The Inaugural M365 Miami Community Days Event

~ sfennah

In early Feb I travelled to Miami for two community events. First, I had the pleasure to be involved with the inaugural M365 Miami Community days event. Organised by a recently established non-profit organisation, this event fills a gap in the offered events in a city which has a vibrant IT industry.

Left Uncharted was founded by Emily Mancini and has a stated aim to close the technology skills gap, partly through events like M365 Miami.

Getting Ready for the Event

Part of my event prep is always the manicure! I try to brand my nails to match the event logo and colour scheme. Thanks to an amazing local nail artists, the creations are now stunning and she excelled herself this time, the sand even felt sandy.

This image description was written by Copilot.
The image shows a close-up of a person’s hands with their nails painted in bright and colorful designs.
The nails are mostly pink and blue, with two nails on each hand featuring a palm tree and a sunset scene.
The sunset is depicted with yellow, orange, and blue gradients, creating a contrast with the dark silhouettes of the palm trees.
The fingers are well-manicured and rest on a surface that is not visible in the image.
The image does not contain any text or other elements besides the hands and the nail art.
I hope this description helps you to visualize the image. 😊

Travel

Travelling with my husband we flew out of London Heathrow and then took an Uber to the Citizen M hotel near the conference venue. After 18 hours of travel with workshop to deliver the next day, it was straight to sleep! Fortunately only 5 hour time difference so despite working a little early, we didn’t really feel the jet lag.

Workshop Day

As part of the conference pre-day, I delivered an introductory user targeted Copilot workshop. After covering some background information, we worked through a selection of sample tasks to demonstrate the power, opportunity and tips to avoid potential pitfalls. The afternoon session saw us look at Copilot for Microsoft 365 and then on to the Copilot-athon, with practical challenges to complete using any suitable Copilot.

Images showing computer lab where workshop was held. The room is called “Left Brain” and is in the AI Center at Wolfson Campus, Miami Dade College and was the perfect location for a workshop entitled “An introduction to AI Powered Collaboration.”

Conference Day

On conference day I had a different experience. For a change I was not speaking but only volunteering in the morning and attending sessions in the afternoon.

I documented the day on Twitter as it went on, until we go to mixer at the end of the day. I love these events but after 12 hours the energy is dropping.

Emily Mancini opening the event and introducing Left Uncharted
The first session speakers in action
Second session speakers, the sun is out and we have a group of experts in a huddle ready to answer attendees questions
The amazing lunch was catered by local company who provide authentic Cuban cuisine catering to events
As my shift managing the main room came to a close with lunch, I got to got to a few sessions starting with Erica’s
Next session was Martina & Toni’s Governance session
Finished the day with a SharePoint Premium session, thanks to Antonio and Haniel
The stickers calling out attendance at the Inaugural M365 Miami event was a nice touch and I thought I had the full set, but…
It turned out I still needed the Speaker one, complete with the glittery palm tree symbol to complete the set.

Speaker & Sponsor Appreciation Event

The event officially closed with a different kind of speaker & sponsor appreciation event, a day at the beach. It was a lovely relaxing way to close out the event and enjoy time, fun & food with community friends.

Collage of photos from the beach with the M365 painted sign on display next to the shelter, people gathering in the shade enjoying conversations & drinks, the shoreline with a few seabirds and on the merry-go-round where my horse was called “David’s Darling”.

Up next…

In my next blog I’ll talk about the inaugral M365 at Sea which set sail the following day.

2 thoughts on “The Inaugural M365 Miami Community Days Event”

  2. Pingback: Speaking – Sara Fennah's Blog

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