ICYMI: June Conference Highlights & MVP #3

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In Case You Missed It…

A lot happened in the last few weeks that I’ve been meaning to blog about.

Digital Workplace Experience Conference

June 19-21 I attended the Digital Workplace Experience conference. Key takeaways from this:

  1. A digital workplace and a digital worker experience are more than just a great intranet.
    • A great worker experience is a combination of your corporate culture, great technology solutions that empower users, and the physical office spaces.
      • How is Office 365 related to this? Office 365 is a platform on which you can build not only a great intranet, but also business process automation solutions that improve productivity.
    • There are a bunch of interesting business books on the topics of digital worker experience in the modern workplace. I started a list based on some of the books promoted at the conference, and have added a few more books to it.
  2. There are vendors like Akumina and LiveTiles that build on top of Office 365 to create a better intranet experience. I mention them because they were both exhibitors at the conference. I’ve heard that Akumina is used by both Avenade and RightPoint.  There are numerous intranet in a box vendors out there now – the space is getting kind of crowded.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we see consolidation eventually.

Chicago Coder Conference 2017

The following week, June 26 and 27 was Chicago Coder Conference 2017. My session was on Tuesday the 27th, and it was about getting started with Windows 10 IoT Core and the Raspberry Pi 2. To demonstrate the concepts, I created the PiVote. Or rather, I built the PiVote and then abstracted out the concepts into a presentation. My slides are on SlideShare of course:

Part of my demo is having the audience use a simple website I built using OutSystems .  The audience uses the website to vote and then my UWP app uses the results of the vote to decide what lights and motors to turn on.  OutSystems was an exhibitor at the conference and I was pleased to have their support for my session.  Their staff helped drive attendance to my session and conducted a twitter promotion.
I also attended a Raspberry Pi and Windows 10 IoT Core session by David Pine about using those to make a Magic Mirror.

MVP for the Third Time!

On July 1st, I was awarded the Microsoft MVP award in the Office Server and Services category for my technical community leadership.  I speak about Office 365, SharePoint, PowerShell, Windows 10 IoT Core, and related matters at conferences and user groups and share what I know on this blog and in private MVP forums and on TechCommunity.Microsoft.com.  I co-lead the Office 365 Adoption User Group, Chicagoland Chapter.  I’m grateful to Microsoft and Lisa Anderson in particular for recognizing these efforts.
Here’s the email from Patrick Malone:

Dear Michael,

We are once again pleased to present you with the 2017-2018 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award! As you know, this award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who share their remarkable passion, real-world knowledge, and technical expertise with others through demonstration of exemplary commitment. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in the Office Servers and Services technical communities during the past year.

The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say “thank you” for your technical leadership. As a token of our appreciation, your MVP Award gift package is on its way. You will receive a notification in the next 5 business days that contains your MVP Award gift package shipping information and your tracking number.

Again, congratulations on your MVP Award!

Patrick Malone
Director
Community & Advocacy Programs
Microsoft

Looking Ahead

We’re putting together some great speakers for our August 3rd, 2017 Office 365 Adoption User Group (Chicagoland Chapter) meeting. Register now!
–Michael