Track
Agents (Copilot)
About
Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered productivity tool integrated into Microsoft 365 applications, designed to assist users in their daily tasks by leveraging advanced language models and machine learning. Copilot works across apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, providing contextually relevant suggestions, automating repetitive tasks, and helping users create content more efficiently. Whether drafting emails, generating reports, analyzing data, or summarizing meetings, Copilot acts as a smart assistant that enhances productivity and reduces manual effort.
One of the standout features of Microsoft Copilot is its ability to understand context within documents and conversations. In Word, for instance, Copilot can help generate text, suggest edits, and even rephrase content based on the user’s instructions. In Excel, it can analyze datasets, generate insights, create complex formulas, and visualize trends, all in a conversational manner. Copilot’s integration with Teams also allows it to provide real-time meeting summaries, action items, and insights, helping teams stay aligned and productive.
Microsoft Copilot is built on OpenAI's language models (soon to be replaced with native Microsoft language models) and deeply integrated with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, making it more than just a standalone tool. It benefits from the security, compliance, and data protection features inherent to Microsoft’s cloud services, ensuring that sensitive business information is handled securely. As an enterprise solution, Copilot is designed to assist organizations in automating tasks, improving collaboration, and making data-driven decisions, ultimately enabling businesses to work smarter and more efficiently.
What we're looking for
We're looking for a mixture of introduction level sessions for Microsoft Agents to explain what they are and how they can be used. We want practical example sessions on implementing Agents into Microsoft 365 for real world use cases with actionable tasks (not just a posh Google). We want sessions on how to secure the data Agents have access to and demystifying (or confirming) some of the negative propaganda around them.
These sessions should be aimed at a mixture of end customer users and technical users
BizApps
About
BizApps (short for Business Applications) is a term commonly used to refer to a suite of applications and tools designed to help organizations manage, automate, and optimize their business operations. These applications are typically part of the Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite, providing solutions for everything from customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) to workflow automation and business intelligence.
Here are the core components of Microsoft BizApps:
Microsoft Dynamics 365: This is a collection of intelligent business applications that help organizations run various business functions. Dynamics 365 includes modules for sales, customer service, field service, marketing, finance, operations, and human resources. These applications are designed to unify data, processes, and people across the organization, improving productivity and customer satisfaction.
Microsoft Power Platform: This includes tools like Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Agents. These applications enable businesses to analyze data, build custom applications, automate workflows, and create AI-driven virtual agents with minimal coding expertise. Power Platform provides a low-code approach to building business solutions, making it easier for users to create and deploy apps tailored to their needs.
Business Intelligence and Analytics: BizApps also includes tools like Power BI that allow organizations to gather insights from their data, visualize trends, and make data-driven decisions. With powerful reporting and data analysis features, these apps help businesses optimize their operations and gain a competitive edge.
Overall, Microsoft BizApps focuses on transforming business processes by providing integrated, scalable solutions that improve productivity, enhance customer relationships, and enable better decision-making. They are built on the Microsoft cloud platform, ensuring seamless integration with other Microsoft tools and services, like Microsoft 365 and Azure, for a unified and efficient experience.
What we're looking for
Making a return to Commsverse for 2025 we're welcoming the Power Platform community. Creating AI agents and then integrating them into communications and collaboration workflows is done using Microsoft's Power Platform. We want to see sessions on automating business processes using AI agents as the frontend taking end user inputs and triggering actions that complete business processes and return an output. We're particularly interested in how Dynamics 365 can be used with BizApps and Agents to streamline customer service and service fulfilment.
Some sessions on introduction to BizApps are welcome, but we really want deep dive practical sessions that are focussed on solving business problems that are felt industry wide
Business Collaboration
Business collaboration refers to the process by which individuals, teams, or organizations work together to achieve common goals, share knowledge, solve problems, and innovate. Effective collaboration is essential for driving productivity, fostering creativity, and improving decision-making within businesses. Modern collaboration tools—such as Microsoft Teams—facilitate seamless communication, file sharing, and project management across different teams, departments, and locations. These tools help remove silos within organizations, enabling employees to connect in real time, whether they are working remotely or in the office.
In today's business landscape, collaboration is not limited to internal teams but often extends to external stakeholders like customers, vendors, and partners. Cloud-based platforms, such as Microsoft 365, allow businesses to work together with external parties in a secure and efficient manner. For instance, file sharing, co-authoring documents, and managing joint projects with clients or suppliers can all be done within a unified ecosystem, fostering stronger business relationships and improving collaboration outcomes. Digital tools also enable businesses to automate workflows, track progress, and maintain transparency, making collaboration more effective and data-driven.
Collaboration also plays a critical role in innovation and problem-solving. By pooling expertise, perspectives, and resources, businesses can generate new ideas, optimize processes, and address complex challenges more effectively. The rise of cross-functional teams and collaborative leadership encourages a culture where collaboration is seen as a strategic driver. A collaborative business environment nurtures creativity and knowledge sharing, leading to better products, services, and customer experiences. In this interconnected world, business collaboration is key to maintaining a competitive edge and achieving long-term success.
What we're looking for
This track is focussed on the end customer user and how to get the most out of Teams, Viva, SharePoint and the rest of the collaborative suite in Microsoft 365 and how they can use these tools to improve workforce collaboration in the hybrid workplace. Sessions like "how to make the new chat and channels experience work for you", "how to use AI assisted meeting tools to get more out of your business meetings". "how to track goals / tasks / objectives from meetings and chats", "how to make sure your team feel connected in a remote setting", "how to measure productivity" etc.
Some visionary sessions would be an advantage and panel discussions where methods have been implemented successfully or unsuccessfully.
Contact Center
About
Microsoft Teams Contact Center is a cloud-based solution designed to integrate customer support and communication channels within Microsoft Teams, enhancing the customer service experience. It allows businesses to use Teams as the central hub for managing customer interactions across various channels such as voice, chat, email, and social media. By connecting customer service agents directly with Teams, organizations can streamline operations, improve collaboration, and ensure a more unified approach to handling customer inquiries and issues.
The solution offers powerful features like automatic call distribution (ACD), interactive voice response (IVR), and real-time analytics, which help businesses manage high volumes of customer interactions efficiently. Teams Contact Center also provides tools for supervisors to monitor agent performance, track KPIs, and deliver personalized coaching. Integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365, it enables seamless access to customer data, helping agents resolve issues more effectively and provide personalized support.
Teams Contact Center is also highly customizable and scalable, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes. It offers the flexibility to integrate with third-party contact center solutions, allowing businesses to tailor the experience to their specific needs. As part of the broader Microsoft ecosystem, it benefits from enterprise-grade security, compliance, and data protection standards, ensuring that customer interactions remain secure and in compliance with regulatory requirements.
What we're looking for
We want a mixture of thought leadership and market needs sessions from the industry and end customer contact center operations. We want to offer end customers the insight into where the contact center industry is heading in the next few years and how the customer service needs of the modern customers need to be met with dynamic contact center solutions.
We want to see sessions on voice enabled AI agents, not just art of the possible, but practical applications that can be taken advantage of today. This should not be limited to Copilot Studios, but also other AI bot tools too that compliment the Teams certified contact center. We want to see how analytics are used and can be used to transform workforce management that enables contact centers to operate more efficiently and how conversations are being analyzed to provide deeper insight into the customer experience and relationship.
Meetings
About
Microsoft Teams Meeting Rooms provide a complete solution for video conferencing and collaboration in physical meeting spaces, integrating with Microsoft Teams to deliver a seamless hybrid meeting experience. These meeting rooms are equipped with specialized hardware such as cameras, microphones, and speakers, ensuring high-quality audio and video for remote and in-person participants. The system is designed to enable easy joining of Teams meetings directly from a meeting room, with simple one-touch meeting start features and automatic scheduling synchronization with the organization’s calendar.
The solution also includes Teams Rooms devices, which can be tailored to the size and needs of different meeting spaces, from small huddle rooms to large conference rooms. Features like virtual whiteboards, screen sharing, and real-time collaboration tools are incorporated, allowing participants to share documents, presentations, and other media effortlessly. Microsoft Teams Meeting Rooms work with a variety of hardware partners, such as Logitech, Poly, and Yealink, ensuring compatibility and flexibility in choosing the right equipment for any environment.
Additionally, Microsoft Teams Meeting Rooms are equipped with intelligent features like ambient noise suppression, automatic framing, and AI-powered speaker tracking, making meetings more productive and inclusive. These features help ensure clear communication, even in large rooms, and reduce distractions for participants. Fully integrated with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Teams Meeting Rooms offer secure and compliant collaboration, allowing organizations to maintain a seamless and unified experience for employees regardless of location.
What we're looking for
We want to know what is next for Teams Meeting Rooms. What's the latest innovations, what is AOSP, MDEP, why should we care, what do this bring to the ecosystem? Understanding Android vs Windows and the device lifecycle. How AI is bridging the gap between in-person and remote participants etc. How do we manage Teams Rooms at scale, how do we report on usage and understand ROI? What impact is BYOD having on the room system market?
These sessions should be a mixture of envisioning and technical implementation aimed at the end customer manager and technical engineers.
Microsoft Loop
About
Microsoft Loop is a collaborative productivity platform that combines real-time co-authoring and dynamic content creation. It allows users to create flexible workspaces, pages, and components that can be shared and edited across various Microsoft 365 apps, such as Teams, Word, Excel, and Outlook. Loop's key features include Loop components (interactive elements like task lists, tables, and checklists) that can be embedded and updated in different apps, and Loop pages, which serve as collaborative canvases for organizing and sharing content in real-time.
One of Loop’s defining characteristics is its real-time collaboration capabilities. Multiple team members can simultaneously edit documents, share ideas, and track tasks without worrying about version control, as changes are reflected instantly across all users. Loop pages and components are highly flexible and dynamic, enabling them to be moved and embedded across different platforms, ensuring seamless collaboration no matter the tool or device.
Integrated with the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Loop leverages the security, compliance, and permission settings of Microsoft’s cloud tools, allowing teams to manage access and ensure data safety. It is designed to enhance collaboration in hybrid and remote work environments by making it easier for teams to organize, co-create, and track progress on projects with minimal friction.
What we're looking for
We want to see a mixture of introductory sessions e.g. "What is Microsoft Loop?" and practical use cases e.g. "how we're using Loop in our team for xxx" and "how to use these Loop components for xxx". This track is aimed at end users and department managers who really want to collaborate more effectively with their remote teams. Therefore the content should be pitched and delivered in a non-technical manner.
Security & Compliance
Microsoft Purview is a comprehensive set of information governance, risk management, and compliance tools designed to help organizations meet regulatory requirements and protect sensitive data. Purview provides a unified platform that enables businesses to manage their data lifecycle, ensure data privacy, and safeguard against potential risks. It allows organizations to monitor, classify, and govern data across Microsoft 365, Azure, and third-party applications, ensuring that sensitive information is protected and managed in compliance with laws and regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.
Key features of Microsoft Purview include data classification and data loss prevention (DLP). It automatically classifies data based on its content and context, helping organizations identify sensitive information such as personally identifiable information (PII), financial data, and intellectual property. Purview also enables businesses to create DLP policies that prevent the accidental sharing or exposure of sensitive data, offering real-time protection and control over who can access or share specific information. In addition, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager provides pre-built templates and workflows to help organizations assess, monitor, and manage their compliance posture.
Purview also helps with audit and eDiscovery processes, allowing organizations to search and analyze data for legal and compliance purposes. The platform offers robust tools for auditing user activity, tracking data access, and maintaining chain-of-custody for digital evidence. With end-to-end security features, Microsoft Purview ensures that data governance and compliance efforts are streamlined and aligned with organizational policies. It is integrated with other Microsoft solutions like Microsoft 365 Defender and Azure Security Center, ensuring a comprehensive, unified approach to protecting data across an enterprise.
What we're looking for
With the implementation of AI, data security and compliance is at the forefront of IT manager's minds. We want to know how we can use Microsoft 365 and Azure tools to ensure data security when using AI. What are the ethics to consider, what is too much data, how to protect it, but also how to proactively monitor and alert when potential data security has been breached.
These sessions should be a mix of an introduction to the toolset and deeper dive how to configure / monitor / report aimed at the technical user.
Teams Admin & Innovation
About
Microsoft Teams Admin refers to the tools and interfaces that IT administrators use to manage and configure Microsoft Teams within an organization. The Microsoft Teams admin center is the primary console where admins can control Teams settings, monitor activity, and ensure that the platform is operating smoothly across the organization. From this interface, administrators can configure policies for meetings, messaging, and app usage, manage user permissions, and monitor Teams usage and performance through built-in analytics and reports. Admins can also manage device settings for Teams Rooms and manage the overall security and compliance configurations for Teams.
In addition to the Teams admin center, administrators can also use PowerShell commands and Azure Active Directory (AAD) for more advanced configurations and bulk management. Teams Admin is key to ensuring the platform aligns with organizational needs and governance policies. It includes capabilities such as managing guest access, setting up phone systems, controlling data retention policies, and troubleshooting user issues. With these tools, IT teams can ensure that Microsoft Teams is configured securely and efficiently, supporting collaboration and communication across different departments and locations.
What we're after
This track is for the technical user. Here we want sessions that are deep-dive focussed on the management and administration of all things Teams and Microsoft 365. Here is a perfect opportunity for you to share some cool insights into the problems you've faced and how you overcame them with workarounds, scripts, or Azure apps.
These sessions should be interesting for the geeks at expert level that demonstrate best practices, how to's, and how you've come up with innovative solutions to problems you've faced as a Teams Admin
Teams Phone
About
Microsoft Teams Phone is a cloud-based calling solution that integrates voice calling into Microsoft Teams, allowing businesses to make and receive calls directly within the app. It replaces traditional phone systems with a modern, unified communication platform, enabling employees to use their computers, mobile devices, or desk phones to manage calls. Teams Phone supports calling features like voicemail, call forwarding, call transfers, and conferencing, streamlining communication within an organization.
Teams Phone is part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem and is tightly integrated with other tools like Microsoft Outlook and Teams chat, creating a seamless experience for users. It offers advanced capabilities like auto attendants, call queues, and direct routing, allowing businesses to customize their telephony needs and integrate with existing phone systems. Additionally, it supports number porting and international calling, making it adaptable for companies with global operations.
Designed for scalability and security, Microsoft Teams Phone provides enterprise-grade features such as end-to-end encryption and compliance with regulatory standards. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes, offering flexible subscription plans and integration with third-party systems. Whether for small teams or large enterprises, Teams Phone delivers an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional phone systems while promoting collaboration within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
What we're looking for
We want to see advanced calling sessions that dig deeper into integrations with line of business calling systems. Think PA systems, Broadcast Messages, Intercoms, Virtual Receptionists etc. We really want to know what is involved and the considerations of SIP Gateway, SBC, and Survivable Branch Appliances. In addition, more advanced management of Teams Phone including how to document auto attendants and call queues, how to manage them, how to admin advanced calling features and the considerations on why you should choose OC vs CP vs DR for example.
Sessions should be aimed towards the technical attendee.
Level
Beginner
Suitable for audiences with little to no existing knowledge of the subject. Should be non-technical and avoid acronyms or jargon.
Expert
Suitable for audiences who are very familiar with the subject or topic and looking to enrich their understanding further. Use of acronyms and technical jargon permitted without explanation
Intermediate
Suitable for people with some existing experience looking to gain a deeper insight into the subject. Limited use of technical jargon without explanation
Call for Content - Information
Commsverse is a community conference. Our content is sourced from volunteer speakers who have a passion to share their knowledge with others freely. Each year we open our doors and accept content from speakers all over the world. To help you with your submission, please read through some key information to ensure that you are able to commit to speaking should you be selected.
Submission Timeline
Call for content is open until Feb 14th 2025 23:59 GMT. You have until this date to submit your sessions. We are unable to accept submissions beyond this date. Sessions will be reviewed after this date with session offers being sent out on 1st March 2025.
If you receive a session offer, you will have 7 days to accept your place. We give you this time to align your calendars and seek any approvals you need to attend. If you do not accept the offer within the timeframe, your offer may be removed and offered to another speaker. If you need more time, please contact us within the 7 day period so mitigations can be put in place.
Who Can Submit
Anyone in the community can submit content that is suitable for one of our content tracks. You don't need to be an MVP or experienced speaker. We welcome all abilities and encourage new speakers to submit. If you are new to the speaking circuit we can provide coaching and buddy schemes to help build your confidence leading up to the event.
The most important ask of you is that you submit content that you can confidently speak about. Generally this means you have had real-world, hands-on experience in your topic and can speak from a position of experience and authority. We are not after Microsoft regurgitation sessions where you're re-presenting a marketing session or read a document on Microsoft Learn. We want sessions from the coalface. These are the most valuable to the community. You'll need to be prepared for questions on your topic that you should be able to answer on the spot and not "take it offline".
However, there are a few no no's. Regardless to whether your company is sponsoring our event or not, you can submit a session in our community call, but it must not be about your product. This means no direct or indirect product / service sessions where your topic can only be achieved either using your product or where your product is an alternative to a native method. Your content must be aimed at community knowledge sharing of Teams and Microsoft developed native tooling / methods that attendees can benefit from freely and without having to sign-up for services / products that are not included in Microsoft 365 licensing.
This includes trojan horse sessions where a speaker is sponsored to deliver a session on a neutral topic but positions a vendor solution as part or all of the solution to the session problem statement.
Sessions must be delivered in neutrality. This means avoiding content that over promotes your employer e.g. "We at Acme have X capability, or we at Acme do Y" etc.
Above everything your session must add value to the Teams community that can be freely implemented without conditions.
Session Submission Limitations
You can submit up to 3 sessions for consideration. These can be changed / updated until the call for speakers period has ended. After that, they cannot be altered. The number of sessions you submit does not increase your chances of being selected. Sessions are chosen based on their quality and relevance. A well crafted submission is worth 10x more than 4 ambiguous sessions.
Please do not submit sessions that you have previously delivered at Commsverse unless there has been significant developments in your topic at industry level, these sessions will not be considered.
Multi-Speaker Sessions
Multi speaker content sessions are permitted. However, your session must be at least 45 minutes in duration. Sessions of less length have very little value to the attendee when delivered by more than one speaker.
We will consider multi-speaker panel discussion session submissions in the 25 minute category however.
The maximum number of speakers per content session is limited to 2. The maximum number of speakers per panel discussion is limited to 4.
Please ensure that ALL your speakers are added to your session submission. They can be changed afterwards, but you must make it clear on the submission how many additional speakers your session proposes.
Any sessions submitted as a single speaker and then post session offer turn out to require co-speakers, then they may be rejected.
Use of AI
In previous years we have seen an increase in the use of AI to create session proposals. We don't mind you doing this, but you should check and edit the abstract to make sure it is accurate and in keeping with the session you're planning to deliver. Full disclosure, all submissions will be checked using AI to detect how much of the content is computer generated. We don't want to see abstracts promising deep dives into several topical areas for a 25 minute session! We want real world sessions from real world experience, not regurgitated marketing presentations or 'what you learnt reading Microsoft Learn'.
Sorry, but our attendees love the real world content. If they wanted the marketing hype sessions, they'd go somewhere else, like Microsoft Ignite.
Payment & Expenses
We do not pay speakers to speak at Commsverse so don't ask. This includes payment in the guise of full expenses paid. We do not pay for your airfare, parking, taxi, or business airport lounge access. As a community we want speakers who are willing to volunteer their time and knowledge.
Those that are able to seek sponsorship from their employer should do so. We will in all cases provide the following support to speakers to ease the cost burden to attend:
- If you are flying into the UK we will organise a taxi transfer from Heathrow Airport to the Speaker Hotel on your arrival. We will also organise a taxi transfer from the event back to Heathrow if you are leaving whilst the event is in progress e.g. 19th June.
- We will provide you a room at our speaker hotel for the nights of the 17th and 18th June (check-in Tues 17th, check-out Thurs 19th). All single occupancy (no sharing) at our cost
- We will provide transportation from the speaker hotel to the venue and back again throughout the event
- We will provide food and drink throughout your stay
- We will pay for any parking charges you incur whilst staying at the hotel or venue if you are travelling by car