5 SharePoint Answers: Benjamin Niaulin on Search, Cross-Site Publishing

We connected with SharePoint expert Benjamin Niaulin and asked him these 5 questions. Here are his answers.

#1: What do you think is challenging and/or important for people to learn about SharePoint/Office 365?

It's often difficult to understand how Search works, as it isn't something we've had experience with in other platforms. But it is vital to understand because people in the organization have increasing expectations for it to be the same as at home with Google or Bing.

#2: What piece of advice would you give new attendees for getting the most out of a tech conference?

Don't be shy! I started by attending a conference and went to evening events and/or community get-togethers and made a lot of very good relationships that I still have today. The content is available or will be on the internet, the real value is the exchange with experts and getting their insights. So don't be shy they are always happy to help.

#3: What do you drink at SharePint?

Dogfish Head 120 minute IPA but I have had too many SharePints--I really should stick to water.

#4: What are you most looking forward to at September’s IT/Dev Connections?

I don't have the time to look at things other than SharePoint, but I am looking forward to meeting experts and learning about other products.

#5: Give us the “elevator pitch” about your presentations--what are you going to talk about?

People expect to find what they are looking for without having to navigate through links for hours, but they also want it to be tailored to them. My sessions “Exploring SharePoint 2013's Search: What's New?” and “Building Contoso Electronics: Understanding Cross-Site Publishing” show how to use Search in SharePoint to show contextual information to the right visitor with the least amount of effort possible.

Geek and SharePoint MVP Benjamin Niaulin has been around the globe helping people reach their goals by simplifying SharePoint. As a Certified Trainer for well over 7 years, he has become very comfortable training and sharing his experiences. In 2014, he was awarded as one of the Top 25 SharePoint Influencers in North America. He works at Sharegate, a simple Migration Tool for SharePoint, but his focus is in helping making SharePoint accessible to all.

But first of all, Benjamin is just a geek in love with SharePoint since the beginning of the 2007 version up to now, amidst the cool new features in SharePoint 2013. A passionate speaker, his sessions are always very engaging.