The CollabTalk Podcast

Episode 92 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and Office Apps & Services MVP Ric Bretschneider (@ricbret), a technologist and consultant who spent 17 years on the PowerPoint product team at Microsoft before becoming a PowerPoint MVP himself. Recorded in June 2020.

In this episode, Ric and I discuss the history of PowerPoint and some of his favorite new features, including some of the AI and cloud-driven capabilities. He also shares some of his community experiences, including his participation in Pecha Kucha and the Presentation Guild.

You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/gmzIM7KDHnA

Conversation between Microsoft MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) and social collaboration expert Noah Sparks (@noahsparks) and Microsoft Sr. Product Manager, Mark Kashman (@mkashman) as part of the Loop365 vlog series. In this discussion, we cover the new Microsoft Lists app, and exclusive to this podcast, delve into some of the go-to-market activities for the Lists app beyond what was shared in the vlog episode.

You can watch this entire interview on the CollabTalk YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/sarvOi1wnqI

Episode 7 of this Microsoft employee-focused interview series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and Jussie Roine (@JussieRoine), a former Microsoft MVP and Regional Director, now Azure Developer Audience Lead at Microsoft in Helsinki, Finland. Recorded in May 2020.

In this episode, Jussi and I discuss his new role at Microsoft, and how much the company has changed since the last time he worked there (2006-2009). We also talk about the differences between regional roles, field and evangelism roles at Microsoft, and the impact of MVPs within the community.

You can watch the entire interview on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/NQzbtKW2PYw

Episode 91 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and Business Applications MVP Julie Yack (@coloradojules), a trainer, author, community advocate, and COO for Colorado Technology Consultants based in the Colorado Springs, CO area.

In this episode, Julie and I discuss some of the evolution of the Dynamics and Business Apps community, and her unconventional path into the tech world.

You can also watch this episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/bfBeLkjHkrA

Takeaways from the April 2020 #CollabTalk TweetJam on the topic of "Best Practices for Organizing Community Events." Conversation between Microsoft MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) and Mark Jones (@markqjones), founder of UK-based Collaboris, the Collab365.community, and quarterly GlobalCon events for the Microsoft community. In this discussion, we focus on the 7 questions covered by the tweetjam.

You can watch this entire interview on the CollabTalk YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/_ZCXS2BmbNk

Episode 90 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and first-time Artificial Intelligence MVP Veronika Kolesnikova (@breakpointv16), a Developer at Rightpoint in the Boston, MA area.

In this episode, Veronika and I talk about her interests in AI, machine-learning, and cognitive services. She shares that while much of this latest technology does not yet apply to her current consulting work, it is quickly coming to the forefront within the enterprise, and will soon become a necessary component of internal IT efforts.

You can watch this entire interview on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/KaWI1_bCXKg

Episode 89 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and 12-time Business Applications MVP Joel Lindstrom (@JoelLindstrom), a Principal Architect for Power Platform at Hitachi Solutions, Microsoft Certified Trainer, and podcaster based in Greer, South Carolina. Joel is the creator and editor of CRM Audio, the leading Dynamics CRM podcast (crm.audio), is an editor and frequent contributor to the Hitachi Solutions blog at http://us.hitachi-solutions.com/blog/ and is the co-creator of the CRM Tip of the Day blog which you can find at www.crmtipoftheday.com. Recorded in April 2020.

In this episode, Joel and I talk about the beginnings of the Dynamics CRM platform, and its role in the Business Applications and Power Platform ecosystem. As a 12-time MVP, Joel has been there from the beginning, and is one of the leading community voices on CRM as well as the Common Data Service, which is Microsoft's premier data repository for the Power Platform. We talk about the evolution of the Dynamics space, growth of the Business Applications category, and some of our observations from the MVP community.

You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/ynwsyJ_S1qE

Episode 88 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and fellow Microsoft Regional Director and Developer Technologies MVP Rockford Lhotka (@RockyLhotka), an open-source architect and Chief Technology Officer at Magenic, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Rocky is a 16-time MVP, the author of numerous books, he regularly speaks at major conferences around the world, and is the creator of the widely used open source CSLA .NET development framework. Recorded in April 2020.

In this episode, Rocky and I cover a few topics, starting off with his background with Magenic and the creation of CSLA (Component-based Scalable Logical Architecture), a software framework that provides a standard way to create robust object-oriented programs using business objects (you can find it on GitHub). He shares some detail on his current speaking topics, which turns into a discussion of the state of modern software development, with portable code on the server and portable code in the browser, and a great discussion of the need for personnel in the DevOps space. In fact, we talk about the path toward DevOps, and share some ideas about where students can/should focus to move into the DevOps field...but ultimately agree that the path requires people to have experience in at least two or three areas within the software development process (development, QA, security, release management, operations, etc). We wrap up the conversation on the topic of job vs career, and the importance of understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, and carving out a career path that plays to your strengths.

You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/uad-7ZdIZiU

Episode 87 of the #MVPbuzzChat series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC, and Developer Technologies MVP Dr. Sarah Kaiser (@crazy4pi314), a Research Engineer at Pensar Development based in Seattle, WA. Sarah was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Macquarie University, and received her PhD from the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. She is a physics experimentalist who specializes in building and breaking opto-electronic systems.

In this episode, Dr. Kaiser and I talk about the growth of quantum computing and Q#, initially discussing Microsoft's Quantum Development Kit and the state of quantum computing, both from a scientific and commercial perspective. I don't know much about the space at all, and she was kind enough to walk me through some of the basics of what is happening within the industry, and Microsoft's investments. We also discussed personnel needs within quantum computing, and how the industry needs people from a variety of backgrounds -- not just computer science -- and especially people with expertise in data analysis and visualization.

You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/kIgDkCzusZg

For Episode 86 of the #MVPbuzzChat series, I connected with Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP Mike Nelson (@mikenelsonIO), a Solution Architect at Pure Storage based in Northern Wisconsin. Mike has been involved in IT for more than three decades in various management, architecture, engineering, and consulting roles. In addition to his Microsoft MVP, Mike is a Microsoft Azure Advisor, Citrix Technology Advocate (CTA), and VMware vExpert. He currently leads several user groups, including a Cloud user group and a VMware User Group (VMUG). Recorded in April 2020.

In this episode, Mike and I talk about his focus as an MVP originally in Hyper-V, on-premises and hybrid datacenter solutions, and more recently Azure Edge -- which is a huge piece of Microsoft's cloud strategy. Mike has a great perspective on the growth of Azure and how organizations are transitioning to the cloud, and shares some insights into questions he hears from customers and how he advises them to move forward.

You can watch this entire episode on the CollabTalk YouTube page at https://youtu.be/FogxoJZhGdw