AvePoint at Microsoft TechEd Australia 2013

Next week, TechEd Australia 2013 kicks off and runs from Tuesday, September 3 to Friday, September 6 at Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. For the fourth consecutive year, we’re the proud Major Sponsor of Microsoft’s premier technology conference for IT professionals and developers.

As always, we have lots of exciting activities planned for the event and we encourage all attendees to visit booth 36-37 to meet with our team and learn about how our latest products and solutions are helping organizations collaborate with confidence. Once again, we have a very exciting prize in store for attendees who visit our booth. We’re continuing our tradition of excitement by giving away another Honda CRF 230F off-road dirt bike to one lucky winner. The drawing will take place at the closing presentation on Friday, September 6.

Throughout the event, the 60-seat “AvePoint Collaboration Theatre” on the expo floor will be dedicated to technical best practices, tips, and demonstrations for enabling and growing social collaboration using Microsoft platforms and technologies. It will be a central hub for attendees to interact and get their questions answered by local and international Microsoft team members, Microsoft Certified Masters (MCM), Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs), industry experts, and customers. Theatre sessions are now listed on the TechEd schedule with session codes beginning with ACT.

Additionally, AvePoint and partner OBS will present two sessions in the Office, Office 365 and SharePoint track throughout the event:

· Migration Considerations for SharePoint Online – 5pm-6:15pm, Wednesday, September 4 – Presented by Garth Luke, AvePoint Senior Vice President, Australasia, Africa & California, and Elaine van Bergen, Microsoft Certified Solution Master for SharePoint

· Data Breach Prevention for Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 – 1:45pm-3pm, Thursday, September 5 – Presented by Bacchus Van Loo, AvePoint Compliance Specialist, and Elaine van Bergen, Microsoft Certified Solution Master for SharePoint

In advance of the event, we caught up with Garth Luke and Bacchus Van Loo to learn a bit about the sessions they’re presenting. You can find their answers to our questions below:

1. What are you presenting about at TechEd Australia this year and why do you feel the topic is especially relevant for the event?

Garth Luke: I’m presenting on considerations that should be made when migrating to SharePoint Online. We’ve seen a great deal of interest in SharePoint 2013 – and especially leveraging the platform in the cloud through Office 365 – from organizations throughout Australia. They’re looking to benefit from new enterprise social networking features while taking advantage of the reduced maintenance and easier scalability that the cloud can offer. The session will offer guidance for organizations who are interested in taking that leap.

Bacchus Van Loo: I’ll be talking about data breach prevention, particularly around SharePoint. My co-hosted talk will provide insight into how understanding where your data is, combined with ensuring that the appropriate access to that data has been granted, can significantly lower your risk of exposure. Collaborative platforms are the future, and there is no doubt about their greatness, but if the data and associated access controls within are not governed appropriately, organizations, like the NSA for example, could find themselves in a spot of bother.

2. If TechEd Australia attendees leave your presentations with one takeaway, what would you want that to be?

GL: It goes without saying that all organizations are different, so each one should plan extensively to determine the best migration methods and procedures for their business. Taking into account and planning around the pre-migration considerations that we will outline throughout the presentation will ensure organizations are in much better shape when it comes time to actually carry out the migration.

BVL: To have illuminated light bulbs hover above their heads!

3. What advice would you give TechEd Australia attendees heading back to the office to prepare for 2014?

GL: From the cloud to BYOD to enterprise social and beyond, there are so many new possibilities for organizations looking to collaborate better in this day and age. It’s become quite clear that many of these new trends in technology are much more than passing fads, but organizations should still take a long, hard look at each one to determine how exactly they can benefit their business. New technologies are exciting, but they need to be implemented and adopted in a way that is sustainable, manageable, and secure.

BVL: Start engaging all stakeholders in discussions around where your information is located.

4. Aside from your presentations, what are you looking forward to most at this year’s event?

GL: I always look forward to reconnecting with the regional Microsoft community at TechEd Australia. It’s a tight-knit group, so I’m excited to meet up with lots of different people to find out what they’re up to as well as share all the great things that are happening at AvePoint.

BVL: I’m from Melbourne, and it has been a long, cold, windy winter … so hands down: Seeing the sun!

5. What is one thing you recommend TechEd Australia attendees do outside of the event while they’re in Gold Coast?

GL: When it comes to local restaurants, Hellenika has fantastic Greek food and I’m also partial to Moo Moo. For those interested in nightlife in the area, I recommend checking out the Atrium Bar at Jupiters Hotel & Casino as well as Platinum Nightclub.

BVL: Go soak up the sun. If it’s an everyday occurrence for you, be grateful and enjoy the beaches anyway.