultant and Trainer. Michael’s career started as a software developer before moving into project management. His passion to improve project management processes begin in 2003 using tools like project professional and project server. Since then he has trained hundreds of project managers and implemented project server in over twenty-five PMOs. He has passed over forty Microsoft certification exams giving him a solid technical background with Project and SharePoint Server.

Sessions

- Beginners Guide to using PowerShell and SharePoint
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: IT Pro
  
  Beginners guide to getting started with using PowerShell and SharePoint. Users are encourage to bring their laptops and follow along.
  
  Agenda
  1) Learning the basics of PowerShell
  2) SharePoint Addins
  3) Configuring services.

Fabian Williams (MVP)

Microsoft Solutions Architect | Adotob/Withum Digital

FABIAN WILLIAMS is a Microsoft Office Server & Services, Microsoft Visual Studio & Development Technologies MVP, Xamarin MVP, and a Microsoft Solutions Architect / Azure Technical Evangelist. His work with the SharePoint product line dates back to the 2003 release. Fabian holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Information System “Magna-Cum-Laude” from Strayer University, Washington D.C. and his Masters in Computer Information Technology studies at the Johns Hopkins University Carey School for Business in Columbia, Maryland. He holds the following Microsoft Certifications MCSE, MCSD and MCDBA. You may find him on twitter at the @fabianwilliams handle and his blog is http://www.fabiangwilliams.com

Sessions

- Whats all the Hub Hub about Azure Mobile Services and Xamarin.Forms Come and Find Out
  Documents:
  
  XamarinFormsWithWAMS.pdf
  
  Level: 100
  
  Track: Developer
  
  If you are living in the Microsoft world, you are living the Mobile First Cloud First mantra. We can all see that evolutionary process take place in just how fast the cadence of software comes to Office 365 and Azure. Notwithstanding that, customers and end users demand accessibility to critical resources whenever and wherever they are. This session will show you how to create a Cross Platform Mobile Application targeting iOS and Android and tapping into Azure SQL all within the time allotted for the session. Yes, I know what you are thinking.. tall order.. but come and take this journey with me. As a bonus, all code will be published on GitHub so you have a good takeaway to practice and extend on your own.

Rob Windsor (MCT, MVP)

Senior Consultant | Independent

Rob Windsor is a Senior Consultant and Trainer. He has almost twenty five years’ experience developing all types of applications and is currently spending a majority of his time working with Office 365 and SharePoint. Rob is a regular speaker at conferences, code camps, and user groups and is a contributor to the Pluralsight On-Demand library. Rob is the founder and past-president of the North Toronto .NET User Group and has been recognized as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his involvement in the developer community.

Sessions

- Introduction to the SharePoint Client Object Model and REST API
  
  Level: 200
  
  Track: Developer
  
  As Microsoft was releasing SharePoint 2013 it was pretty clear that they were steering people away from using the product as a portal to using it as a gateway to external systems and services. Since the Server Object Model cannot be used remotely, developers building these external systems will need to become familiar with the Client Object Model (CSOM) and/or the REST API if they want to communicate with SharePoint. This session will introduce these two APIs, give a brief overview of their history, and then show you how to get started using them through a series of demonstrations.