Microsoft Ignite starts next week and we’re working hard to make sure that each of the 1,400 sessions are packed with product news, useful information and demos. With so much to choose from, making sure you get the right content can be a challenge- so we’re here to help! Here are my picks for the Office 365 Groups sessions you should attend. Don’t forget to swing by the Office 365 Admin and Groups expo booths to meet the team or email us at Email us at ignitemeetingrequest@service.microsoft.com if you want to schedule a side meeting. Remember to include your tenant name and asks so that we can be as helpful as possible!

See you in Orlando!

Pre-Day Sessions

We start by hitting the ground running with a great pre-day session on Sunday, September 24 to jumpstart your learning. This session doesn’t focus entirely on groups, but is great for any Office 365 admin who wants to understand how groups fit into the management of Microsoft cloud products, and deep dive on identity components. This session is almost sold-out!

Get identity and access management up and running for Office 365 and thousands of other applications

Join the Microsoft product teams for a deep dive into how Office 365 and EMS enable users to engage and collaborate inside and outside your organization. See how Office 365 and Azure Active Directory can help you easily move identity to the cloud and power other applications with seamless single sign-on and identity switching. Dive into Azure Active Directory and how new features simplify and secure identity management. See how Microsoft and its customers are optimizing their deployment of identity and access management solutions and bring your key blockers to have Microsoft engineers help solve them.

General Sessions

This first official days of Ignite bring several great keynote and general sessions allowing you to better understand our vision, new capabilities and roadmap as you start to deep dive into what’s new.

TK01 – Create a modern workplace with Microsoft 365 – The workplace is transforming – from changing employee expectations, to more diverse and globally distributed teams, to an increasingly complex threat landscape. Learn how you can take advantage of the latest tools to simplify management and deliver up-to-date security, while enabling a modern workplace for your users. Monday, September 25, 10:45 PM

GS09 – Microsoft 365: Unlock creativity and empower teamwork in the modern workplace Corporate Vice Presidents Ron Markezich and Jeff Teper give you an inside look at the latest collaboration tools and use cases, exciting demos, and what other customers are doing to bring creativity and teamwork to life in the modern workplace. Monday, September 25, 4:00 PM

BRK2184 – Accelerate your digital transformation with SharePoint and OneDrive Join Jeff Teper and members of the SharePoint and OneDrive product team as they share the latest product innovations, demos and roadmap. This is a can’t miss session for any fan of SharePoint and OneDrive. Tuesday, September 26, 9:00 AM

Break Out Sessions

Ask the Experts

Bring your trickiest questions and ask our panels anything about groups and other related topics.

Ask us anything about Office 365 Groups – Office 365 Groups provides cross application group membership to enable teams to easily collaborate in their favorite apps. Groups are a cornerstone of our Office 365 collaboration offering. Our panel of experts from Microsoft and MVPs have worked hand-in-hand with customers embarking on the journey to leverage Groups. The goal of this interactive panel is to answer any question the audience may have about Office 365 Groups usage, adoption, governance, and product roadmap. There should be lots to talk about. Don’t be shy! Monday, September 25 5:05 PM

Exchange and Outlook mega “ask the experts” – One email and calendaring experts session to rule them all! Bring your questions about Microsoft Exchange or Outlook, and experts from engineering and support will be on hand to answer. Topic areas represented include Exchange Server on-premises; Exchange Online; Outlook apps; top support issues; Exchange hybrid; groups in Outlook; and due to popular demand from Ignite 2016, calendaring. Tuesday, September 26 12:30 PM