TechMentor & Cybersecurity Live! @ Microsoft HQ 2026 will offer a combination of in-depth and interactive sessions including workshops, hands-on labs, 75-minute breakouts, and 20-minute fast focuses. We invite you to submit sessions in any and all of these categories, and you may also submit across multiple topic areas at a single show.

To help you in creating successful submissions, we want to share some of the considerations that go into our process of selecting our speakers and sessions for a TechMentor & Cybersecurity Live! event. First, each speaker will typically be selected to deliver two presentations. That means that it is in your best interest to submit at least three breakout sessions in addition to any Fast Focus topics you may be submitting. This ensures that the conference chairs have more than two options per speaker, particularly if the topic you are submitting is popular and is being submitted by several people for the same show. Next, please ensure that your title is clear and appropriate to the track you are submitting it to and that your description includes enough detail to understand what audience members will walk away from your sessions having learned. Again, many speakers often provide submissions on the same topics, meaning it comes down to a meaningful title and a quality abstract.

Want to dig in even deeper and offer hands-on experience and learning? We are also looking for speakers willing to deliver two-day workshops and hands-on labs that will be offered as part of the 2026 Training Course series.

Session, workshop, and hands-on lab proposals are welcome in the following topic areas: 

Client and Endpoint Management

Although apps are moving to the Cloud and web more and more, attendees still have to support, upgrade, migrate, and troubleshoot all of those client computers to use the apps. Windows client is evolving faster than ever. Microsoft destroyed the myth of Windows 10 being the last Windows ever, with Windows 11. Windows 10 support ended in October 2025 but many are still forced to run older versions next to Windows 11! We might have Windows 12 – who knows! There are many different ways to support older versions and we are very keen to learn about your thoughts on that as well! We are looking for session submissions on the following topics:

• Windows EOL versions support

• Windows 11

• Future of Windows

• Copilot in Windows

• Servicing and patching

• Microsoft 365

• MDM

• Intune

• Intune Suite

• Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM)

• Configuration Manager

• Autopilot

• Endpoint Analytics

• UEFI

• Driver Management

• Windows Virtual Desktop

• Azure Virtual Desktop

• Windows 365

• Advanced Desktop Troubleshooting

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

PowerShell and DevOps

TechMentor brings PowerShell, automation and scripting in general as core session topics. TechMentor is all about how to make an admins or devs life easier. It’s all part of the new DevOps approach so, sessions in this track teach attendees the tools and tech they need to make it happen inside their organization. PowerShell topics can now be cross-platform so, Mac/Linux topics are of interest to us.

• PowerShell State of the Union

• PowerShell

• PowerShell Core / Cross-Platform

• PowerShell Tooling

• PowerShell DSC / Azure State Configuration

• CloudShell

• JIT/JEA

• Graph API

• GitHub Copilot

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Classic Infrastructure

TechMentor’s Infrastructure track covers the services that make the server, client, application, and services work together in an IT environment. We are looking for submissions on Server 2019/2022/2025 Active Directory, network services, Certificate Services, network troubleshooting, and Group Policy.

• Group Policy

• Windows Server 2019/2022/2025

• Active Directory

• Windows Admin Center

• Migration and Upgrading to Server 2022/2025

o File

o Print 

o Active Directory

o DNS/DHCP

• Protecting EOL Windows Server 2012/2012R2

• Migrating IIS on-prem workloads to the Cloud

• Windows Defender for Servers

• Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) in Server 2022/2025

• Networking in Server 2022/2025

• Software Defined Networking (SDN)

• WireGuard and other VPNs

• Segmentation and Micro-segmentation

• Storage Spaces Direct (S2D)

o Azure Local

• MFA in Server Management

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Soft Skills for ITPros

Being a successful IT Pro requires more than just technology skills. These sessions will help attendees boost their careers by selecting sessions on the lighter side of technology. This track teaches attendees how to be successful in their careers and communicate their knowledge to others.

• Living with AI

• How to benefit from AI

• Presentation skills

• How to sell an idea to your boss

• Documenting

• Working Remote

• Dealing with Conflict

• Professionalism in a Work from Home Era

• IT Burnout – Coping with issues like COVID-19

• Blogging and Social Media for IT Pro’s

• Book Writing for IT Pro’s

• Security Training for end-users

• Tabletop Exercises

• Inclusion in the workplace and the industry

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Security

Explore how attackers try to defeat your best security measures. Learn how to think like a hacker (threat actor) and prevent the black hats from getting anywhere near your electronic assets. TechMentor assembles some of the best presenters in the industry to guide attendees on Securing Windows clients, servers, and assets in the Cloud. We are looking for essential sessions on information in forensics, Blocking Malware, and monitoring. In 2020, there were more than 360,000 new malware samples found per day – Security has to evolve, and so do you!

• AI’s role in Security

• Hacking techniques

• Security Baselines

• Proactive security

• Password Vaults

• Multi-Factor Authentication

• Security Tokens

• Entra-ID Security

• Microsoft Security Copilot

• Privileged Identity Management

• Privileged Access Workstations

• Privileged Access Management

• Allow-Listing (previously Whitelisting)

• 2nd generation anti-malware

• Microsoft 365 Defender

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

• Microsoft Defender for Office 365

• Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

• Microsoft Defender for Identity

• Microsoft Defender for Cloud

• Microsoft Defender for IoT

• BitLocker

• IPsec

• Microsoft Sentinel

• Azure Security Center

• Teams Security

• Ransomware in 2025

o CyberSecurity Insurance

• You are breached NOW WHAT?

• Supply Chain attack mitigation

• Successful SoC in-house or outsourced

• Incident Response

• Incident Revocery

• Immutable Backups

• Canary Tokens

• Security Copilot

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Cutting Edge AI

Keep up with cutting-edge AI research and emerging trends at TechMentor that are impacting the IT industry now and in the near future.

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) - NLP techniques and advancements, including pre-trained language models like GPT-3, BERT, and their applications.

• Ethical AI

• AI in IT Operations - how AI and LLMs can be used to improve IT operations

• Conversational AI - chatbots and virtual assistants powered by LLMs for customer support, user engagement, and internal IT helpdesk

• AI in Cybersecurity - how AI and LLMs are leveraged for threat detection, anomaly detection, and security incident response in IT environments.

• Explainable AI (XAI) - Understanding methods and tools for making AI and LLMs more interpretable and transparent, which is crucial for IT professionals to trust and use AI systems.

• AI for DevOps - Exploring how AI can enhance the software development and deployment process, including automating code testing, deployment, and monitoring.

• AI in Data Management - Learning about AI-driven data management, data cleaning, and data integration techniques that can benefit IT professionals working with large datasets.

• Edge AI and IoT - Discovering how AI and LLMs can be deployed on edge devices and used in IoT applications, such as predictive maintenance and real-time data analysis.

• Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) - Understanding best practices and tools for deploying and managing machine learning models in production environments.

• Quantum Computing and AI - Exploring the intersection of quantum computing and AI, and how quantum AI can impact IT infrastructure and algorithms.

• AI Hardware and Accelerators - Keeping up with the latest advancements in hardware designed for AI and LLMs, such as GPUs, TPUs, and specialized AI chips.

Azure (Public/Hybrid)

At TechMentor, we leave the marketing presentations at home. Replacing them are real-world discussions on “the cloud” as you’re using it: Hybrid, connected, private, and the real world. From onsite Azure Stack to everything in the Cloud is what we want to cover!

• Microsoft Entra-ID

• Microsoft Entra-ID Premium

• Copilot for Azure

• Azure IaaS

• Azure Stack

• Azure SQL

• Azure DevOps

• Azure Zero to Hero

• Introduction to Azure Concepts

• Azure Labs

• Azure Backup

• Azure Site Recovery

• Azure Networking

• Azure Scripting and Automation

• Azure Resource Manager

• Azure Licensing

• Azure Virtual WAN

• Azure VPN

• Azure Firewall

• Azure AD Conditional Access

• Azure PIM (Privileged Identity Management)

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Office / Microsoft 365 for the IT Pro

Almost every person in IT needs to manage and support Office 365, now Microsoft 365. Exchange servers are moving to the Cloud faster than anything else. Admins may no longer have physical servers to administer, but the job hasn’t gone anywhere! At TechMentor we want to provide attendees with the up to date and real-life skills needed to manage all aspects of Microsoft 365 from the administrator’s perspective.

• Microsoft 365 Copilot

• Migrating to Microsoft 365

• Managing Microsoft 365

• Troubleshooting Microsoft 365

• Optimizing Microsoft 365

• Teams 

• Exchange Online

• SharePoint Online

• Onedrive for Business

• Backup and Recovery for Microsoft 365

• Reporting for Microsoft 365

• Microsoft 365 Zero to Hero

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Ransomware Industry

Ransomware is a complicated industry with attackers ranging from individuals to highly organized syndicates. Some operators have Service Desks with better SLA than us. We might face standard opportunistic criminals or nation level threats. The industry runs with affiliate programs and credential harvesting auctions. This track is dedicated to the higher-level descriptive sessions on how the industry works.

• How Ransomware works

• How Ransomware groups operate

• Cyber-insurance

• How Ransomware gets into a network

• Teaching End-Users how to identify threats (like Phishing)

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Threat Intelligence

One of the most important aspects of securing your environment is to understand who you are against. Threat Intel tries to identify, analyze, understand and predict what we are facing.

• Keeping up-to-date in securing environments

• Identifying Vulnerabilities to Patch

• Identifying and mitigating Threats (Internal / External)

• Ransomware Groups

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Human Intelligence

It’s unfair to say that the biggest threat in security is the person between the chair and the keyboard, but we do need to understand the human factor.

• Recruiting in Cybersecurity

• Human mind

• Human factor in Security

• Soft skills in cybersecurity

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Security Operations Center

Cyberattacks don’t happen during office hours but mostly during nighttime. 24/7 surveillance is mandatory for companies. A Security Operations Center tries to detect and isolate threats before they escalate to incidents. There are different kinds of, different levels, different sized, and different priced SOCs. 

• What is a Security Operations Center, and how do we get one?

• Establish or Outsource a SOC?

• What makes an effective SOC

• SIEM solutions

• Building a SOC

• Running a SOC

• AI’s role in SOC

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Incident Response

When an incident happens it’s the IR-teams job to jump in, identify the threat and restoring operations. IR-teams gather evidence, expel the enemy, fixes vulnerabilities, and restores company operations. 

• Incident Response in general

• AI’s role in Incident Response

• Preparing for Incident Response and Recovery

• Building a Cyber Security War Room with Microsoft Teams

• Recovering from Cyberattacks

• Disaster Recovery

• Building a secure fabric

• Backup and Restore

• Microsoft 365 recovery

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Blue Team

Blue Team is the proactive defensive side of security operations. They aim to prevent breaches or at least slow down the enemy. Red Teaming is very popular, especially for young people, as it gives you the permission to attack someone. People should remember that for every one Red Team job offering, there are six offerings in the Blue Team side. Red Teams find vulnerabilities – Blue Team blocks/fixes them.

• Encryption

• Patching

• Effective Hardware and Software Inventory

• Protecting On-Prem Infrastructure

• Protecting Azure Infrastructure

• Microsoft Defender for ***

• Microsoft Entra

• Securing Microsoft Teams

• So, you don’t know where to start – A beginners guide to hardening hybrid Windows infrastructure 

• Protecting Microsoft 365 Infrastructure

• Multi-Factor Authentication deployment made easy

• Microsoft Baselines and CIS

• Properly configuring Microsoft Attack Surface Reduction Rules

• Securing Linux Systems

• Zero Trust

• Anti-Malware

• EDR and XDR

• How to build secure code

• How to prevent supply chain attacks

• Secure CI/CD pipeline

• Firewalls

• Effective Patching

• Password Managers

• Privileged Access Management

• Privileged Identity Management

• Privileged Access Workstations

• Principle of Least Privilege

• Allow-Listing (Binary Control)

• VPN or not to VPN

• What makes a great Blue Teamer

• Tabletop exercises

• IAM – Identity and Access Management

• Protecting your home network

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Red Team

Red Team is the offensive side of security operations. Red Team uses tools and techniques that aim to find vulnerabilities and bypass the defenses companies have in place.

• Penetration Testing

• Hacking Windows Servers - can it be that easy?

• Hacking Linux

• Hacking Mac OSX

• Hacking Mobile OS’s

• Hacking Tools

• Hacking Techniques

• What makes a great Red Teamer

• Hacking Physical Hardware

• Physical Security – Getting through the door

• Hacking a bank

• Hacking Networks

• Reconnaissance

• How to find vulnerabilities in code

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Purple Team 

Purple Teams that perform both Blue and Red Team duties. They might be an external provider that analyses and audits the whole environment, both identifying vulnerabilities and fixing or mitigating them.

• Are you Blue, Red or Purple?

• What makes a great Purple Teamer

• Security Audits

• Threat Impact Analysis

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

OT & IoT Security

Operational networks, like in factories, are usually operated very different from Office networks. They might not have Internet access so Cloud Services are not usable. Defenses have to designed accordingly. Internet of Things, smart devices connected to and managed by Cloud Services, are an increasing attack vector to networks. Almost every home appliance now has a version with Wifi. Identifying, inventorying and protecting these new smart devices is vital.

• The S in IoT, stands for Security

• Protecting Smart Homes

• Protecting Air gapped Networks

• Microsoft Defender for IoT

• Network Detection and Response (NDR)

• Travelling over the airgap

• Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Security in Education Institutions

Not only are education institutions prime targets for cyberattacks, but they also face a unique combination of security challenges: lack of resources (budgetary and personnel), strict privacy regulations, sensitive research data, a culture of open access to information, impermanent user roles, and a complex decision-making structure, to name just a few. This track will provide practical instruction on a wide range of security topics specifically for K-20 education IT professionals.

• Ransomware

• Threat Intelligence

• Human Intelligence

• Security Operations

• Incident Response

• Red/Blue Teaming

• IoT Security

• Artificial Intelligence

Speakers chosen to present at TechMentor & Cybersecurity Live! @ Microsoft HQ 2026 will receive a stipend for each session they present. TechMentor Conferences will also cover hotel accommodations (room and tax only) for a pre-determined number of nights at the host hotel as outlined in the speaker agreement. Speakers are responsible for their own travel costs and incidentals.