Commsverse 2020, What Did I Miss?

Commsverse 2020 wrapped up yesterday, and it was jam-packed with engaging sessions, a stark contrast from many in-person conferences I have attended if I must say so. I hoped online and caught a few of the sessions, and speakers at this year's first-ever Commsverse seem to have been instrumental in transforming many of the organizations they worked for, bringing them into the digital age - a new age of remote work, or at least some sort of hybrid approach.

Ahead of the conference, I sat down with one of the event's organizers, Mark Vale, he's a Microsoft MVP and Independent Microsoft Consultant based in the UK. He said he was optimistic about this year's event which would have been in-person if it hadn't been for the novel Coronavirus. The virus had other plans, though, forcing the team of volunteers to shift into overdrive and build a professional-looking online conference in a matter of weeks.

[caption id="attachment_30094" align="alignright" width="200"] Mark Vale[/caption]

Kicking off with this year's keynote via Microsoft Teams, Corporate, Microsoft Vice President Jeff Teper, Microsft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive, shared touched on the changing enterprise landscape, adding: "Earlier this year, I took over Microsoft Teams. The global pandemic's changed how we operate and the community plays a big role in that."

Sean Wilson, Solution Architect, Jamie Stark Product Manager, Microsoft Teams, hosted an interesting session as well. The duo chatted about the changing partner landscape, and how enterprise leaders will have to adjust their mindsets to enable business continuity, which they reminded attendees, is not, and should not be 'disaster recovery.

"Partners and customers have to embrace whole new world in-home practices in work-life balance, mental health, etc"

Teper added you can do a lot with Teams, but getting the most out of the experience is key. Users can create teams in seconds with customizable templates, create and manage chatbots in Teams, add custom apps, and automate workflows in Teams. One of the most useful tips he shared, users can share Power BI reports in Teams, which can lend a great deal of insight into enterprise-wide performance.