My thoughts about Microsoft Ignite March 2021

It’s becoming a tradition to write a blog post on my favourite things from Microsoft Ignite, of course I need to do it this time as well! I find it exciting to go back and read what I’ve said before. As it wasn’t that long ago since the last virtual Microsoft Ignite was, some of the announcements I loved 💖 are still not available. We can only be patient.

As always Microsoft has provided us with a book of news in the Microsoft Ignite March 2021 book of news. There you can read about all news.

1. News for Microsoft Teams

Let’s start with announcements for Microsoft Teams!

Microsoft Teams connect – shared channels

I’ve been waiting for this announcement, first we had channels, then we got private channels and now we’ll have shared channels. You will be able to create a shared channel in your organization or even between organizations (!). I think Microsoft have some sort of vision that this will fix the old issue of tenant switching– but well that issue still remains 🤷🏻‍♀️ but that doesn’t mean this isn’t fun right!? The shared channel will be reached from the teams it’s shared with and you will have the same features as always – chat, tabs, collaboration with files all within your current flow of work.

I’m seeing myself having a one-person-team with only myself and a bunch of shared channels to avoid the tenant switch – does not feel realistic through 😆.

Link to more info. Will be made generally available later this year.

New presenter layouts and audience views for meetings

The last year a lot of focus has been put into meetings (since well the last year have been filled with Microsoft Teams meetings). A lot of improvements are on the way for meetings, for example we have presenter mode which will make it possible for the presenter to customize how their video and shared content will be shown. No more need to use OBS Studio😉.

We will also get dynamic view, an intelligent arrangement of elements based on what’s showing, who is talking and who has their camera on.

The last exciting thing mentioned is that PowerPoint Live will now be available in Microsoft Teams!

Link to more info and here. A lot of the things mentioned above will be available in the coming weeks.

Webinars in Microsoft Teams

At the last Ignite Microsoft showed us the possibility to register for events (see here in my blogpost on Ignite 2020) and now we got even more information about that! At Ignite a new type of meetings was announced – webinars! It will be possible to host interactive webinars with up to 1000 attendees and even more people when you are only broadcasting. Webinars will include registration functionality, attendee reporting and of course the same rich presenter possibilities as always.

This will also be able to be tied together with Dynamics 365 Marketing but that’s a different blog post 😉.

Link to more info. This will be available soon.

2. New IT governance and security features for the Power Platform

My interest for the Power Platform is constantly growing and something they announcement which I find both interesting and very needed is new features to improve governance and security. I often say automation is the next step of the modern workplace and to make that happen governance and security becomes more and more important.

Some of the things this will include are:

• Tenant wide analytics

• Usage reporting for Power Apps and Power Automate

• Fine-grained controls in Data Loss Prevention policies

• Better control for connectors

Link to more info and here. Some features available in preview now, others will launch the upcoming months.

3. WOW moment with Jared Spataro 🔥

I’m ending this post not with an announcement but a wow moment from Microsoft Ignite. A new concept Microsoft is doing for these virtual events are table talks. Table talks can be compared to the hallway talks or discussion after sessions.

Ready for hosting a table talk!

I got the pleasure to host one with the theme Modern Work for everybody with a few of my talented community peers (Karoliina Kettukari, Dux Raymond Sy, Shafina Hassam & Vlad Catrinescu) and it was a blast. But the coolest thing of all was that Jared Spataro the Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365 actually made an appearance and answered some of the burning questions from the table talk participants 🔥 WOW!

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And since Ignite is usually during the latter half of the year we can expect another Ignite during the fall, my guess is that it will be virtual as well. But crossing my fingers we can meet in 2022 😍.

All images/videos are borrowed (except on my face from me 😇 and the table talk image from Karoliina) from Microsoft.