Background
Over the weekend of 20-22 May 2022, Oslo welcomed a whole bunch of Microsoft MVPs. Even the weather was accommodating: sunny and warm, when we had time to go sightseeing but gray and rainy, when we all were inside learning. I could not have asked for better 😀
The Norwegian community event was hosted at Microsoft by Malin Martnes, Guro Faller and Thomas Sandsør and they managed to get an impressive lineup of speakers in a rather short time.
It was really great to see that many engaged people wanting to learn more about various subjects in and around the Power Platform, Dynamics365, Governance, etc. Some of the people I talked with between the sessions were just getting started with these subjects and it was amazing to hear how much they were able to learn from the meetup.
Even though, I also had a session, I always take the time to listen in on and learn from the other sessions. All of the speakers that presented on Saturday are experts on their fields and being able to learn from all of them is an opportunity I don’t want to miss.
Just like with my posts about the Power Platform conference in Berlin, I decided to make a summary of the sessions that I attended on Saturday.
Sessions
Dyn365CS Omnichannel – Teams – Voice – AYNK by Kai Stenberg
Kai brought Benny Hill to Omnichannel 😀 It was nice to see how the voice channel works in Dynamics 365 Customer Service. A bit of theory and a bunch of demos, just how we like it. He took us through the functionalities and one thing is for certain, the transcript and translation is not ready to mix languages 😀
There is also support for Danish (no AI suggestions) and Estonian languages (no PVA or AI suggestions)! So good news for me and definitely something to test out. There are some cool features that some of our customers have been requesting solutions for, such as: Transcripts, recording, keywords, etc. Only thing that I would like to have become available is the Azure Communication Services, which would be great to also use with Dynamics 365 Marketing. 😉
Dynamics 365 Marketing – the good, the bad and the ugly – Event edition – Vivian Voss
I took the audience through the functionalities of Dynamics 365 Marketing Event module. Also showed the Teams integration and a cool feature now, where you can actually see the Dynamics 365 Marketing Event form in the Teams webinar window. So you don’t have to worry about finding a link to the Event record, you can just add it to the webinar. Definitely a great addition!
There are definitely some great things happening with the native Teams integration and I will cover that in more detail also in future sessions / blog posts.
If I also bring out the ugly here is, the pricing/licensing. Different things to remember, but one thing that not many customers pay attention to when jumping into it, the Event website you create through Dynamics 365 Marketing, is using the Power Platform Portal and it will come with an extra cost!
Hello from the other side – how makers and developers make a FusionDev team – Luise Freese, Yannick Reekmans
Developers and Makers are not known to always be on the same page. They both have their own tools and ways of doing things but they do have something in common. They both think they are more right than the other.
A great session with a relaxed and fun vibe. Luise was representing the Maker and Yannick the developer and they both also showed very well the dynamic between a maker and a developer 😀 But with real-life example they showed us, how bringing developers and makers together can make a much better solution. Team work makes the dream work as they say 😀
LUNCH
Pizza 😉 It is becoming a tradition now, but I have to bring out lunch also in this event. When coming out from the previous session, being hungry and wondering what to have for lunch….Then it is nothing better to see that all the tables in the lobby being covered with different variations of pizza. For my empty stomach – that sight was a dream come true 😀
Lunch gave us also a possibility to connect with both the speakers and participants and exactly this part is my favorite. Reaching out to people, engaging in discussions about problems or possible solutions, hearing how much people have learned. That is exactly what motivates me to put in the extra hours or travel. But let’s face it, I do it because I love it 😀
Enterprise implementations of Dynamics 365 – what you need to know! – Kaila Bloomfield
Kaila took us through a scenario that all consultants have seen once or twice (times many 😀 ): A customer says that they have now bought these and these licenses and now would like you to implement a specific product or solution. Doing this, without thinking through the overall architecture or processes the organization uses. This can lead to huge amount of wasted resources and frustration and another failed Dynamics 365 project.
But there is one way to make sure that you have a plan and have thought things through before going in to buy a specific license or product. Enterprise architecture and drawing out the processes help customers to make better decisions and save resources 😉
Career planning in the Power Platform – Alison Mulligan, Mark Christie
My final session of the conference was a career planning one. To be honest, i have never thought about planning my career. It has always been a process that just happens 😀 But having been in working as a consultant for about 8 months now, I can really feel that having a plan, makes it easier to know where and what to aim towards. I have started reflecting on the ideas and directions my career thoughts have been and they are all over the place 😀 So it is good to get advice and guidance from people who know something about it 😀
Definitely good vibe and suggestions to keep in mind. And it all is suitable for a person completely new to Power Platform and also those that have been in it for a while, but need a sense of direction, like me 😀
Definitely recommend this session to everyone, it gives food for thought!
Summary
An eventful day at Microsoft Norway. I definitely left the conference with a lot of new information and things I want to try out. My background is in Dynamics 365, so everything related to Power Platform, Governance etc. Is something I want to understand to see how I can cooperate into my projects.
The day finished with a quiz on Power Platform and Norway. One complaint to that is that they never pick the easy questions that I would know 😀 But, I am proud, managed to not finish in the last half of the leaderboard!
Once again an awesome event and audience. One of my best experiences as a speaker yet, so that is also very uplifting for the next ones 😉
Thank you Oslo, see you again next year!
