AvePoint at Australian SharePoint Conference 2013 in Sydney

​AvePoint is the proud Platinum Sponsor of Australian SharePoint Conference 2013, taking place from April 10-11, 2013 in Sydney. The event, which will bring attendees the latest and greatest of all things SharePoint from around the world, features sessions by renowned speakers from throughout the global SharePoint community.

Throughout the event, AvePoint will be on hand at Booth 31 in the exhibition hall. There attendees can connect with our SharePoint experts and find out about our latest governance, compliance, and management solutions for Microsoft SharePoint.

Additionally, Randy Williams, Director of AvePoint Client Services, will present three sessions at the event:

· Brave New Hybrid World: What SharePoint 2013 Really Means to You – 9:00am Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), April 10 – This session will focus on the collision between business, IT, and the cloud, and the critical tipping point that’s been reached. This keynote, co-presented with Dan Holme, Microsoft Technologies Evangelist and Most Valuable Professional (MVP), also will take a comprehensive look at the significant updates to Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365, and what impact they will have on your business.

· Getting Started with SharePoint 2013 Apps – 4:15pm AEST, April 10 – This session will dive into best practices for deploying and configuring custom apps for SharePoint.

· Integrating SharePoint with Exchange: The Whats, Whys and Hows – 2:45pm AEST, April 11 – This session will discuss how to gain better synergy between your Exchange and SharePoint environments, ensuring that you are leveraging each to its fullest.

In order to learn more about his sessions and thoughts on Australian SharePoint Conference, we caught up with Randy and asked him a few questions.

1. What is your Australian SharePoint Conference keynote presentation about and what do you hope attendees will take away from it?

Randy Williams: I am teaming up with my long-time friend Dan Holme for a talk that’s titled “Brave New Hybrid World: What SharePoint 2013 Really Means to You”. Our message introduces how disruptive forces such as the cloud, social, and increasing demands for flexible and dynamic solutions requires IT to rethink its service delivery strategy to the business. Our hope is that attendees can begin to chart a vision on how best to roll out SharePoint 2013 and Microsoft Office 365, align this vision with strategic goals for the business, and identify the factors that will drive funding for and adoption of SharePoint 2013.

2. What can attendees expect from your other presentations at Australian SharePoint Conference?

RW: I am giving two other sessions. On Wednesday, April 10, I’ll be giving my most popular session at this moment, “Getting Started with SharePoint 2013 Apps”. It introduces attendees to the new application model in SharePoint 2013, and I talk quite a lot about why a new app model was needed. We cover the differences between this and prior models, and, hopefully, get everyone excited about building the next generation of SharePoint applications.

My next session is business-centric and a completely revamped version of one I used to give a few years back. It’s called “Integrating SharePoint with Exchange: The Whats, Whys and Hows”. In this session, we’ll see how SharePoint 2013 integrates with both Outlook and Exchange and how to unify collaboration habits across these applications. My hope is that attendees will see that smarter integration between these systems can yield significant productivity benefits.

3. How do you feel AvePoint’s vision of “Collaboration with Confidence” will help the Australian SharePoint Community’s needs?

RW: Having spoken at events and working with customers all over the globe, this vision and need transcends all borders and business verticals. Collaboration is such an important element to sharing knowledge, and one that is still under-developed within most organizations.

At AvePoint, our “Collaborate with Confidence” goal is to help organizations understand where opportunities for improvement are, whether these are through the adoption of a social initiative, improving the guidance how best to use existing solutions, or just improving the alignment between technology-based solutions and current business needs. Feel free to come by Booth 31 at the Sydney event. We’d love to understand where you are today and discuss how we can help improve your own “Collaborate with Confidence” vision.

4. Outside of your presentations, what aspect of Australian SharePoint Conference are you most excited?

RW: With the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House, Sydney is such an iconic city. Who wouldn’t be excited? I used to fly regularly into Australia when I taught SharePoint Administrator and Developer classes between 2008 and 2010, so I’m hoping to catch up with some former students and friends in the community.

5. What do you recommend attendees do or see while in Sydney for the event?

RW: Besides my sessions, of course. J One recommendation I have is to join in on the social activities that will be going on during the day and night. While I love catching sessions, the value of networking at events like this is underrated. Feel free to come up and introduce yourself to me, the organizers, or any of the other experts. Don’t be shy. Share with us some of your challenges or successes. We love talking SharePoint, of course, so please take full advantage of this opportunity. You can also begin to connect today through the Community Site that is open.

Will we see you there? If so, let us know what you’re looking forward to most at this year’s event in the comments below!