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Future posts will be published there, and posts that live here will slowly be duplicated there as well. Continue to use this site for older posts until they're all migrated.

SharePoint meets Microsoft Teams in Episode 51

Over at teamworkcowbell.com, we talked in Episode #51 about SharePoint as the back-end for Microsoft Teams, discussed the classic debate about whether end users should think about files in Teams as Teams files or SharePoint files, and even discussed Business Connectivity Services (BCS)! Check it out: 

For more on collaboration in general, visit me at
🌐 https://www.teamworkcowbell.com #MicrosoftTeams
🌐 https://www.sharepointcowbell.com #SharePoint
🌐 https://www.surfaceprobro.com #surface #tablets

Then and Now...

 Some insight from over at www.teamworkcowbell.com... 

Office365 User Group - April 2019

Had a very interactive discussion with the Columbus Office365/SharePoint User Group this month. Slides posted below. We discussed some of the ways that SharePoint has changed over the years, and agreed that today's SharePoint [Online] brings a lot of new value to the collaboration landscape, even if it means us SharePoint Old-Heads have to sometimes change the way we're used to doing things. :)

Columbus SharePoint User Group - April 2019 from Ricardo Wilkins

ICYMI - here's the "promo ad" I posted to LinkedIn:

Talking Teams with the Columbus Office365 User Group

Here's my presentation I delivered to the Columbus Office365 User Group this month:

Microsoft Teams - The Missing Manual from Ricardo Wilkins

SharePoint Cincy 2018

Great time presenting this week at SharePoint Cincy 2018! Slides below:

SharePoint Cincy 2018 - Site Management - Notes from the Field from Ricardo Wilkins

Office365 Security & Compliance at the BSPUG

**UPDATE: I'll be giving this talk again at SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati on Oct 14th 2017!**

Thanx to the Buckeye SharePoint User Group for letting me come speak on security and compliance in the Microsoft cloud!

You can find a summary of this talk over on the CEI Blog, or find the slides below:

When Your CISO Says No - Security & Compliance in Office 365 from Ricardo Wilkins

DogFood 2016 presentation posted

Below is the link to my “SharePoint, PowerApps, Flow and Azure Functions” presentation from this year’s DogFood Conference. I had a room packed with attendees interested in trying to figure out what all this new stuff is all about. Look forward to future posts from me on these topics!

SharePoint, PowerApps, Flow and Azure Functions - What Does It All Mean? from Ricardo Wilkins

Speaking at DogFood Con 2016

I just learned I’ve been selected to be one of the speakers at this year’s Microsoft DogFood Conference! My topic will be:

SharePoint, PowerApps, Flow and Azure Functions - What Does it All Mean?


I’ve given talks at DogFood in years past (2015, 2013, 2012) and have enjoyed it each time. I’m looking forward to this year, and you should too!

Don’t forget to install InfoPath

Today’s the day when InfoPath gets it’s first official punch in the gut – Office 2016 has been released today, and as promised does not include InfoPath as part of the install.

But as we know (and will learn more about on October 10th) InfoPath ain’t dead yet.

So, after your Office 2016 install finishes, be sure to take the additional step of separately downloading the standalone InfoPath 2013 install.

Upcoming SharePoint Events–Sept & Oct 2015

I’ll be speaking at several SharePoint events over the next couple of months. More details to come, but here’s the 10,000 feet view:

Microsoft DogFood Conference 2015
(Oct 7-8, Columbus, OH) – The biggest Microsoft-focused technology conference in the region. My talks will include:

• Moving Your SharePoint Development to the Cloud
• Getting Information from SharePoint – A 365 Degree View

SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati 2015
(Oct 10, Cincinnati, OH) – This free event includes great talks from SharePoint MVPs and thought leaders from around the country. My talk will be:

• InfoPath – I Ain’t Dead Yet. Here’s Why…
  
  2015-spscincy-infopath-spcb—SharePoint Cowbell

SharePoint Roundtable Cleveland
(Sept 9, Cleveland, OH) – Bennett Adelson regularly hosts this roundtable meeting to discuss relevant and timely topics for Information Workers. Join my colleagues and I as we discuss:

• SharePoint Futures: Processing the MS Ignite Announcements

Up Up and Away at SPS Columbus 2015

As you might have guessed by now, this year’s SharePoint Saturday Columbus was super-hero themed! All the speakers were given capes, and asked to wear the T-Shirt of their favorite super hero. I decided to choose Dragon Fly Jones from the 90’s sitcom Martin. : )

In addition to the fun stuff, SPS Columbus was also packed full of great info. Notable talks included Mike Smith’s discussion regarding REST, Seb Matthews Taking Your Business to the Cloud, and Doug Hemminger with Visual Studio and the Office365 REST API.

In my session we had good conversation re: Office integration, OneNote+SharePoint, and Yammer governance. And thankfully my demo’s went very smoothly. : )

Check out the other speakers super-hero pics on the BuckeyeSPUG Facebook page. My slides can be found below, or on slideshare.

Visual Studio 2015 and PowerShell

I think I could learn to like having a PowerShell window right inside Visual Studio 2015 for my SharePoint scripting. : )

What about you? Have you tried this yet? Is it as good as the other options for doing PowerShell in SharePoint?

Columbus SharePoint Roundtable

Last week my colleague and I presented in Cleveland at Bennett Adelson’s SharePoint Roundtable event. The topic: The End-User Guide to SharePoint & Office365: Features & Integration. We had a great turnout, and a very lively discussion.

We had so much fun we’re doing it again – this time in Columbus! If you’re in town, check us out Thurs April 30th, 2pm in the Columbus Microsoft offices!

Your First Search Should Be Delve

Real-World Scenario: Today a colleague let me know that he just created a new document that I need to review, and tells me he put it in the Intranet Portal in SharePoint Online (Office 365). That's kool - except that he forgot to give me a link to it.

Okay, I know the general area where the document probably resides. But instead of traditional search tactics, I go to Delve. It automatically shows me a bunch of relevant docs from different people, including my colleague above. To scope further, I add his name to the filter, and voila - the 4th doc down is the one I'm looking for - modified 1 hour ago. (in comparison, a standard Search Everything query in SharePoint required a couple of tries, required a good keyword, and still didn't give me the reassuring info regarding Modified 1 hour ago)

The Lesson: Delve is a powerful personalized Search tool that many times should be considered first before doing traditional searches, and definitely before trying to point-n-click your way around sites to find content.

I’m just saying… : )

Moving Your SharePoint Development to the Cloud

I enjoyed my trip to Cleveland last nite to speak at Bennett Adelson’s .NET SIG event on the topic of developing for SharePoint in the Cloud. When I say Cloud, I specifically mean SharePoint Online and Windows Azure. With such a big topic, I was glad to be able to fit a coherent presentation in 1 hour. There’s probably 10 more presentations I could do as jump-offs from this one – we’ll see what the future holds.

You can find my presentation on slideshare.net, or below on OneDrive:

 

SharePoint to feature at DogFoodCon 2014

Once again, Columbus Ohio will host the 2-day Microsoft Dog Food Conference on Sept 29-30th 2014. Many technologies will feature, including of course SharePoint and its related technologies.

First, let’s get the important news out of the way:

• July 9th is the deadline for speaker’s to submit topics
• July 29th is when Registration opens
• Sept 29th is the beginning of your mind being blown by the tons of topics at #DogFoodCon being given by great speakers and experts!

Next, let’s take a look at some of the posts from last year’s conference from many of it’s participants, speakers and fans (click images to view the posts in their entirety):

And for a view of all the slide decks from last year, check it out here!

Looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s conference!

Microsoft DogFood 2013 Conference–Day 1

What a great kickoff for DogFood 2013! A large number of attendees showed up for the first day of this year’s Microsoft DogFood Conference in Columbus Ohio. Tons of Microsoft topics were being presented, including topics like Windows Phone App development, automated testing strategies, InfoPath, and of course SharePoint. 
As we now move into Day 2, I’m looking forward to presenting on PowerShell with PS guru Ryan Dennis. Be sure to follow the conversation on Twitter at #DogFoodCon.

Attendees listening to Ricardo Wilkins discuss
SharePoint 2013 development features

I delivered two presentations on Day 1:

• Leveraging the Powerful Forces of InfoPath
• “I’m a Developer and I Hate SharePoint…” – Why SharePoint 2013 Will Change Your Mind

Each had great attendance, and great participation. You can find the slidedecks below, or on Slideshare:

Update: below you’ll also find the PowerShell talk mentioned above, as well as the slides from fellow colleague Eric Grover on Windows 8 App development:

Eric grover strategies for sharing code with windows 8 and windows phone 8 apps from Eric Grover

Speaking at DogFood Conference 2013

Once again, I’m honored to be speaking at the DogFood Conference in Columbus, Ohio on November 21-22.

Dogfooding is all about using the very tools that you produce, and this year Microsoft will show once again how they make use of many of the products and technologies that they sell to us. Whether it be Windows 8, SharePoint, Surface, Xbox, or the Cloud, the Dog Food Conference this year will showcase tons of topics presented over 2 days by community IT professionals.

This year I’ll be teaming up with SharePoint Ryan to give a new talk called:

SharePoint PowerShell for the Admin and Developer: A Venn Diagram Experience

As you may have guessed, this talk will be about the koolness of Powershell, and how it can be a powerful tool not just for the SharePoint Admin, but also for the SharePoint Developer, and with some kool scenarios in-between. In addition, I’ll be giving a refreshed version of my SharePoint 2013 Dev Features talk as well.

Also, be on the lookout for talks from my fellow Blue Chip colleagues, including:

Eric Grover:	Strategies for sharing code with Windows store & Windows phone apps
John Azzolina:	Get Into The (Data) Flow: Using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to Move Data Around Your Organization

The evite can be found here – remember, registration begins October 21!

Premier partners, today’s tools, and all that good stuff

A few months ago, I made a transition and decided to accept an invitation to join the Content & Collaboration practice at Blue Chip Consulting Group. Blue Chip is a Gold Certified, Microsoft Managed Partner specializing in Infrastructure Optimization, and providing quality consulting services within the Microsoft stack. They’ve also been recently named as one of the Top 5 Microsoft Consulting Services’ Premier Service Partners for FY13, a distinction they’ve achieved 2 years running.

My consulting toolbox hasn’t changed much since my last role. In fact, Cloudshare is still as much a part of my tool set as it was in my last related post. And with the addition of their persistent DNS and vanity URL features, it’s now even easier to quickly fire up my VM’s when I need them, even on my Surface Pro tablet PC. These days, tho, I’m also making more use of VMWare for offline access.

But what is somewhat new to my list of dev toys is my personal Office 365 SharePoint account (recently upgraded to 2013 a few months back). I find that this is useful to have in order to get up to speed on the deployment and development differences between cloud and on-premise SharePoint projects, especially as more of our customers continue to explore Office 365 as an option for their SharePoint environment. And, at $8/month for a SharePoint-only E3 plan, it’s very economical as well.

Stay tuned for future posts as I continue to explore these tools & technologies to enhance my SharePoint 2013 delivery.