Check Out These 6 SharePoint Fest DC Sessions for Deep Insight into SharePoint 2016

SharePoint Fest D.C. starts today and runs through Friday. SharePoint Fest has always been a conference chock-full of great presenters and valuable content. SharePoint Fest D.C. is coming just ahead of the May 4 release of SharePoint 2016, and there are many sessions geared toward helping enterprise stakeholders effectively prepare for the new platform. Following are some of the sessions you should check out if you are in D.C.; if you’re not, presenters often post their slide decks after the sessions complete. Go to the SharePoint Fest D.C. site for more information.

1. The Final Frontier - Upgrade to SharePoint 2016

Microsoft’s Chris McNulty discusses the ways in which SharePoint 2016 offers tight hybrid integration and advanced infrastructure management capabilities, as well as new on-premises workloads. McNulty will explain how to plan, execute and manage an upgraded SharePoint 2016 environment, including live demos. He will also introduce the tools and techniques you’ll need to migrate content and users to Office 365, as well as how to integrate hybrid workloads from the cloud for a seamless on premises user experience.

2. The Modern Workplace: Evolution of SharePoint

In this keynote, Microsoft’s Adam Harmetz presents the latest research on the nature of contemporary collaboration, and Microsoft’s public vision for how it is evolving SharePoint--both on-premises and in the cloud. Harmetz will provide a “peek” at new capabilities in SharePoint Server 2016, SharePoint Online with Office 365, OneDrive for Business and hybrid.

3. Collaboration and the Cloud: Surviving the Storm

Microsoft’s Dan Holme discusses the new capabilities in SharePoint and Office 365, and shares what he's learned from organizations around the world. In this keynote Holme will provide insight into the importance of release cycles, flighting, minimum viable product, first release, rings, telemetry and railed experiences. Holme also discusses why the cloud can provide companies with the ability to effectively balance business agility and IT control.

4. Hybrid SharePoint with the New Cloud Hybrid Search

This session is designed to provide a clear understanding of Microsoft’s new cloud Hybrid search. BA Insight’s Jeff Fried will discuss how to use Hybrid search to bring external content into Office 365, and how to prepare your hybrid strategy and roadmap.

5. The Slippery Slope of Migrating to SharePoint Online or SharePoint On-Premises

Jill Hannemann of Portal Solutions and Adam Levithan of Metalogix will examine why SharePoint migrations rarely turn out as you plan them, are sometimes risky, and too often take longer than planned. During the tutorial Hannemann and Levithan will go through the assessment steps to understand the full landscape of your existing environment, review methodologies for moving content from one environment to the next, and create a migration strategy you can take back to your organization.

6. What's new in SharePoint 2016

SharePoint MVP Vlad Catrinescu details the new features in SharePoint 2016 for both end users and IT professionals, and discusses how the changes will impact your business.

More information on these and the many other sessions at SharePoint Fest D.C. can be found here.

Are you in D.C. for SharePoint Fest? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and at @sharepoint_pro.