If I had to pick one thing at Ignite 2016 that really set the industry on fire it was Office 365 Groups. Though it’s been around since 2014, this year Microsoft dedicated over 200 sessions at their biggest conference to this feature alone! And even if you weren’t at Ignite, your inbox is likely brimming with news about all of the new features Microsoft has built on top of Groups in just the last few months.

But what is it about Office 365 Groups that makes it such a hot topic? To find out I asked Christophe Fiessinger, program manager on the Office 365 Groups Team, to give me the elevator pitch. Hear what he had to say below!

Join us for a Live Q&A on Lessons Learned at Ignite 2016!

More from Dux Quax:

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• Microsoft’s Jeff Teper Rounds Up the Top 8 Innovations Added to SharePoint in 2016
• Microsoft’s Bill Baer Talks SharePoint Announcements at Microsoft Ignite
• Microsoft’s Chrisophe Fiessinger Shares the Elevator Pitch for Office 365 Groups
• Microsoft’s Mike McLean Gives the Scoop on Office 365 Planner
• Microsoft’s Rachel Braunstein Gives Insight into the Microsoft Partner Network
• Microsoft’s Jeremy Thake on Why Azure is More than Just Infrastructure as a Service
• NBCUniversal’s Charles Williams on Transforming a Deployment in the New Age of Microsoft
• Microsoft’s Dan Holme Shares Customer Feedback on SharePoint’s Comeback
• Microsoft’s Anna Chu Connects IT Pros Through the Microsoft Tech Community
• Constellation Research’s Alan Lepofsky on How Microsoft AI Will Change the Way We Work
• SharePoint Consultant Susan Hanley on Sustainable Adoption and the Future of Microsoft

Video Transcript: Dux Raymond Sy (@meetdux) and Christophe Fiessinger (@cfiessinger) at Microsoft Ignite

Dux: Welcome back to Dux Quax. We’re still here, day one, Microsoft Ignite. It’s been a phenomenal epic event. With me is Christophe. Christophe, why don’t you introduce yourself?

Christophe Fiessinger: Hello everyone, this is Christophe Fiessinger. I’m a program manager on the Office 365 Groups team.

Dux: Office 365 Groups. I mean, the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen a lot of blog posts, announcements and all that. In a few minutes, your elevator pitch, what’s Office 365 Groups and why should people care?

Christophe Fiessinger: Definitely an exciting time to be here in Ignite 2016, so Office 365 Groups is a key ingredient for group collaboration 365. Whether you’re working on files, whether you’re sending emails, whether you’re meeting with people, Groups is one of the key ingredient to help you move from task to task.

Dux: Christophe, I’ve got to confess, right? I still love my email and boy, with Groups, I could do everything through email with the goodness of a SharePoint library and the upcoming integration potential with Yammer. I’ve got my OneNote notebook, so just brilliant. I love Groups.

Christophe Fiessinger: Glad to hear that.

Dux: So let’s talk about Ignite. So what are you doing here at Ignite? Any sessions, what are you up to? Do you want to share with everybody?

Christophe Fiessinger: I’m just hanging out, but seriously we’ve got about 14 group sessions this week. So I’m doing one tomorrow, overview on roadmap at 10:45, and we’ve got a lot of sessions, whether it’s 200, 300, whether it’s education. How you can use Groups. How do you migrate DL to Groups? We have a dedicated session on how is Yammer going to integrate with Groups. We’ve got a lot of SharePoint sessions talking about how they integrate with Groups. We’ve got customer successes that are talking about their journey to Groups.

Dux: Awesome.

Christophe Fiessinger: So definitely a lot of content. One thing I want to plug in is we also have a dedicated Office 365 Groups booth in the Office Expo Hall. So if you’ve got questions, you want to talk to experts from Redmond, don’t be shy. If you just want to get a hug, come on over.

Dux: There you go. Well, I’ve got to tell you, speaking of customers, in fact that’s…we announced last week how we’re supporting Groups, the full lifecycle management, and really we’re getting a lot of good feedback around the usage of Groups and the adoption of Groups, so that’s just phenomenal. And yeah, just make sure you go to the Office booth like Christophe says. There’s a dedicated booth. Now, we’re in Atlanta. This is your old stomping ground. Anything you miss in this town?

Christophe Fiessinger: I miss the food, I’ve got to say.

Dux: Southern food, it’s all about Waffle House, Varsity.

Christophe Fiessinger: Nothing wrong with that. Cobblers, everything with butter is grits.

Dux: Peaches, right?

Christophe Fiessinger: Have you had jalapeno grits yet?

Dux: No, I had Coca-Cola butter last night.

Christophe Fiessinger: Have you had your sweet tea days and nights?

Dux: No, I can’t do that. That’s too sweet for me. So listen, before I let you go, Christophe, aside from Groups, if you are a Microsoft product, what would you be and why?

Christophe Fiessinger: Very good question. I think I’ll be a Sway.

Dux: Sway, you’ll be Sway, why?

Christophe Fiessinger: Yeah. I think just the modern…the fact that you can do a mash-up with different content.

Dux: That’s cool, yeah?

Christophe Fiessinger: I think that’s probably Christophe. You can bring different content, it’s very visual, very tactile.

Dux: That’s right. You’re artistic.

Christophe Fiessinger: Yeah, I’m not artistic, but it’s cool, it’s Sway.

Dux: It’s Sway, right? Remember, Christophe Sway. Thank you, Christophe, always great to see you, my friend.

Christophe Fiessinger: Thank you, guys.

Dux: Make sure to check out Office 365 Groups. Till the next one, see you.

Christophe Fiessinger: Thank you.

What else did you miss at Ignite?

Join our panel of experts for our Lessons Learned at Microsoft Ignite webinar to recap announcements from the conference and a deeper discussion about what it all means for you.