TechCon 365 Seattle

Seattle, Washington

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Join us at TechCon Seattle 2024!

Envision IT is proud to be a Silver Sponsor at TechCon Seattle 2025, the Pacific Northwest's premier Microsoft technology conference. Set against the backdrop of Seattle's vibrant tech scene, TechCon brings together industry leaders, developers, and IT professionals for two days of intensive learning and networking on June 26-27, 2025.

Peter Carson, President of Envision IT, will deliver two sessions tackling some of the most pressing challenges in modern workplace technology. We'll meet in Room 432 to explore the future of AI implementation and information architecture in Microsoft 365.

Session Highlights

Copilot Studio vs. Azure OpenAI

Thursday, Jun 26, 10:20 –11:30 AM PDT - Room 432

AI-powered agents feel like they're coming everywhere, but how do you light up your own data in them, not just for staff but also for external guests? How can you securely incorporate an AI Agent into both scenarios?

We'll start the session with a level set on how AI really works, particularly Retrieval Augmented Generation. A combination of Search and Large Language Models, it lets your chat interface answer questions it hasn't been trained by leveraging search. Built properly, it also respects security and only answers from content the user has access to, which can live in Dataverse, Microsoft 365, or any other search-accessible repository.

One approach we'll cover is Copilot Studio, a low-code environment where you can build intelligent chat experiences using ready-made large language models, a dialogue manager, and numerous data connectors. These can be published in various ways and can enforce security against your enterprise data.

The other approach is more roll-your-own, leveraging Azure AI Search, Azure OpenAI, and supporting code based on Microsoft-published architectural examples. We'll also cover Microsoft's consumption-based pricing for both.

Feeling faint of heart with all this tech talk? Don't despair. Yes, we'll be showing code, but we'll also discuss real-world business cases and solution architectures that leverage the Microsoft AI stacks.

Teams First Information Architecture and Governance

Friday, Jun 27, 10:20–11:30 AM PDT - Room 432

SharePoint is still important when planning or updating a Microsoft 365 implementation, but it really needs to start with Teams. The underlying SharePoint structure flows out of that. It's not just answering planning questions but also ensuring that everyone understands that Teams is much more than a meeting and chat platform.

Topics we'll cover in this session include:

Introducing a maturity model on how organizations leverage Teams, SharePoint, Email, and OneDrive
Level setting on how they work together
Understanding the differences between Standard, Private, and Shared Channels, and the underlying SharePoint site collections
Where do standalone Communication and Team Sites fit into the Teams and SharePoint structure
Guests versus B2B Direct Connect in Teams, and external sharing in SharePoint
Open source scripts and Power BI dashboards to inventory and analyze your file shares, SharePoint on-premises, and SharePoint Online
Answering the question - what does a Team and a Channel represent in my organization
MindJet as a tool for planning your IA
Commercial and open-source solutions for implementing your IA
Real-world scenarios and case studies