Zoe Wilson
Global Modern Work Data, Apps & Workflow Practice Lead, Executive
Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Zoe is the Global Modern Work Data, Apps & Workflow Practice Lead and an Executive at Avanade, as well as leading globally for Copilot in Modern Work, including Copilot for Microsoft 365.
In this role, Zoe is working with colleagues and clients to help them realise the value of their investments in workplace technology, with a focus on reinventing work, transforming content to knowledge, driving innovation and improving employee experience, productivity & effectiveness for both knowledge and frontline workers.
Innovation and technology evangelism are both core to the success of this role, as well as a passion for delighting and exciting customers with the art of the possible. Additionally, she also works closely with partners like Microsoft on technology innovations, and contributes to many events across the Microsoft tech community through speaking, volunteering as part of various event teams, and more recently was a member of the organising team for Scottish Summit.
Zoe brings together a customer-focused solution background with several years of technology leadership experience and almost 20 years experience working with collaborative tools such as SharePoint and other Microsoft technologies. She is passionate about solving business problems in an innovative and exciting way, and although her primary tech focus has been SharePoint, Teams and Microsoft 365, she now has the pleasure of working across a much broader range of technologies.
Zoe is the co-host of the popular Copilot Connection podcast, and one of the founding members of the New Speaker Workshop, an initiative that focuses on developing the next generation of community leaders. Early in 2022, Zoe joined a group of other like-minded MVPs to form the Viva Explorers, who actively promote, evangelize and champion a modern employee / workplace experience under-pinned by tools such as Microsoft Viva.
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Revolutionizing Work: Unleashing the Power of Microsoft for Next-Gen Employee Experience
In our fast-paced, hybrid work reality, the digital workplace is the new frontier. Yet, the struggle is real – finding, navigating, and accessing info amidst the digital noise can be a nightmare. It's time to empower our teams and make work feel less like a maze and more like a smooth ride. Enter Microsoft Teams, Viva, Copilot, and extending into our core line-of-business systems – driving the ultimate platform and ecosystem integration, to transform the employee experience.
In this session, we will:
- Decode the hybrid work landscape and how it's reshaped the way we work
- Deep dive into the prowess of Microsoft Teams for seamless collaboration and communication
- Elevate employee engagement, learning, and well-being with the game-changing Microsoft Viva
- Embracing Copilot for turbocharging productivity and providing that extra edge
- See how uniting our Microsoft arsenal with core business systems can create a one-stop digital workplace
- Learn insider tips for turbocharging knowledge discovery, navigation, and access in the virtual realm
You'll walk away armed with a newfound understanding of how Microsoft's tech stack can revolutionize your workplace. Say goodbye to the chaos and hello to streamlined collaboration, boosted productivity, and a workforce that's firing on all cylinders. Plus, you'll have the tools to create a digital environment where finding what you need is a breeze, not a burden.
Products in this session include Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Viva, Copilot for M365 & Viva, as well as M365 & Copilot extensibility
Maximising Teams as your Experience Platform
Microsoft Teams has become the global workplace - the place that we all spend significant portions of our working week, whether we are in meetings, chatting or collaborating with our colleagues, partners or customers.
In 2021, Microsoft Viva was launched as the employee experience platform, providing a suite of tools that improve the way we all experience our digital workplace. Viva is accessed through Teams, which firmly cements Teams as the front door for work, the way that we all access the digital workplace. However, organisations are typically only using a small fraction of the potential that is provided by Teams as a Platform.
In this session, I will provide an overview of Teams as the experience platform, including:
- An overview of employee experience
- Why Teams is the experience platform
- What Microsoft Viva is and where this fits in
- The frontline worker experience
- Maximising the value of existing technology investments, through the use of collaborative apps and collab controls
By attending this session, you will gain a greater understanding of the art of the possible with Microsoft Teams as the centre of your experience platform, and how you can drive significant improvements in processes and efficiencies by utilising Teams as the front door to your wider technology ecosystem.
Technologies in this session include Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Viva, Power Platform, Collaborative Apps and Collaboration Controls
Make AI work for you - Using Copilot to increase productivity of your Sales Teams
In the competitive world of sales, maximizing productivity and efficiency is the key to being able to spend more time with clients, and achieving success. For sellers, it is not about working harder anymore, but working smarter. Knowing the tools and ways that help you achieve better results, while having to put in less of your time and energy.
In comes the superpowers of Copilot for Microsoft 365 Copilot together with Microsoft Copilot for Sales. Both are capable tools on their own, but when used together, they supercharge every member of the sales team.
This session is aimed at everyone that is working within multiple applications, processes and workflows during the day, or those who would like to know more about the benefits that generative AI can bring to sellers. If you have many different places and procedures to manage simple tasks and at least once a day find yourselves thinking: "Why can't I just use the information Teams gathered in my Sales application?” then this session is for you.
Through a series of practical demonstrations and use cases we will show you:
• The different ways Copilot enhances the communication, teamwork and individual productivity
• How it combines your well-known tools like Teams, Outlook, Word and also Dynamics 365 Sales.
• A day in the life of a seller using Copilot for M365 and Sales
• How features from email and meeting summaries to real-time co-authoring and data driven insights will allow you to take home a whole new way of working by making AI work for you.
Connecting the copilots with the Copilot Connection
What do you think about when someone mentions Copilot? Is there a particular Copilot that you think of first? To get true value out of the available Microsoft Copilots, you need to understand the differences and the links between them, the common usage and the unique integrations, as well as when to enable and when to extend.
This session will empower you with that knowledge, will help you understand the different apps that you can access Copilot in as well as which to use when. While the underlying system may not change as you move across the Microsoft stack, how you interact with Copilot does, and the context, capability and successful prompts within the apps you use can be very different. Using their experience gained from the earliest days of the Copilot journey through to leading some of the biggest Copilot rollouts in the world, the two presenters will help navigate you through this journey.
Following this session, you will:
- Have a deep understanding of what is available across the Copilot ecosystem and when to use it.
- Understand the nuances of the naming and context of the different Copilots.
- Know when to use an off-the-shelf Copilot, when to extend and when to build custom.
- Learn how to ensure and measure value from the Copilots you're deploying.
All this delivered in the style that the Copilot Connection podcast brings you on a bi-weekly basis.
Products covered in this session include: all Microsoft Copilots!
Building Your Copilot Muscle: A Hands-On Workshop
In no time at all, Copilot has completely transformed the art of the possible for how we all work, bringing the leap forward in AI capabilities right into the everyday apps and services that we all use daily to get our work done. However, just turning these on is not enough. People need guidance and support to understand the potential, they need to build their Copilot muscle, developing new habits and practices that include these new features and capabilities, and then take these capabilities into all their apps, not just those in the Microsoft space. Alongside that, tenant admins and champions need to be able to manage and measure the usage of Copilot, so they can help understand how to get the most value out of the tools, regardless of where they are using it.
Microsoft Copilot’s power is surfaced to users in many different ways and this workshop will cover the full range that relates to the Modern Workplace in Microsoft 365, Bing, Power Platform, Viva and more, helping you to learn what to use when. Through live demos and hands-on labs, our three presenters will share the reality of these services, along with our experiences from customers, including small organisations right the way through to large enterprises.
Whether you work in a large enterprise or work with SMBs, this workshop will give you the information you need to drive value from Copilot in your organisation.
By attending this workshop, you will:
• Understand the different apps and services where you can interact with Copilot and why you would use them, including the licensing required.
• Get hands on with the ways to prompt across different services in our promptathon.
• Learn how you and your organisation can build your Copilot muscle effectively, wherever you are in the journey.
• See how you can effectively administer and govern the Modern Work Copilots.
• Journey beyond the existing Copilots by building your own custom copilot.
Products included in this workshop include:
Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot for Microsoft Viva, Copilot in Power Platform, Microsoft Copilot, Admin experience, Copilot Studio
Blurring the Lines - how Copilot is breaking down silos between Biz Apps and Modern Work
For decades, IT professionals have had a tendency to focus on their own area of tech expertise, building deep knowledge within their team, and even sometimes sharing their knowledge and passion with a wider community who all work with that same technology. SharePoint people worked and shared knowledge with SharePoint people, while those working with Azure or Dynamics did the same. Teams functioned and operated in silos.
With the move to the cloud, we saw these barriers break down a little - SharePoint experts broadened their knowledge to the wider Microsoft 365 stack, Power Platform led to biz apps specialists who worked across both M365 and Dynamics, but despite these, generally we still operate in technology silos.
Enter Copilot. As we head full-speed into the new era of Copilots, the lines between the technology areas are becoming more blurred than ever. When faced with an entirely different way of finding, engaging and interacting with knowledge and data - regardless of which system it is in - as technologists, we have an incredibly important role to play in driving the best possible user experience.
Join our session where we’ll talk about how Copilot is bringing Modern Work and Business Applications closer than ever - and the role that you all have to play.
In this session, we will cover:
- a brief history of the dynamics between M365 and Dynamics
- an overview of how careers in Modern Work and Biz Apps have developed over the last few years
- how Copilot has dramatically changed the game for us as technologists
- the importance of ensuring we develop broad knowledge across both business and end user experiences
- why SharePoints lists are not a database - and the hidden lessons this contains
- career tips, options, and the skills you need for the future, shared by experts from across Modern Work and Biz Apps
- the role you all play in breaking down the silos
Accessibility in Copilot for M365 - A Whistlestop Tour
Moving to Microsoft 365 delivers significant productivity and capability benefits to workforces, and provides them with technology which can truly transform and modernise their ways of working. Hidden within the Microsoft 365 platform are a whole heap of features that provide accessibility benefits to individuals, yet many remain unaware of them. Coupled with this, Copilot for Microsoft 365 has also been shown to deliver significant accessibility and inclusion benefits.
During this session, I will explain what accessibility is, why Microsoft focus on accessibility as a priority, and why inclusion is so important for all of us. We will look at the different types of accessibility features that help with vision, hearing, mobility and neurological ie autism or dyslexia as an example. I'll also share some of the early findings of the accessibility benefits people have seen from Copilot.
I will then follow on with a practical demo of some of the accessibility features available in Microsoft 365 and Copilot for Microsoft 365 which will include:
- Features available across the Office apps.
- Edge browser and Microsoft Copilot accessibility features
- Teams and Stream
- Windows 11 including Copilot in Windows
This is not intended to be an exhaustive demonstration covering every feature in detail. Audience members will take away with them a practical understanding of key accessibility features within Microsoft 365, as well as the additional benefits that Copilot for Microsoft 365 can deliver. This will immediately allow them to create more inclusive and accessible content for their colleagues and customers, and also empower those with accessibility requirements to learn more about the wealth of tools available to them.
I will also share resources with audience members to help them learn more following the session.
Dive back into the Metaverse Mesh for Teams
Join Luke and Zoe a year after they prepared to enter the Metaverse with Mesh for Teams at the inaugural Metaverse One.
A tremendous amount has moved on in the past year in the metaverse space for Microsoft with Avatars now being available in Microsoft Teams and the Mesh for Teams preview drawing closer each day!
After attending this session, you will understand at a high-level:
What Mesh for Microsoft Teams is, what new opportunities it introduces and what business benefits it can bring?
What has changed in the past year in Mesh for Teams?
A live demo of Mesh for Teams using Avatars
A live demo of Mesh for Teams (if available)
How you can better prepare your organization for the metaverse and Mesh for Microsoft Teams
Technologies in this session will be
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Mesh
Introducing Microsoft Teams Premium, the better way to meet now
We are experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime change in work patterns, and there is no going back to 2019. Hybrid work is just work. Empowering today’s connected, distributed workforce requires technology that makes work easier and more flexible.
Virtual and hybrid meetings continue to take up most of the time spent at work. Now, more than ever, leaders need an integrated solution that combines all the advanced meeting capabilities, takes meeting culture to the next level, and allows them to do more with less.
Microsoft Teams Premium is built on the familiar, all-in-one collaboration experience of Microsoft Teams, this new offering makes every meeting from one-on-ones to large meetings, to virtual appointments to webinars more personalized, intelligent, and secure.
After attending this session, you will understand at a high-level:
What Microsoft Teams Premium is, what new opportunities it introduces and what business benefits it can bring
A demo of Teams Premium features
How you can better prepare your organization to make use of Teams Premium
This session is going to be an interactive session that highlights the power of Teams Premium and how we can use its feature set to enhance meetings, virtual appointments, and webinars!
Technologies in this session will be
Microsoft Teams Premium
Speakers - your community needs you! Mastering Microsoft Community Speaking
Many people attend events and look at those on stage wondering how to get there, or who are interested in speaking but don't know how to get started - or whether they even have something valuable to share! We firmly believe that everyone has a story - everyone has a different perspective, different experiences, different learnings, and can contribute their own story in a way that will be valuable to someone out there.
This workshop is for you if you are already an event speaker and looking to polish your skills, or not yet a speaker and looking to get into speaking at events but don't know how to get started. We will break down some of the mystery about speaking at tech events in a way that will help you get started on this journey. Facilitated by professional presenters, and with guest appearances from some of the greats.
In this workshop we'll be looking three areas:
1. Session Abstracts and Submissions, including how to find events to submit to
2. Presentation Preparation and Session Content
3. Delivery Techniques
Activities you will carry out during the workshop:
• Analyze session submissions
• Analyze session delivery
• Write a session submission
• Create and deliver a short session (this could be solo or co-delivery)
For this workshop you will need:
• Note taking equipment
• Device with software for creating presentations such as PowerPoint
Microsoft Viva Administrator
The configuration, deployment and management of Microsoft Viva draws on a wide range of Microsoft 365 products and administration centers. This workshop is aimed at Microsoft 365 administrators who are taking on the control, security and governance of Microsoft Viva.
In this workshop, we will cover:
-Administration Roles for Microsoft Viva
-Managing Microsoft Viva Licenses
-Configuring Tenant Level Settings for Microsoft Viva
-Customization and Deployment of Microsoft Viva Apps in Microsoft Teams
-Introduction to Security & Governance of Microsoft Viva
During this workshop, you will be setting up a tenant, assigning licenses and administering Microsoft 365 services. You will need a laptop to do this and instructions will be sent to you prior to the event on how to prepare an environment.
Tips to thrive in Modern Work leadership roles
I've worked with collaborative technologies - starting with SharePoint, but more recently across the wider Microsoft 365 stack - for almost 20 years. Starting in IT support roles after university, becoming a SharePoint champion, moving into a technical SME roles and then finally moving into leadership roles about 6 or 7 years ago.
In this session, I'll share a quick overview of my career journey including:
- some of my key observations and learnings from my journey through almost 2 decades working in tech
- career highlights and the opportunities that a tech career can open up
- tips for how to follow a path into leadership, and how to thrive once you're there
Prepare to step into the metaverse with Mesh for Teams
The metaverse is all the talk at present with both Facebook and Microsoft going all into to expand and build into it. But the biggest achievement of the metaverse is an industry wide scramble to figure out just what the metaverse is.
Microsoft Mesh is described by Microsoft as a way of letting people connect with a holographic presence, share across space, and collaborate from anywhere in the world. Mesh for Microsoft Teams combines the mixed-reality capabilities of Microsoft Mesh, which allows people in different physical locations to join collaborative and shared holographic experiences, with the productivity tools of Microsoft Teams, where people can join virtual meetings, send chats, collaborate on shared documents and more.
After attending this session, you will understand at a high-level:
What Mesh for Microsoft Teams is, what new opportunities it introduces and what business benefits it can bring?
A live demo of what stepping into Mesh for Microsoft Teams will feel like
How you can better prepare your organization for the metaverse and Mesh for Microsoft Teams
Technologies in this session will be
Microsoft Teams
AltspaceVR
Link to room: https://metaverse-one.rocks/room1
The battle for HR supremacy between Dynamics and Viva
Join this session if you want to see us battle to find the perfect solution to design the perfect Employee Experience using different Microsoft Platforms such as D365HR, Microsoft Viva and Microsoft Teams. This session will provide a fun comparison of features across both the business applications and modern work tech stack, and will give you the knowledge you need to deliver a great experience for your employees.
Microsoft Viva and Syntex Workshop
Learn about how Microsoft Viva and SharePoint Syntex can help your organisation improve their Employee Experience through greater engagement, supportive knowledge management and automated processes with AI.
Agenda
- What is Microsoft Viva and why does Employee Experience matter
- Introduction to the Viva pillars
- Hands-on Viva Connections Workshop
- Hands-on Viva Topics Workshop
- Hands-on SharePoint Syntex Workshop
Microsoft Teams: Usability vs Security
Over the last year, the whole world switched to remote working, with Teams playing a key part - and the result is that Microsoft Teams has seen an unprecedented amount of growth. In many cases, Teams was thrown out quickly with little planning or governance, to quickly facilitate this shift to remote working.
End-users have adopted Teams and love the freedom to work and collaborate in the open with colleagues, customers and partners alike. Microsoft Teams is a fantastic tool for supporting cross-functional and even cross-organisational collaboration, but its openness introduces concerns about unfettered file and data sharing between an unlimited number of users.
Historically, often, effective security came at the expense of usability. And usability came at the expense of security. Many continue to go by the notion that there is no way to achieve both effective security and usability simultaneously - but with Microsoft Teams, and the wider M365 security and compliance capabilities, it can be possible to achieve secure collaboration.
In this session, we will take you through some of the requirements and challenges that your Teams users typically have, and then highlight key technology solutions that can be used to secure these use-cases.
After attending this session, you will understand at a high-level:
• Some of the key use-cases for Microsoft Teams and some the key risks it introduces
• What are the fundamental technical components that Microsoft Teams builds upon
• Where does Microsoft security responsibilities end and yours begin
• An action plan of what you can do today to better secure your Microsoft Teams instance without affecting end user productivity
• What are the licensing implications of the above
Technologies in this session will be
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint Online
• Azure AD
• Microsoft 365 E5 Security and Compliance
Live Events Revisited - Supercharge Your Webinars
Over the last year, we've seen an explosion in the use of Teams Live Events, as people have adapted to remote work, and looked for new ways of using technology to carry on their business.
However, throughout the last year, Microsoft have continued to release changes to the Teams platform which means that there are new options to consider when planning events, as well as additional features and capabilities for live events themselves. This raises questions around whether live events are the right option anymore, along with what your other options are.
During this session, we will:
- Review and compare capabilities for live events, meetings with hard mute and the new webinar type meeting
- Planning for large (up to 1000 attendees) Teams meetings
- Run through which of the options would work best in a variety of different scenarios and use-cases, along with why I'd recommend it
- Look at options for using OBS with meetings and live events to level up your output
- Review the new presenter features within Teams
- Look at the capabilities included in the Teams pro service plan, as well as the Advanced Communications license SKU
- Key considerations for planning your webinar / live event
- Lessons learned
Technologies / features we will look at:
Teams live events
Teams meetings
Teams webinar
OBS
Presenting in Teams Masterclass
Does the phrase "next slide please" send shivers down your spine? Do your meetings often start with a few minutes of trying to share your presentation? When you share your slides, do you struggle to see raised hands or engage with the chat?
If so, then this session is for you!
Over the last few months, Microsoft have released tonnes of great meetings features which can really help you up your game when presenting in Teams calls and meetings. In this session, I'll walk you through all the different ways that you can present, we'll go through the pros, cons and gotchas for each, and I'll show you what both the presenter experience and the attendee experience look like.
Once you leave this session, you'll have all the knowledge and skills you need to be a superstar at presenting in Teams.
What we'll cover:
Basics of presenting in Teams
Presenting using PowerPoint Live in Teams
Dynamic presenter views such as stand-out mode
Additional tips and tricks for Teams and PowerPoint
Supercharge your Productivity & Protect your Time!
The rapid move to remote working that took place last year delivered years of transformation in a matter of months. However, this has had a major impact on mental health and wellbeing.
We all spend significant amounts of time in Teams meetings, which are often back to back - the amount of mental effort required to shift gears constantly, to stay on camera, to maintain the required level of focus - it is just exhausting!
We run the risk of burn-out, it affects our home life, our ability to sleep and over sustained periods of time, has the potential to negatively impact our creativity.
During this session, I'll explain why this matters so much, show you how you can start to correct the balance, protect your time, and become a productivity superstar in the process!
Within Microsoft Teams and the wider M365 stack, there are a number of tools you can use to help with focus, to help with work-life balance, to help reduce the pain of back to back calls. We'll cover tips, tricks and features in Teams, Outlook, Viva Insights, To-do and more!
After watching this session, you'll be armed with the tools you need to manage time and tasks more effectively, to create and manage boundaries between home and work and supercharge your productivity.
Creating a More Inclusive Workplace
2020 was a year that delivered many challenges for all of us - lockdown across the UK triggered a significant transformation in weeks, with many organisations having to quickly enable technology that would help people work more effectively from home.
However, a lot of people found this more challenging due to disabilities, mental health conditions and the loss of the in-person contact and support network that they previously had in the office.
Microsoft 365 is a productivity platform which has accessibility features embedded within its DNA. Many of these are hidden in plain sight, with people not realising the capabilities they have at their disposal, which can help make it easier for them to use and work with technology. Additionally, there are also many things that we can all do as individuals to help us be more inclusive - whether it is through creating more inclusive content or changing how we interact with people through technology.
In this session, I will share:
- the top accessibility features hidden across Microsoft 365, and how they can make it easier for you to work
- how to create more inclusive content in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
- how I use Microsoft Teams for social connections with my colleagues
- tips for running inclusive meetings in Microsoft Teams
Accessibility in M365 - A Whistlestop Tour
Moving to Microsoft 365 delivers significant productivity and capability benefits to workforces, and provides them with technology which can truly transform and modernise their ways of working. However one of the benefits which isn't that well known is perhaps one of the most important, and that is the out-of-the-box accessibility functionality available within Microsot 365.
During this session, I will explain what accessibility is, why Microsoft are focusing on accessibility as a priority, and why inclusivity is so important for all of us. We will look at the different types of accessibility features that help with vision, hearing, mobility and neurological ie autism or dyslexia as an example.
I will then follow on with a practical demonstration of the accessibility features available in Microsoft 365 which will include:
- Features available within the desktop clients of the Office apps.
- Edge browser accessibility features
- Teams and Stream
- Windows 10
This is not intended to be an exhaustive demonstration covering every feature in detail. Audience members will take away with them a practical understanding of key accessibility features within Microsoft 365. This will immediately allow them to create more inclusive and accessible content for their colleagues and customers, and also empower those with accessibility requirements to learn more about the wealth of tools available to them.
I will also share resources with audience members to help them learn more following the session.
Microsoft Copilot and Viva Days, 2024 Sessionize Event
Teams Nation 2024 Sessionize Event
Metaverse One 2023 Sessionize Event
Experts Live Europe 2023 Sessionize Event
Iberian Technology Summit Sessionize Event
TeamsCommunityDay 2023 Sessionize Event
Festive Tech Calendar 2022 Sessionize Event
Virtual M365 Friday Cincinnati Sessionize Event
South Coast Summit 2022 Sessionize Event
Ignite In-Person at South Coast Summit Sessionize Event
Teams10X - Sep 28-29, 2022 Sessionize Event
Technology Empowerment Fair 2022 Sessionize Event
Metaverse One Sessionize Event
Scottish Summit 2022 Sessionize Event
Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon 2022 Sessionize Event
Modern Workplace Conference Paris 2022 Sessionize Event
M365 Below in Chicago! Sessionize Event
Festive Tech Calendar 2021 Sessionize Event
Collabdays Lisbon 2021 Sessionize Event
CollabDays Belgium & Netherlands 2021 Sessionize Event
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3rd cloud8 virtual Summit 2021 Sessionize Event
M365 Philly Virtual 2021 Sessionize Event
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CollabDays Bremen 2021 Sessionize Event
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Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon Sessionize Event
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SharePoint Saturday London 2019 Sessionize Event
Zoe Wilson
Global Modern Work Data, Apps & Workflow Practice Lead, Executive
Nottingham, United Kingdom
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