We fear robot overlords as we do vampires, werewolves, and other baddies that go bump in the night. We worry that their intelligence will take our jobs, our livelihood, our freedom, and enslave us to their bidding; or at least that’s how it happens in the movies. Popular culture capitalizes on this emotion to sell Terminator tickets and Asimov novels, but this is not our future. We can celebrate Artificial Intelligence as our greatest accomplishment, and harness it for the tool that it really is. This talk addresses our relationship with computers as tools and how we should allow computers to do the work, so people can do the innovating. Our horizon awaits.

An overview presentation of the capabilities provided by Dynamics 365, how Microsoft bundles the capabilities and how Dynamics 365 expands the Microsoft productivity suite beyond Office 365.

A “new” way of communicating with your computer/devices is on the rise: VOICE. How do we make a program understand our determinations with words? Enter API.ai, a platform for mapping intents. Attendees will git a quick rundown of API.ai and see it used in a live chatbot.

Dynamic infrastructure enabled by MS Azure & cloud technology allows us to scale like never before. But it’s also made monitoring more complicated & demands that we evolve our strategy. In this session, we’ll look at a framework for your metrics to know what data to collect & how to make sense of it

We will review oopsies MANY developers fall prey to! Lots of code examples with bad AND good code presented. I GUARANTEE that you will find things here that will prevent you from getting bad data, throwing unwanted errors or vastly improve your database application’s performance and concurrency.

We all hear about machine learning more and more everyday and how it is going to be great but we may not know how to get started to see if it would be beneficial to us. This talk will cover the general concepts of machine learning and how to use Azure Machine Learning to accomplish our goals.

Over time, software rots. If we’re not diligent, our beautiful code can degrade into a worthless mess. Come learn concrete techniques for identifying and correcting problems in your code before its technical debt becomes too difficult to keep under control. Examples in C#/ASP.NET.

In this session we will provide an overview of EMS and all of the components that are a part of the suite. We will pay particular attention to new functionality and to advanced functionality such as Identity Protection (AADIP), Data Classification (Azure Information Protection), and Cloud Application Security (MCAS).

Ashley McGlone will live demo writing and running PowerShell scripting on Windows, Mac, and Linux. He will demonstrate remote interactive sessions between the OSes. Learn how to get PowerShell running in your open source, cross-platform world. A PowerShell thrill show!

Moving from traditional input with keyboard and mouse, users increasingly interact with their voice. Using artificial intelligence, it’s increasingly easy to understand not just what was said, but what it means.

“Power BI is SSRS in the cloud, right?” “Throw pie charts on the screen it’s a dashboard, right?” Wrong. Learn Power BI from the an Office 365 developer. We will break down those bad dashboard design principles you thought were good design (hint: pie charts and 3D are almost always a bad design).

How can you find hidden defects in your code without a lot of manual analysis? You’ll leave this talk knowing when to use fuzzing to test your application, which tools you should use, how to implement a fuzzer from scratch, and when other techniques are a better choice.

Come see how Franklin County Department of Job & Family Services is using Power BI to make data driven decisions, improve customer services and change the lives of residents in Franklin County.

Members of the Columbus Web Group share how they’ve created a community and culture providing free educational opportunities that can be applied to your business and organization.

You have something to say that others need to hear: skills, experiences or maybe just a status report. But how can you present it so that people want to listen? Learn the communication model, how to overcome the fear of speaking, how to get to the point and what to put in a presentation.

Are you in a competitive, ever-changing market? Are you focused on growth and transforming your business? Do your employees need to be productive, using the latest and greatest tools, if so, come hear why Dynamics 365 is right for your business! This session will explore the latest capabilities of Microsoft’s game-changing ERP and CRM platform, that includes the Common Data Service and Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and Operations & Finance. When you leave the session, you’ll have a solid perspective about the transformational capabilities this game-changing platform offers.

Exciting things are happening in the Windows / .NET space. Attend this session to learn about the new features of Visual Studio and C# 7.

These improvements are designed to help developers and teams get the most out of their coding effort.

We’ll take some time to explain the new features that Windows Server 2016 brings to AD so that you can get started on your Windows Server 2016 AD deployment sooner than later.

Microsoft Teams is a rapidly emerging platform for collaboration built on SharePoint and Office 365 with a heart in chat-based interactions. This session will explore the components of a Team and some best practices for using and customizing its features to get your team collaborating quickly.

Discussion on the new features of Exchange 2016 broken-down by what is new for organizations running Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013.

Stateless, infinitely scalable and immensely affordable, these are the qualities that make Azure Functions such a compelling technology, and it is so easy to get started with.

With Visual Studio Team Services, development teams no longer need to piece-meal their tech stack for source control, requirements management, automated builds, release management, and more. As Microsoft’s hosted instance of Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio Team Services provides an low-barrier to entry for small teams of developers, but how can an organization leverage it’s power while maintaining some balance of security and control? Come learn how enterprise teams can get up and running with Team Services beyond the first five free users!

While standing up a new account is a breeze, managing billing for charges such as additional users, concurrent build and release pipelines, extensions, etc. requires a bit more effort. Additionally, at enterprise-scale, we should manage identities in a central manner: not relying on personal Microsoft accounts. In this talk we will discuss what is free and how costs are incurred, as well as how those costs can be managed.

Additionally, we will configure our Team Services account to be backed by an Azure Active Directory and manage access to our Team Projects with Users and Groups.

This session will walk through PowerApps and Microsoft Flow integration with various cloud and on-prem data sources such as Azure SQL, OneDrive, Twitter, Azure API apps, SharePoint, and more. A live interactive demo will highlight the flow of data between services using attendee input.

his talk covers what to do if you find yourself in a management position. We’ll talk about how to avoid drowning on day 1, how to build your leadership skills, and how to make decisions (or avoid them) in order to empower your team to be successful.

Deploying Office 365 is a journey that goes beyond buying licenses from Microsoft and giving your employees access. This session focuses on the planning, deployment, adoption, and governance considerations that are critical to deploying Office 365 to securely meet the needs of the organization.

ASP.NET Core is Microsoft’s new open-source cross-platform web framework. Version 2.0 streamlines development and adds a number of additional features. In this session, you’ll learn about ASP.NET Core, the 2.0 release, and when it makes sense to start developing for this platform.

Your ability to create an effective resume and perform well in a job interview are your keys to a successful career. Learn what employers are looking for and what mistakes to avoid from a Software Manager and former Developer who has read hundreds of resumes and conducted dozens of interviews.

As of July 2017 Windows 10 has been “in the wild” for 2 years, and a wild two years it has been! The purpose of this session is to explore Windows 10 imaging lessons learned and will cover a wide range of topics including: + New features and functionalities within the OS that inform our delivery options + Exploring and learning from common mistakes in OS imaging and deployment processes + New and/or improved deployment solutions and how best to leverage them + Optimizing your deployment

This 45min session will be presented by Curt Adams, Practice Lead of Enterprise Systems Management with KiZAN Technologies. With over 16 years’ experience managing and deploying Windows OS’s Curt has seen everything from smooth migrations to learning opportunities alike. Learn from his experiences, and gain insights into Windows 10 deployment highs and lows.

ORMs - oh how I LOVE them! As a consultant when I see them in play at a client I go KACHIIINNNNGGGG!! 😀 Seriously though, they can provide some substantial benefits for coding throughput. But if you don’t Read The Fine Manual and do some things right and avoid some major gotchas you will fall prey to one of my favorite Guruisms: “Anything that allows developers to slap code together more quickly is inversely proportional to the performance and scalability you will get from that code”! Although this talk is based on Entity Framework, most ORMs suffer from a lot of the same flaws.

When should you use a service bus vs. a web service call? When should you use the Distributed Transaction Coordinator? Should you use CQRS? Should you build Microservices?
Take a look under the hood of your network stack. What promises does it make? What promises can it actually keep?

Want to implement a tech strategy to enable scale in your organization? This presentation explores tactics for companies from startups to enterprises that can enable a tech platform for scale.

Developing modern software is extremely complex. Features are added and removed. Developers come and go.
Static analysis tools help us get an idea about hidden challenges. This can help provide a fresh set of (computer) eyes to help keep our code base from becoming a toxic dump.

Today we are moving from the analog to the augmented, centralized economies to decentralized crypto currencies, and tractors to IoT and automation. We are shifting away from grids of pixels to harnessing light in ways only science fiction could predict. The flying car has been replaced by autonomous vehicles on mesh networks. Navigating these cultural changes is challenging, even the programming languages we use are evolving. Join us as we explore the technologies that are enabling our world to become more productive. From containers to mixed reality devices, we’ll try to make sense of it all and focus on what is truly important.

Many organizations trust data backups to keep their company running in the event of a disaster. However, a backup strategy is not sufficient to protect a business from a real disaster. In this talk, we will explore why, and what IT Pros need to do to protect their business.

Have you ever been stuck between a rock and a code place? Learning to code can feel as challenging as defying gravity! Sometimes the problem that needs solving just needs a little real-world abstraction. Come hear stories of my battles with coding and how rock climbing taught me dev best practices.

We’ll explore Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities of Office 365 to help identify and protect your organization’s sensitive information.

There are many prerequisites and technologies needed to get Azure Conditional Access working in an enterprise. In this session we will talk about how to secure Azure services to your domain joined computers and compliant devices exampled from a deployment for a Healthcare industry customer.

Just because your cloud provider is secure, doesn’t mean the applications that you host there are.

In this session, you will learn how to design, build and connect bots that will engage your users wherever they are. Using the Microsoft Bot Framework, we will examine patterns of interaction and integration with APIs and natural language processing with the Microsoft Cognitive Services.

Accessibility can be hard to understand if you are not working with it regularly, & it is often overlooked during the development of hardware/software. Gain new perspective on the issue as I share my experience providing tech support to users at the American Printing House for the Blind.

As software developers, our goal is to typically write software that meets the needs of our clients. Communication breakdowns often occur between people with different communication styles. How do we bridge that gap and get the information we need from people who communicate differently than we do?

Linux, containers and clouds, Oh My! Attend this demo-heavy session to learn best practices derived from the world’s largest Open Source implementations on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

In this session we will review what governance is, how it can be useful, how you can get started, maintain it, and most importantly how to get it approved!· Trick for getting Governance
· Governance in O365 vs On-Premise
· How job roles are changing
Keeping up with Governance in O365

Will anything dethrone NTFS? Could it be ReFS? Join Microsoft MVP Rick Vanover to see how this new file system is making waves in the Windows Storage ecosystem. Tips, tricks and use cases that will make the case for ReFS!

“My SQL query is slow. Why?” In this session, we’ll take a look at the process of running queries against a SQL Server database. You’ll see what a query execution plan looks like, how to read them, and what an execution plan operator is and how they work.

Confused by realities virtual, augmented, and mixed? As we discuss what these mean, you’ll learn how to build a personal reality for HoloLens. You don’t even need a device to get started — create an experience with Unity 3D, enhance it with C#, and deploy to the HoloLens emulator in Visual Studio.

A technical discussion on lessons learned from years of mail migrations to O365 from Exchange, Notes and even Exchange Online. Connectivity, clients, service updates and other considerations will all be discussed.

We’ve heard a lot lately about how the machines may be taking over our jobs. Join Chris Slee, a software engineer from AWH, for a discussion on artificial intelligence and machine learning - and how it will affect your business in the future. You’ll leave not only understanding machine learning and AI but what pieces of these cognitive services are available to use in your business today. Participants will learn: · The differences between ML and AI · How machines “learn” · How businesses are using the technology today · The future of these innovations and how will they affect your enterprise

With the explosion of the cloud comes the explosion of compute power to solve complex problems. With just a few lines of code, you can begin to build AI into your applications. In this talk, we will work together to design an app that will use computer vision to intelligently respond to live video.

React Native claims to allow us to “learn once, write anywhere.” Yet React Native code can’t be run on the web, the most ubiquitous application platform! ReactXP is the solution to this cross-platform problem. Come catch a glimpse of the future of genuine “write anywhere” development!

Microsoft’s Automation interface makes it possible to control Windows-based applications from the outside, and Ruby is ideal for utilizing that interface to automate repetitive tasks and test validations.

OneDrive and the free storage it provides has changed the way many people work. The ability to synchronize to local storage is critical to that change. The history of sync clients has been confusing at best and dysfunctional at worst. In this talk we will cut through the confusion.

Let’s make mobile apps great again! This session is your personal crash course in creating cross-platform mobile apps (iOS and Android) with NativeScript and Angular.

Since the release of Office 365, Microsoft has continued to add additional value by adding new workloads to Office 365. This talk will go over what is included in each of the Office 365 offerings to help you choose the right license for your organization.

I will begin with an static setup of the environment using terraform for static setup. Then I will use ansible to into install free ipa. I will cover the basics of ansible and use centos 7.3 or redhat for deployment. This can be done in aws or digital ocean.

People are their most creative when they feel safe to bring their whole self forward. In our agile environments, we are looking for that level of investment so that individuals can flourish and our customers can benefit from what comes forth.

Why Service Fabric is an ideal platform to host all types of applications. How SF supports HA workloads at scale, geofencing, security, and management. Ability to run in cloud or on prem, in VMs or containers, on Windows or Linux. Reasons to build microservices with SF.

Join us as we explore how to use Microsoft’s new MPP (Massively Parallel Processing) technology, Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Two years after the release of Windows 10, the QA community has adapted to testing on Windows 10 with the Edge browser. Test automation, which has become omnipresent, had to also adapt to execution with Edge. In this talk, we will demonstrate the challenges and solutions for Edge automation.

Let’s explore navigation best practices, how to clean up your existing navigation, ease of use, make the wow factor of your site and some tips and tricks on how to get your users excited.· What is Navigation?
· What good navigation looks like
· Dangers of bad navigation
Easy Navigation Freebies

Focusing on human tendencies and modern neuroscience, this session shows how to move outside of your current understanding and biases and realize your full potential.

This release of the OS is dramatically different from prior releases, as it goes well beyond server virtualization, because previously the world has been all about servers. No longer. The cloud wave is underway and Windows Server 2016 delivers with an amazing amount of modernization.

As of now there are multiple ways to establish authentication to Azure Active Directory from your on-premise AD. In the session we will cover each of the available options and pay particular attention to what Pass-thru authentication provides. We will talk about benefits and limitations of each along with any specific configuration required…particularly with AzureAD Connect.

Would you agree that people in large organizations sometimes don’t feel as empowered with ownership as they should?
Well, this talk will leave you feeling inspired to take on a new role as an intrapreneur and drive toward successful implementations, regardless of the barriers that come your way.