CollabDays Utah 2024
is a community-driven IT conference focused on Microsoft technologies. Our
speakers are top experts and Microsoft MVPs from across the US and abroad. Come
along to learn and to be inspired about Modern Work, Security, Productivity, Power
Platform, and AI!
CollabDays Utah is
held at Gail Miller Conference Center at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) in
Sandy, Utah on Friday, April 19th, 2024. The conference is free, with lunch and
snacks included, and a final raffle for those who stick around for the entire
day!
CollabDays Utah is a
continuation of the 10+ years history of SharePoint Saturday and M365 Friday
events that have been held on the Miller Campus, at the University of Utah, and
at Kiln in Lehi. The event is organized by the Microsoft User Group Utah (#MUGUT)
and Utah Geeks organizations.&nbsp;

Since CollabDays Utah is a free, non-profit event, we rely on the support and generosity of sponsors to compensate for the expenses incurred during the event. There are five categories of sponsorships available: Platinum (2 spots available), Gold (4), Silver (8), Web-only, and SharePint sponsor. Download the sponsorship packet for details, and contact us for availability!

CollabDays Utah

Wasatch (150 H) - Development

Lone Peak (150 F) DevSecOps

Cottonwood (150 B) - Business

Copper Creek  (150 A) - Business Intelligence

Deer Creek (150 C) - Artificial Intelligence

Step by step instructions on building a beautiful app for real world approval processes.
Includes:
Beautiful App Example templates to inspire you.
Examples of how to automate various types of approval processes.
Best practices for approval processes.
Tips for bringing the best experience for your users.
Key features like: 
My Actions, notifications, opening up approval item from email, PDF creation/saving, Capturing signatures, and more!

Beautiful Approval Processes with Power Apps and Power Automate

The 2022 Microsoft Digital Defense Report reported that in 88% of onsite response engagements, basic account security such as MFA was not implemented for sensitive and highly privileged accounts. Looking beyond Microsoft, common findings from trusted breach preparedness and response services consultants indicate similar findings during proactive and reactive engagements – weak and non-existent security controls around these privileged accounts, including Global Administrator.

If Domain Administrator is the proverbial key to the kingdom, Global Administrator is the imperial sceptre to your entire digital empire. When a Global Administrator account is compromised, organizations are at risk of compromise not only of Office 365 and Azure resources, but also of multi-cloud resources tied to Entra ID (Azure AD), as well as critical business SaaS applications, such as CRM and HCMS platforms like Salesforce and Workday. A threat actor can also leverage Global Admin to move high-value compute resources such as Active Directory. It is imperative that organizations understand the fundamentals of protecting these accounts, and that identity and security practitioners are empowered to protect their privileges.

In this session, we will explore this sprawl of potential targets and look at some examples of how a compromised Global Administrator can move into target resources and applications.  With this knowledge, we'll explore the Microsoft Security rapid modernization plan (RAMP) recommendations, hitting deep on their importance and common misconfigurations and misunderstandings about them.  

Whether you're new to Azure or a seasoned pro looking for perspective, this session will help you understand how to rapidly and effectively secure privileged accounts in Entra ID (Azure AD).

Protect Your Privilege: The Vast Reach of a Compromised Global Admin

The line between external marketing and internal communications is blurring. As the dynamics of content consumption change, there's an emergent need for strategic content alignment, ensuring your internal communications resonate as powerfully as your external ones. This session promises not just information but transformation. Strategize, modernize, and revolutionize your content narrative for today's digital age!

Key Takeaways:

+Aligning Internal & External Strategies: Discover how to seamlessly integrate your internal content approach with the dynamism of external marketing strategies.

+Community Insights with Viva Engage: Leverage social collaboration and community-building to foster a more connected, engaged workforce.

+Master the art of content distribution through Teams, SharePoint, Engage, and Outlook with the revolutionary Viva Amplify.

+Get a hands-on introduction to transformative AI tools and discover how they can refine and redefine your content narrative.

Who Should Attend?

+Internal Communications Personnel striving for impactful resonance.

+Marketing Professionals aiming to bridge external and internal content strategies.

+People Managers looking to optimize team engagement and collaboration.

Elevate Your Comms: Bridging External Marketing & Internal Strategy in the Digital Era

Are you really curious about Power BI Dashboards, but you are scared that you won’t understand any of the words? This is the session for you! During our short time together, I will define some basic terms and best practices in Data Analysis, provide a quick demo of Power BI, and show what it takes to create a few simple reports and dashboards. 
What Will You Learn?
•    How to ask the right questions 
•    How to quickly get and model data
•    How to design easy reports and dashboards

Power BI and Dashboards 101

The whole world is ready to make everything easier and faster with Copilot from Microsoft. Well, maybe better said the entire world THINKS they are ready for Copilot but that probably isn't true. In this fast moving session we will learn about all the varieties of Copilot, what they can do to make your life more joyful and most importantly the things you really MUST do before you turn it loose on your tenant. At the end of this session you will have an actionable list of things you should do to get ready. 

Are you ready to Copilot?

Anyone who has used Power Automate for any length of times has run into a situation where you can do 90% of what you need to do and has no answer for that last 10%. Don't despair, there is a way! In this advanced session we'll show you how to craft your own custom connector to enhance what you can do with Power Automate. We'll be using Power Automate premium connectors and a few other tools in our belt to show you how we have used the Power Platform to deliver "custom" application solutions for our clients in a fraction of the time it would take to do it using traditional tools and methodologies. 

Power Automate Can't Do That? MAKE IT!

How privileged is your user account in M365 and Azure? Are your privileged users synchronized from Active Directory? Are they mail enabled? And when is the last time you audited your privileges to see what you use vs what you are assigned?

In the 2022 Microsoft Digital Defense Report, weak identity controls were the number one factor for incident response engagements, with 84% of administrators in organizations not using proper privileged identity controls. Theat actors are turning their eyes towards the cloud; business email compromise, easy data exfiltration and tenants being ransomwared is a reality we now live with. For some organizations it’s a matter of time or money or knowledge, or a combination of all three, to understand what privileged identity means in the world of M365 and Azure.

In this conversation we’ll discuss the key privileged identity controls every organization should employ for privileged users, whether you are using Azure, or M365, or both. We’ll look at the Microsoft RAMP model for securing privilege, clarify commonly confusing topics around privileged security, and answer the questions as to why these controls are important, and how identity security requires layered complementary controls to ensure that we protect our privilege, and in turn protect our organization.

The Measures for Securing Privileged Users in M365 and Azure Every Organization Should Take

The fundamental building block of M365 is the M365 Group and controlling how they are created, managed, archived, and deleted is a critical governance issue for organizations.  This session will explore the questions that your organization will need to ask itself to properly create a governance structure for M365 Groups and how and when to automate the process.

M365 Group Lifecycle Management

Power BI is a business intelligence tool that allows users to connect to various data sources, create interactive reports and dashboards, and share insights.
Teams, is a collaboration platform that allows users to communicate, collaborate, and share files with others in real-time.
Together they allow you to can help organizations improve collaboration, streamline communication, and make better data-driven decisions.

Power Bi and Teams a Perfect Match

Step into the world of Generative AI with our beginner-friendly session. We'll share how we built our AI Copilot for financial and HR tasks, showcasing the fundamentals of choosing and implementing OpenAI's GPT-4 on Microsoft Azure. From model selection to application development using semantic-kernel, Visual Studio, and VS Code, our journey will provide invaluable insights for GAI developers and newcomers. Join us and turn your curiosity into action as we explore the fascinating real world of the AI copilot project!

Journey into Generative AI, Building Your Own AI Copilot

Welcome to the session that will transform the way you view SharePoint and automation! Join us for an electrifying dive into the world of "REST Assured: Powering Up the SharePoint REST API with Power Automate." This session is your gateway to unlocking the hidden potential within SharePoint through the wonders of its REST API and Power Automate.

In this dynamic session, we'll embark on a journey that demystifies the SharePoint REST API and demonstrates how Power Automate can serve as your ultimate automation tool. You'll learn the secrets to leveraging the SharePoint REST API within Power Automate, allowing you to automate, customize, and extend the SharePoint connector.

Some of the cool things you will get from this session include:

• Understanding the power of the SharePoint REST API and how it can elevate your SharePoint experience.
• Exploring the intricacies of integrating the SharePoint REST API within Power Automate flows.
• Witnessing live demonstrations showcasing the use of Power Automate and the SharePoint REST API to create efficient, and powerful flows.
• Discovering practical use cases that showcase the versatility and potential of this collaboration.

Join us and get ready to power up your SharePoint game with the dynamic duo of SharePoint REST API and Power Automate.

REST Assured: Powering Up the SharePoint REST API with Power Automate

Decades of combined years of experience building better protections to stop external and internal threats using Microsoft's Entra ID toolsets to verify users, verify access, and minimize risk. Can you do all of that while not making your users despise the IT department? That often depends on how willing you and your leadership team are to embrace new technology that you might already be paying for with M365.
Join us to hear what we've learned while helping companies implement additional layers of security for administrative roles, service accounts, and MS Graph permissions. Strengthen your use of MFA and phishing resistant credentials to protect against emerging threats. 
Learn how you can build a Zero Trust roadmap using Microsoft's playbook.

Zero Trust - "Hey I recognize that < ph1sHeD creD3ntial > come on in!"

There are many ways to migrate your content to SharePoint Online/Teams, or OneDrive from file shares, older versions of SharePoint, and ton of different cloud services. How do you know which method is going to work best for you?

In this session, join Nick Brattoli as he shares lessons learned from hundreds of migrations over the last 15 years that can help you plan out your own migration.

He'll talk about topics such as:

Choosing your tools
Performing discovery and analysis
Designing information architecture
Creating and tweaking your migration process
Common challenges
Going live 

If your organization is like many others, and are currently consolidating data into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, you won't want to miss this one!


How to Successfully Migrate Data to SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive from Anywhere

My session will incorporate real-life examples to illustrate the benefits of Fabric and Copilot in Power BI and their impact on businesses. Firstly, organizations have experienced accelerated insights and decision-making by efficiently analyzing large volumes of data. Leveraging Fabric and Copilot has led to faster insights, enabling more informed decision-making and positive outcomes such as increased revenue and cost savings.

Secondly, Fabric and Copilot have improved collaboration and teamwork among teams. By providing a centralized platform for data analysis, these features enable seamless collaboration between different departments and stakeholders. This enhanced collaboration will be demonstrated to highlight its business benefits.

Lastly, Fabric and Copilot empower business users to adopt self-service analytics. With user-friendly interfaces and intelligent suggestions, non-technical users can independently explore and derive insights from data, reducing reliance on IT or data teams. This empowerment results in increased agility, quicker response to market trends, and improved data literacy within organizations.

In conclusion, my session will showcase real-life examples to demonstrate the tangible business impact of Fabric and Copilot in Power BI. This includes accelerated decision-making, enhanced collaboration, and increased adoption of self-service analytics. These features provide organizations with effective tools to leverage their data, driving growth and success in today's data-driven landscape.


The Business Impact of Fabric and Copilot in Power BI

Azure OpenAI Services are offering different types of base GPT models to use on your own use cases. In this session, we will show how to provision a OpenAI gpt service, how to fine-tune your model, how to use your own data to build a bot and integrate it with your existing application systems. We will also introduce LLMOps and show the process of LLMOps in this session. 

Build & Fine-tune a GPT bot on your own data using Azure Open AI Services

You've been making your life easier using Power Automate to script away some of the drudgery for you and your users. You love the platform and the flexibility built into it but think there might be a better way to do some of the things you do. As it happens, there IS a better way! In this session we'll review proven techniques that will make your solutions faster, more reliable and easier to support. We'll cover Power Automate Solutions, Naming Conventions, Error Handling, Inter-process Communication, Long Running and Multi Stage Approvals, How to use a Service Account, and more. While this isn't a session intended for beginners, if you are just getting started this might be the best possible way to avoid making some of the same mistakes the rest of us have made.  

Power Automate Best Practices

We still live in a world where the default security settings are not where they need to be, and Microsoft 365 is no different. Since Microsoft 365 leverages Microsoft Entra ID (AKA Azure AD), not only does the infrastructure need security attention, so does Entra ID. Not all of the security settings are obvious though, which might not surprise you. Let 19X Microsoft MVP Derek Melber guide you through some of the best security settings you need to ensure are configured to secure your Microsoft 365 environment. Some of the topics of the discussion include:
-	Securing privileged accounts
-	User identity security and management tips
-	Post installation security settings 


Microsoft 365 Security: Configuration and Management TODO List

Microsoft Teams can be your best friend…or your worst enemy!
In this session we will show you how to fix the top 7 productivity killers in Microsoft Teams…and help you to be more productive when communicating, collaborating, creating content. In this session you will learn:

How to organize Microsoft Teams to maximize your productivity
Take control of the barrage of notifications
Use Mentions and Tags to draw attention to your content
Tips for more effective meetings
The best kept secret of Teams

Top 7 Productivity Killers in Microsoft Teams

If you are not sure where to start your Power Bi journey with BC or other solutions this is the session for you!  This workshop will walk you through best practices for connecting to BC and get to the data that you need for reporting.  Paginated, Financials, AR/AP Aging Reports, and Beyond! 

BC and Power Bi:  How to get Started and Beyond

Are your apps and flows all over the place or split through multiple environments? Have any of your flows ever broke because the author has left the company? Learn some simple techniques that will help you cleanup your environments, make your apps scalable and future proof as well as scaling up apps and flows already being used.

Power Platform Solutions: Package your apps and flows and save yourself from future headaches

Have you ever been in a situation where you were asked to do something with SharePoint, Teams, or the Power Platform that is wasn't something similar and out of the box? I bet you have!

There's nothing wrong with customizing things, creating Power Apps and automation with Power Automate, or beautiful reports with Power BI. There are lots of reasons to write custom code with SharePoint Framework, or create things in Azure.

However, all of these things create technical debt, which can cause unforeseen consequences! Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

In this session, join Nick Brattoli as he walks through a few common scenarios and requests and discusses possible ways to handle them to achieve the best balance of meeting requirements and avoiding technical debt.

He'll discuss topics such as:

Meeting with stakeholders to discern outcome-based requirements

Managing client expectations

Important things to consider before saying "yes"

Much more!

If you are curious about technical debt, or want some tools to fight it, don't miss this session!




Beware of Technical Debt: How to Navigate Requests for Customizations

SharePoint and OneDrive include several content recovery options for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business administrators, site collection administrators, and end users. Educating your end users on SharePoint recovery options like the site recycle bin, versioning, and site collection recycle bin can lighten the burden on your admins.

Using either a GUI or PowerShell you can backup and restore your entire SharePoint Server farm or components of it. In SharePoint Server you can also perform more granular content backups by exporting site collections, site, libraries, and lists, and there are  options for recovering these site collections, sites, lists and libraries from content databases that are no longer part of your SharePoint Server farm. 

With a vast majority of your SharePoint Server 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 Server  administrators to configure SharePoint as well as SQL Server for quick content recovery, minimizing the downtime and providing shorter and achievable Service Level Agreements (SLA’s).

Data recovery options for SharePoint/OneDrive

We're all drowning in data that could be helpful if only we understood it. Just how do we get value from all that data, especially in the era of Artificial Intelligence? In this fun and engaging session we'll give you the template you need to create and execute your data strategy so that you, too, can take your data strategy "Back to the Future."

Taking Your Data Strategy Back to the Future

Microsoft Search is a powerful search tool with a growing set of customization options. In this session, we will investigate search scenarios where out-of-the-box Microsoft Search may and may not meet your requirements. We will look at where Microsoft Search shines, as well as when a custom solution may be right for you. 

Our look at custom search solutions will include an overview of the PnP Modern Search solution and webparts, an open source project managed by the PnP Team, with continued contributions by the community. Learn how to set up, use, and customize PnP Modern Search as well as learn the skillsets required to get the most out of search solutions. 

In this session, you'll learn:   
- The when and why for custom search experiences 
- Overview of PnP Modern Search webparts 
- Skillsets for building custom search solutions 

PnP Modern Search – Microsoft Search and the Art of the Possible

Ever wondered how your database is acting? There are DMVs all over, but all of them are cumulative data, so do you know what things were like an hour ago? A day ago? This session will take you through a simple PowerShell pattern that will help you get this data and trend it to see how things are with a look back mechanism. There are also many other reasons to gather this data and I will show you how easy it is. This will be an amazing tool in your belt.

Gathering Database Ops Data with PowerShell

Microsoft Whiteboard is an interactive shareable whiteboard that you can share in your Teams meeting, allowing meeting attendees to interact with the whiteboard from their own desks.

In this session we will explore the cool new inking features and templates Microsoft has incorporated into the whiteboard.

There will be an interactive portion to this session, so please bring a touchscreen device if you'd like to participate.

Enhancing your Teams Meetings with Microsoft Whiteboard

In this session we will walk through creating a public website using azure static web apps and Gatsby (React) and get the content from SharePoint online.  We will make the site automatically rebuild when the content in SharePoint is updated.

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Community Days | CollabDays Utah