Infinity 365

A hearty goodbye from Salzburg to you all. I'm currently sitting here at the really beautiful and tranquil Salzburg airport and am once again way too early. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to look back over the last three days and share my thoughts with you.

Arriving in Salzburg early Sunday evening in crisp 31 degree temperatures, I went straight to the hotel and actually just wanted to have a bite to eat and then have some peace and quiet. Salzburg had other plans for me. When I arrived at the really stylish, exciting and beautiful Fourside Hotel, I discovered that both the restaurant and the bar were closed on Sundays. Anyway, I went for a walk and looked for water. As a new coastal kid, I have acute withdrawal symptoms, especially when I see high mountains (aka the Alps) around me. Then I found both a nice river and a snack nearby and Sunday was saved.

Workshop day: Infinity 365 "Self-Service-Workplace" by and with Nicole Enders

An overall successful workshop, which, as expected, was held with aplomb by Nicole (despite the cold subsiding). Lots of new impressions, lots of new approaches on how to organize yourself as an employee. Ok, I admit that the really great Viva parts were mostly new to me, but they reinforced my belief that I am on the right path in my development.

A really exciting topic was another aspect of the Self-Service Workplace called Power Platform. I know the Mircosoft nerds among you will probably be frowning in amusement, but for me as a no-coder (I learned that was my word of the day 😊), it was a closed book. I wouldn't say that I'm now a Power Automate pro, but I know in theory what is possible with it and can now give my customers the right impetus in this direction.

The first day and the evening program

Then the wild adventure finally began. A firework of information, I think the official statement was that there would be over 60 sessions on 4 tracks over the next two days. Everything the Microsoft 365 heart desires. Personally, I learned a lot and socialized a lot (this was also very important to me, you'll find out why at the end of the talk). There were sessions on Teams, Viva, New Work, PowerApps and lots of security. As much as you could wish for. Too much to go into everything in detail.

My key takeaways from the first day were: Adaptive Cards in Viva are not rocket science and are super cool. Interesting statements were made about the need to involve end users more when it comes to the digital Microsoft 365 overflow (keywords: user adoption, key users). In this context, the "wise" words of a colleague in my project came to mind: "We don't have a technology problem, we have a people problem." I believe that it is becoming increasingly important for companies to continuously pursue user adoption, be it before the launch, during the launch or even during operation afterwards.

Microsoft has set such a rapid pace with M365 by updating their services (we all know the "huh, what's that button all of a sudden") that it's actually negligent for companies not to regularly bring users along and give them the opportunity to train and learn (keyword Viva Learning 😉).

The evening event was really successful. If I voluntarily stay until the last guests leave, that's a clear sign that it was a successful event. Delicious burgers and currywurst with chips from various street food stalls, an endless supply of beer and the odd schnapps (that's what they do in the Alps, I've learned) led to many lively and/or cheerful conversations and some new contacts (Simon, I'm counting on you in August at the usergroup 😉).

The last day and the findings

On the third day, we headed back to the exhibition grounds in a good mood. Luckily, the hotel was only a 5-minute walk away, which was a blessing after the mostly standing event the night before.

In the first presentation, I listened to a relaxed talk on how to set up the M365 roadmap or the news center in a planner relatively easily (I didn't know this before, great tip, I'll implement it at home straight away). Then I was really "brainwashed" in the second presentation. I've been following Alex Eggers for 1.5 years but have never been lucky enough to see him live. That has now changed and, as I said, I was finally awake after his talk 😊 I had initially considered whether I would do the topic "How remote leadership succeeds". After all, I'm not a manager myself, but even for me there were some really good insights. Of course, they were also happy to refer to various Viva products, which always makes me happy as a Viva fanboy.

But, to be honest, by far the most lasting talk of the whole conference (at least for me) was the talk by the really great Bianca Paulus "Mental Health at Work: Employee retention beyond salary and benefits". I spent the whole evening afterwards thinking about it, and even today the topic is still on my mind. Anyone who knows me knows why. If you don't know me, come to #TeamsNue UG in August and you'll understand why. 😊 That's enough advertising, I hope my boss is happy again now.

A few more general words: In every second presentation, the buzzword "copilot" came up, of course, and there's no getting around it. Yes, I fully agree with this statement. I would even go so far as to say that AI will destroy jobs. But all major developments have brought that with them, even the assembly line destroyed jobs back then, namely those who didn't develop, those who refused to learn and progress. Especially in IT, I think that if we don't get involved with ChatGPT, CoPilot, Joshua 😉 and all the others, we shouldn't be surprised if we are left behind at some point. And since I'm a clever fox, I'm going to combine the useful with the pleasant and keep a watchful eye on the topic of CoPilot in Microsoft Viva products in the near future. 😊

However, I have to admit that I still need a bit of practice, as my Bing Copilot has just made clear to me:

My AI-based Copilot for the web says to Infinity365:

I found the following information: The Infinity365 conference took place in Salzburg and is the largest industry gathering around the Microsoft365 cosmos in the German-speaking world. The conference took place in June 2023 and included 3 conferences (#aMSBerlin2023, #mbuf, #Infinity365) with many participants and speakers. There were many presentations and discussions on the topics Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, Viva, Dynamics 365 and Copilot.

I still have a bit of practicing to do, Copilot and I, but we'll work on it, I promise! 😊

So, on that note, I have to get on the plane. Have a good weekend and see you soon.

Your Michael