Office 365 Exposed Pre-Microsoft Ignite Podcast

All the News That’s Fit to Share and Some That Might Not Be

On October 23, Paul Robichaux and I recorded our pre-Microsoft Ignite episode (#16) of our Office 365 Exposed podcast (available at all good podcast services such as iTunes). If you don’t want to download the podcast, you can access the recording online on Paul’s blog.

Apart from our normal review of some of the major news relating to Office 365, like the ill-judged proposal to support self-service purchases for the Power Platform without administrative oversight, we discussed what we expect Microsoft to announce at the conference.

Ann Chu – Special Guest

We like having special guests to quiz, and this episode was no exception as Anna Chu from Microsoft came along to discuss some of the logistics and organizational challenges facing the team who put together the Microsoft Ignite conference. Anna is deeply involved in the organization of the conference and therefore offers a great insight into the ups and downs of delivering an event for 22,000 attendees starting November 4 in Orlando. Among the topics we discussed are:

• How does the selection process work to fill the Microsoft Ignite schedule?
• Potential speakers were asked to submit videos of their presentations to be considered this year. Did the videos help? Do they get a chance to watch them all?
• The reason why Microsoft Ignite now features 45-minute breakout sessions instead of the more normal 60- or 75-minute sessions used by other organizations – and why it might be due to the way people consume Microsoft Ignite content online after the conference is over.
• The plus and minus of the theater format used for 20-minute sessions held on the technology exhibition show floor.
• Why the session catalog Microsoft Ignite 2019 contains so much developer content and if IT Pros will be disappointed by a dilution of their content in what’s viewed as a primary annual learning experience for IT Pros.
• Tips for experienced and newbie attendees to maximize their participation at the conference.

The debate was fast-paced and informative. Definitely worth a listen if you’ve ever wondered about how the Microsoft Ignite conference schedule comes together under pressure for session slots from Microsoft engineering groups and external speakers.

Episode 17 of Office 365 Exposed

Paul and I will be recording episode 17 in the podcast center at Microsoft Ignite (Monday, 6PM). We have some interesting guests lined up and hope that our minds won’t be too scrambled after listening to the flood of announcements usually made on the first day of the conference.

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See this post for more information about sessions delivered by the Office 365 for IT Pros author team