Building my Schedule for Microsoft Ignite

Opening day of Microsoft Ignite 2015 is only four weeks away, and there is a lot to accomplish between now and then. One of the most important things that you can do now is to plan your schedule for the week using the Schedule Builder which went live recently on the MyIgnite site. That’s what I worked on over the weekend, and I’ve been asked to share the approach I used along with the “finished” schedule.  I put finished in quotation marks because a schedule is never truly complete. It’s just a draft, one I’ll be revising in the coming days and all throughout the conference.

A little background for those who might not know me. I’m an IT Pro working in Higher Ed and living in St. Louis. I’ve been a generalist during that time covering everything from servers to desktops, Exchange to System Center, and most of whatever else Microsoft has brought to market over the 20+ years. I’m a veteran of Microsoft TechEd, having attended every year starting with the 2003 conference in Dallas. I’ve also attended the last three MECs and even managed to make it to MMS for its final year. My point is I’ve built a lot of schedules, and how I put together the schedule for Ignite is pretty consistent with how I’ve done it all along.

•  My main focus is on breakout sessions. Even though I can watch sessions on demand after Ignite is over, the reality is I rarely find time to watch all of the sessions I wanted to see. Someday I’ll get better at making time, but I aim to see my top-priority sessions live and in person.
• I split my sessions between what I’m doing today and what I think I’ll be doing when next year’s Ignite conference rolls around. A session that answers questions about issues I’ve had setting up Hyper-V networking with VMM? Sign me up.  A discussion of what’s coming in Server vNext? Let’s do that one too.  Look around and look forward too.
• I try and see my favorite speakers. Everybody has their list of not-to-miss speaker, and some of them are probably on your list too. Some of mine are Mark Russinovich, Johan Arwidmark & Mikael Nystrom (both awesome individually but together… priceless), Paula Januskiewicz, Jeffrey Snover, and Michael Niehaus. It usually works out that the sessions I want to attend for content are usually the same ones these people present, so no need to make tough decisions here.
• I always double-book… triple-book, quadruple-book… well, you get the idea. There are always more sessions that I want to attend than there are open timeslots on my schedule.  So I select all of the sessions I want to see, knowing that I have one or two top choices, and the rest are backup. Maybe my top choice is full by the time I get there. Maybe the room is way on the other side of the conference center. Maybe that 300 level session turned out to be a 100 level and I need to bail. Maybe I have a question, and the Microsoft guy is free at the booth. Maybe my stomach is growling and they just brought out a tasty snack right over there. Whatever the reason, I try to stay flexible.  The nice thing about having all of the sessions listed on my schedule is I have a list ready of sessions to download and watch later (assuming I find the time!).

Nothing revolutionary or all that enlightening, but it’s how I make my selections. This year the actual process of building the schedule was made easier with the top notch Schedule Builder that went live recently. It’s responsive (aka fast), lets me filter by all sorts of criteria – speaker, product, target audience, etc., and lets me view my schedule in multiple ways. We’ve had some mediocre builders in the past, but they nailed it this year.

Here’s my schedule for Ignite 2015. Note that I’m only listing my top choice for a time slot. If I listed all the sessions I added, this would be a very long page.

Sunday, May 3

9:00 – 10:00 AM

• Ignite 101 – I may be a veteran, but there’s always something new to learn (especially with a new conference), and an hour with Rick and Joey is guaranteed to be a fun hour.

Monday, May 4

9:00 – 11:45 AM

• Microsoft Ignite Keynote – We’ve been asking for it, and they finally listened. Satya Nadella is coming to Ignite! Not going to miss this one.

1:30 – 2:45 PM

• Microsoft Office 365 Roadmap and Innovations – We’ve moved completely to Office 365 for email, Lync, etc. I’ve very interested to see what’s on the horizon and on its way into our tenant.
• What’s New and Upcoming with Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager – I’m a sucker for previews and roadmaps. Want to see where these products are headed

3:15 – 4:30 PM

• Azure Operations: Enabling IT Organizations to Leverage Microsoft Azure – I’ve been dipping my toes into Azure for production use at work, and the University is just starting to sniff around the edges as well. I’m seeing firsthand how challenging it is to add Azure to your toolset and make it work for the entire organization. We have some serious challenges ahead, and this session should hopefully spark some ideas.
• Evolve Your Nework Infrastructure for Microsoft Azure Connectivity – One of the biggest challenges for our adoption of Azure to extend our datacenter is connectivity. Networks are managed by our Central IT, and our network isn’t exactly the typical corporate network. We have challenges.

5:00 – 6:00 PM

• The Next Era of Computing: Seeing the Future Before It Happens – Keynote number two. Microsoft Research is doing some amazing things, and I’m looking forward to learning more about what they see coming our way in the industry.

Tuesday May 5

9:00 AM – 1-:15 AM

• Microsoft Office 365 Groups Overview and Roadmap – Groups are something I’ve glad to see come to Office 365, but they’ve frustrating the you-know-what out of me at the moment. Microsoft designed these as if only small groups want ot use them, but I want to make use of them as a replacement for a list server for our different academic classes. Unfortunately the PowerShell cmdlets are inadequate and limits on subscribers and more make it unusable at the moment. Need to quiz the product team and see whether they feel our pain and can relieve it.
• Platform Vision & Strategy (2 of 7): Server Virtualization Overview – I haven’t spent any time with the Server Preview yet, and doubt I will have much time do so before Ignite, so this will be an intro.

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

• Meet Exchange Server v.Next – I don’t manage Exchange anymore, but I’m still interested to see what the on-premises product will be.
• Cloud Integrated Backup with Microsoft System Center and Azure Backup – We’re just starting to make use of this feature. Interested to see what is on the roadmap and the cool demo they teased in the summary.

1:30 – 2:45 PM

• Getting Ready for Windows 10: Servicing Windows Client and Server in a Managed Environment Today – Johan’s sessions are some of the best I’ve ever seen. I ALWAYS come away with something new that I learned and which is directly applicable to my day-to-day life at work.
• Platform Vision & Strategy (4 of 7): Storage Overview Jose Barreto is THE man when it comes to storage at Microsoft. Should be an interesting overview.

3:15 – 4:30 PM

• What’s New in Windows 10 Deployment – Michael Niehaus changed my life when I learned about BDD 2007 all those years ago, and I can always count on his sessions to be especially informative. Excited to see what’s new in the deployment sphere for around Windows 10.
• StorSimple: Extending Your Datacenter into Microsoft Azure with Hybrid Cloud Storage We use a StorSimple appliance (the previous generation) for our file servers, and love the integration with Azure. I’m especially jealous of the new generation of hardware. Curious to learn more about the current product.

5:00 – 6:15 PM

• Preparing Your Infrastructure for Windows 10 – I’ll be spending a lot of time deploying Windows 10 over the next couple years, so anything that will help smooth that path, bring it on.

Wednesday, May 6

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM

• Design Matters for Microsoft Surface – Not-at-all related to work, but it sounds especially interesting.
• Managing Windows 10 Using Group Policy with In the Box, Microsoft and 3rd Party Tools – As I said before, I’ll be deploying a lot of Windows 10 over the next couple years. That means I’ll also be doing a lot of managing of Windows 10 afterwards.

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

• Troubleshooting Windows 10 Deployment: Top 10 Tips and Tricks
  Johan Arwidmark and Mikael Nystrom, ’nuff said. If you deploy Windows as part of your job, you have to keep tabs on these guys and learn from what they’ve done. Always a highlight of any conference.
• Evolving Mobile Application Management for BYOD Devices with Microsoft Intune – I work at a University, a place where we were doing BYOD long before it had a name. We’re not doing anything currently to manage these types of systems, but we’re going to have to do so very soon.

1:30 PM – 2:45 PM

• Microsoft’s New Windows Server Containers – Docker! Containers! It’s all anyone talks about (other than Chef and DSC), so I figure I should learn a bit more about what it means for the Microsoft-centric IT Pro.
• Managing Windows 10 with Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager – Here we are again with more managing of Windows 1-0. Did you sense a theme?

3:15 PM – 4:30 PM

• What’s New in Windows Server Hyper-V – Hyper-V in Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2 made some huge leaps forward. I can only imagine what they add in Server vNext.
• Building Microsoft Surface Pro 3 – Another session, like the earlier design session, that should prove to be educational and eye-opening, albeit not directly related to what I need to get don at the office when I get back from Ignite.

5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

• Malware Hunting – A Mark Russinovich session. That’s reason enough to go.
• Evolving Distribution Lists with Office 365 Groups – I talked previously about my hopes for Groups (which were recently dashed). This session may shed some light on what I’ve run into and highlight ways around or possibly hope for future improvements.

Thursday, May 7

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM

• Expert-Level Windows 10 Deployment – Deployment + Johan + Mykael = Deployment Knowledge Firehose. As you can tell, these are some of my favorite sessions.
• Experts Unplugged: Outlook, OWA, and Mobile – These Experts Unplugged sessions were a big hit at MEC, and I’m glad to see them replicated here. There’s no predicting just where the session will go because it depends on what the audience wants to ask.

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

• Mark Russinovich and Mark Minasi on Cloud Computing – Entertaining as always with some great insight (from different perspectives) willing to tell it like it is. What od you want to bet Mark M asks Mark R about the latter’s comment at ChefConf about the possibility that an open source Windows could be possible some day?
• Provisioning Windows 10 Devices with New Tools – The comment about being able to configure general purpose devices (i.e., non-corporate) without reimaging intrigues me.

1:30 PM – 2:45 PM

• How to Decide When to Use SharePoint and Yammer and Office 365 Groups and Outlook and Skype – With so many tools that overlap in functionality available to us, knowing which one is right for the situation is a useful skill.

3:15 PM – 4:30 PM

• The Case of the Unexplained: Windows Troubleshooting – The classic Mark Russinovich session. It seems no matter how large of a room they pick for Mark, it’s always filled to the brim. I don’t go to this one every year because there is some repetition, but I try and make it every other year. You can definitely pick up some techniques to use when you get back to the office.
• Windows 10 Deployment: Ask the Experts – This session gives us not only Johan and Mikael but also a whole panel of deployment experts. I’m not sure who the other panelists are (Niehaus I’m sure will be one), but I’m confident it will be a great forum.

5:00 PM – 6:15 PM

• BlackBelt Troubleshooting Windows Performance Issues – We don’t see them as often as we’d like, but happy users are an IT Pro’s best friend. I promise that if you can speed up the users’ PC and make it possible for them to spend less time waiting and more time doing, you will have a happy user.
• Windows PowerShell Unplugged with Jeffrey Snover – A 400 level session about PowerShell with Mister PowerShell, Jeffrey Snover, himself? That’s ambitious for the last session before the Ignite Celebration.

Friday, May 8

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM

• Writing Windows PowerShell DSC Resources and Configurations – Desired State Configuration (DSC) is one of those things that I have zero experience using. I finally feel like I’ve reached the point where I’ve finally incorporated PowerShell into my daily environment of choice for most things. Time to start paying attention to DSC.

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

• MVPs Unplugged: The Journey to Microsoft Exchange Online – My good friend Jeff Guillet (@expta) is part of this panel of MVPs along with Tony Redmond, Michael Van Horenbeeck, and Nicolas Blank. That’s a high-powered panel, and this session will be a great opportunity to pick their brains. #IamMEC at its best.
• Windows To Go: Deployment, Support for BYOD, and What IT Pros Need to Know – Another good friend, Mark Morowczynski, is one of the speakers for this session. You may know Mark as the force behind the Ask Premier Field Engineering Platforms blog, and I can say from personal experience that he’s as good as they come when you’re talking Active Directory.  We haven’t done anything with Windows To Go yet, but it’s still an area of interest for me, especially as a virtual lab option for our students.
• Better Dynamic Application Delivery through UE-V & App-V – I felt that I should include one session in this timeslot without one of my friends as a speaker.  I see both APP-V and UE-V as key enablers for a better user experience ahead.

12:30 – 1:45 PM

• Creating a Seamless User Experience with Microsoft UE-V and Windows 10 – This session follows along from the previous U-EV and App-V session. My previous rational applies here as well.
• Adventures in Underland: What Your System Stores on the Disk without Telling You – If you go to this session, you will come out having learned a lot about security (or the lack thereof on your PC) and you may want to put your laptop through a rock crusher and never touch one again.  Paula shows you a side of IT that is always there but stays just out of sight most days.

And that’s my schedule. I hope you found this preview of my Ignite schedule and the walk through of the process behind it to be either interesting or useful. Now it’s time for you to take a stab at it and share your plan for Ignite. See you in Chicago!