Q1 2016 Events Planning

Oh, its been so nice and quiet working from the home office these past few weeks, but alas, the quiet time is coming to an end, with an active event schedule coming up — and an increasingly hectic team calendar as Beezy continues to grow, hire, and add customers. It’s an exciting time! Just so much going on, but for my own sanity I wanted to jump on here and catalog my upcoming event activity. As always, if you’re in the vicinity of any of these activities, please do stop by the Beezy booth if we are exhibiting — or stop by one of my sessions and say hello.

Here’s what I have lined up and confirmed (so far) into early April:

  • Sharegate site visit
    January 28+29, Montreal
    No specific event around this activity, but I’ll be out on the road for a few days, weathering the…weather back east. Hoping to see some of the snowpocalypse that hit last week, but equally hoping to escape any major airport delays. Will be hosting this month’s tweetjam from Sharegate HQ, recording a some video footage with Benjamin Niaulin (@bniaulin) and team, and working on some joint content.
     
  • UnityConnect Online
    February 8-11, unityconnect.com/online
    I’m giving a quick 20-minute session entitled “The Network Science Behind ‘Working Like a Network’” which I am really looking forward to presenting, as it’s a topic I am really passionate about.
     
  • SPS Utah (#SPSUtah)
    February 20, spsevents.org/city/saltlake/slc2016
    As one of the original organizers of this event, always happy to make it back to Salt Lake City. This is the second time its being held on the University of Utah campus in the David Eccles School of Business, which is a beautiful facility with plenty of room to grow. I have one session — Five Ways to Ensure 100% Adoption of Office 365.
     
  • SPTechCon Austin (#SPTechCon)
    February 21-24, sptechcon.com/
    Not only is this the largest non-Microsoft SharePoint event in North America, its one of my favorites. In addition to my lightning talk, where I’ll be sharing the results of my ongoing SharePoint research, I have two regular sessions: Productivity Hacking for Team Collaboration and a brand new session entitled The 10 Best Office 365 Features You’ve Never Used (But Should)
     
  • Dallas/Ft Worth SPUG
    February 25, dfwsharepoint.com/
    A couple months back, myself, Benjamin Niaulin and Mike Fitzemaurice (@mikefitz) agreed to join forces following SPTechCon to present at the DFW SPUG, but along the way we picked up the boys from Rencore, Matthias Einig (@mattein) and Erwin van Hunen (@erwinvanhunen) for what is guaranteed to be a power-hitter evening of lightning talks on business, IT Pro, and Dev topics! I’ll kick things off with SharePoint Metrics That Actually Show the Business Value of Collaboration.
     
  • SharePointFest Denver (#SPFest)
    March 1-3, sharepointfest.com/Denver/
    Heading back to SPFest, which is an event that continues to grow. This time around I have two sessions: Life Inside the Paperless Office and Social Collaboration Across Office 365 Platform, both of which I’ve presented before, but have updated for the show. See you there!
     
  • SPS Vancouver (#SPSVancouver, #SPSVAN)
    March 12, spsevents.org/city/vancouver/2016
    I believe this is the 3rd SPS event in Vancouver (am I right?) with the first happening back in September 2010, where I helped from afar while launching SPS events in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Great to *finally* make it north to participate. My one session is entitled Navigating the Evolving Social Capabilities in SharePoint and Office 365
     
  • Microsoft Envision 2016
    April 4-6, New Orleans, microsoft.com/en/envision
    If you’re not yet aware of this one, Microsoft announced this event (quietly) last fall, but did not send out any details until a couple weeks ago. And now it’s a mad dash to get ready for it! This is the first Microsoft event focused on “business decision-makers” rather than IT Pros (which is Ignite), partners (WPC), or developers (BUILD). BDMs are notoriously difficult to gather, so we’ll see how things go – but its Beezy’s primary target market, so we’ll be there for sure!
     
  • Dallas SharePoint TechFest
    April 6, sharepointtechfest.com/dallas/
    Riding on the heels of the Microsoft event, I’ll be skipping out of New Orleans early to participate in my first SharePoint TechFest event in Dallas, speaking on a new topic: SharePoint, Groups, and Yammer: Understanding the Different Modalities of Collaboration. Also presenting in Dallas will be my good friends Naomi Moneypenny, Marc Anderson, Sue Hanley, and Seb Matthews, among others. Don’t miss it!
     
  • SPS Houston (#SPSHOU)
    April 9, spsevents.org/city/houston/houston2016
    It’s been a while since I was able to participate in a Houston SPS event, and I believe this is my 3rd time. No final decision on the sessions yet, but I’ll be there for sure!

Of course, Beezy will be sponsoring many of these events, so please come by the booth and say hello – and learn more about our award-winning social collaboration solution! See you there.

Christian Buckley

Christian is a Microsoft Regional Director and M365 Apps & Services MVP, and an award-winning product marketer and technology evangelist, based in Silicon Slopes (Lehi), Utah. He is the Director of North American Partner Management for leading ISV Rencore (https://rencore.com/), leads content strategy for TekkiGurus, and is an advisor for both revealit.TV and WellnessWits. He hosts the monthly #CollabTalk TweetJam, the weekly #CollabTalk Podcast, and the Microsoft 365 Ask-Me-Anything (#M365AMA) series.