Live! 360 Call for Papers

The Call for Presentations for Live! 360 Orlando 2025 is now OPEN.

Proposals are due:  Sunday, March 23rd, 2025

Submit your proposals here:  https://sessionize.com/Live360_2025

Live! 360 Tech Con – November 16-21, 2025 
Loews Royal Pacific Resort Conference Center, Orlando, FL.

Live! 360 Tech Con a 6-in-1 conference in Orlando this November, where industry leaders and IT professionals converge to train, network, collaborate, and unlock the full potential of enterprise technology. Experience the synergy of our diverse learning tracks, world-class instructors and speakers, and hands-on labs and workshops.

Live! 360 Tech Con will offer a combination of in-depth and interactive sessions including workshops, hands-on labs, 75-minute breakouts, and 20-minute fast focuses. We invite you to submit sessions in all of these categories across the 6 events, and you may also submit across multiple topic areas at a single show. 

To help you in creating successful submissions, we want to share some of the considerations that go into our process of selecting our speakers and sessions for a Live! 360 event. First, each speaker will typically be selected to deliver two presentations. That means that it is in your best interest to submit at least three, and ideally more than 3 breakout sessions, in addition to any Fast Focus topics you may be submitting.  This ensures that the conference chairs have more than two options per speaker, particularly if the topic you are submitting is popular and is being submitted by several people for the same show.  Next, please make sure that your title is clear and appropriate to the track you are submitting it to, and that your description includes enough detail to understand what audience members will walk away from your sessions having learned. Again, many speakers often provide submissions on the same topics, meaning it comes down to a meaningful title, a quality abstract, and compelling takeaways for our participants.

Virtual Workshop Submissions
Want to dig in even deeper and offer hands-on experience and learning? We are also looking for speakers willing to deliver two-day workshops and two-day & 4-day hands-on labs that will be offered as part of the 2025 Virtual Training Course series. 

Session, workshop, and hands-on lab proposals are welcome in the following topic areas (by Conference): 

Visual Studio Live!

Modern Software Engineering

  • Key Pillars of DevOps (automation, collaboration, customer centricity, etc.)
  • DevSecOps and other XXXOps enhancements
  • Operations for developers (on premises and cloud)
  • Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
  • Platform Engineering
  • Observability benefits, strategies, and tooling
  • Monitoring benefits, strategies, and tooling
  • Azure DevOps Services
  • Azure DevOps Server (latest release)
  • Azure DevOps and GitHub Integration
  • GitHub Enterprise Cloud
  • GitHub Enterprise Server
  • GitHub Advanced Security
  • GitHub Codespaces
  • GitHub Copilot
  • Microsoft DevOps Tooling (version control, agile planning, build, release, monitoring)
  • DevOps Features in Visual Studio Enterprise (CodeLens, Profilers, IntelliTrace)
  • Online services outside of Microsoft (e.g. GitLab, AWS, etc.)
  • Release Tooling (Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Chef, Puppet, Octopus Deploy)
  • Visual Studio tooling that facilitates Agile Software Development Practices (Scrum / XP / Lean)
  • Leading practices in test development, execution strategy, environment management, and automation
  • Developer "inner-loop" optimization (workstation configuration, using containers, shells, etc.)
  • Customizing your team development environment
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (aka "Bash on Windows")
  • Application Analytics (App Insights, New Relic, Open Telemetry, etc.)
  • Migrating from a non-Microsoft platform to an Azure DevOps Server/Services environment
  • Migrating from a non-Microsoft platform to an GitHub Enterprise Cloud/Server environment
  • Development, Quality, and Security leading practices

Cloud Computing

  • Includes cloud, server, and messaging technologies
  • Container technology like podman, containerd, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS), Azure Container Apps, Azure Container Instances (ACI) and Azure Container Registry (ACR)
  • Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
  • Microsoft Azure new features and Marketplace offerings
  • Microservices architecture, design, and implementation
  • Serverless computing (Azure Functions, Amazon Lambda)
  • Azure Logic Apps, Power Automate, PowerApps
  • Low code/no code, including Power Platform and SharePoint
  • Web API design
  • WebAssembly on the server (e.g. WASI, wasmCloud, rustlet)
  • Services in general (REST, queuing, etc.)
  • Hosting non-Microsoft platforms in Azure (Java, NodeJS, Python, etc.)

Database and Analytics

  • Entity Framework
  • Integrating "legacy" data with modern applications
  • IoT and streaming analytics (including Azure IoT Hub; Azure Event Hubs; Azure Stream Analytics; Delta table streaming and Spark Structured Streaming on Azure Databricks; Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric; Apache Kafka on HDInsight; and Apache Flink within HDInsight on AKS)

New Experiences - Mobile, Desktop, and Native Clients

  • .NET MAUI for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac
  • Upgrading / Migrating Xamarin.Forms to .NET MAUI
  • Blazor native and hybrid app development
  • iOS, Android native development (Swift, Java, Kotlin)
  • Uno Platform
  • Avalonia
  • Flutter
  • Voice, text, and other bot experiences
  • Metaverse: AR/VR/MR experiences
  • Mobile web and responsive web design
  • WinUI, WPF and Windows Forms applications with .NET 6
  • Design Principles (UI, UX, Interaction)
  • Design to UI generation tools (Figma to C#, etc.)

Human Factors in Engineering

  • Asynchronous development techniques
  • High quality code review outcomes and experiences
  • Building and supporting high performing teams 
  • Mentorship programs, benefits, and strategies for technologists
  • Effective inter-team feedback and communication
  • Team Communication/Collaboration tools (Microsoft Teams, Slack, GitHub, etc.) 
  • Product delivery processes and frameworks (agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, etc.)
  • Metrics at any level, what to collect and how to use them effectively
  • Lean and agile Testing Practices
  • Delivering at scale, what, why, and how
  • Value Stream Mapping - what, why, and how
  • Psychologically safety and trust, why it matters
  • Teaming effectively in an increasingly remote and asynchronous world
  • Tools and techniques for facilitating events/meetings/ceremonies for distributed teams
  • Technologist career paths and career development strategies

Visual Studio / .NET

  • Visual Studio productivity
  • Visual Studio Code and extensions
  • Effective use of GitHub Copilot
  • .NET 9, .NET 10, and .NET Framework
  • New C# language features
  • Developing using Mac or Linux with VS Code, Rider, and other tools
  • Building cross platform .NET apps for Linux, Windows, Mac, and others
  • Advanced .NET, such as building analyzers and .NET code generators
  • Deep dive topics such as threading, performance optimization, and memory usage
  • Dependency Injection
  • Maker / Hobby / Games

Web Client

  • Blazor
  • Angular, React, Vue, and other JavaScript UI frameworks
  • WebAssembly, including .NET, Go, Rust, and others
  • Progressive Web Apps
  • ECMAScript/JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • node.js and other server-side frameworks

Web Server

  • ASP.NET Core Features
  • ASP.NET Razor Pages
  • ASP.NET MVC
  • ASP.NET Web API
  • Visual Studio Web developer tooling (built-in, add-ons, testing)

Data Platform Live! (formerly SQL Server Live)

  • Microsoft Fabric, including all non-data science workloads (data engineering, data warehouse, BI, data integration/ETL, and streaming/Real-Time Intelligence\).
  • Power BI (including as a standalone BI platform and as part of Microsoft Fabric) – includes self-service, front-end, developer and enterprise topics (e.g. Composite Models, Direct Lake mode)
  • Tooling: working with SSMS, Azure Data Studio, Azure Data Explorer, data/analytics-specific extensions to Visual Studio Code and Jupyter/notebook extensions
  • Python concepts, programming and code generation for the data professional
  • Apache Spark, in all its various environments (Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, Synapse Analytics, HDInsight, etc.)
  • The Microsoft Azure data stack beyond Azure SQL: Databricks, Azure Data Explorer ("Kusto"), Cosmos DB, Managed Instance for Apache Cassandra, Event Hubs, Stream Analytics and IoT Hub
  • Performance tuning and optimization in OLTP and OLAP applications
  • SQL Server security—from an operational and development perspective
  • Analysis Services, including MOLAP and Tabular modes, MDX and DAX, as well as Reporting Services
  • Big Data and unstructured data in SQL Server with data virtualization/PolyBase and native JSON support
  • Data Integration with SQL Server Integration Services, Azure Data Factory, and Microsoft Fabric (Data Pipelines and Dataflows)
  • Data Governance with OneLake Catalog and Microsoft Purview
  • Cloud and hybrid datacenter services and approaches, including Azure SQL Database and SQL Server running on Azure VMs, Amazon Relational Database Services (RDS) or Google Cloud SQL
  • Azure SQL Database, and all its variants (Managed Instance, Hyperscale, Edge)
  • Azure Database for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB
  • Cosmos DB for PostgreSQL
  • Migrating on-prem database workloads to the cloud including Azure VMs, SQL Database, and Managed Instance
  • NoSQL data patterns with Cosmos DB
  • Operational analytics with SQL in-memory OLTP and Columnstore indexes, as well as SQL database in Fabric's OneLake replication
  • High availability, disaster recovery, and continuity planning
  • Operational monitoring and maintenance
  • Development techniques and best practices
  • Automation techniques and PowerShell

Artificial Intelligence Live!

Large Language Model Technology

  • OpenAI and Azure Open AI
  • Marketplaces like Azure ML Foundation Models, Hugging Face and others
  • Amazon Bedrock
  • Nvidia NeMo and NIM
  • Facebook Llama 2
  • Apple Intelligence
  • Large models from other providers (Anthropic, Cohere, Mistral AI, Stability AI, etc.)
  • Self-hosting models (Ollama, etc.)
  • Multimodal LLMs
  • LLM Fine-tuning techniques

Generative AI and RAG Toolchain

  • Prompt engineering
  • Azure AI Foundry
  • Microsoft.Extensions.AI library
  • Langchain
  • Microsoft Semantic Kernel
  • RAG libraries and frameworks like R2R, Cognita, RAGFlow, LLMWare, FARM, Haystack REALM: R and others
  • Vector databases (using Cosmos DB, Pinecone, SQL Server 2025, Postgres, etc.)
  • Microsoft Fabric AI skills
  • Hybrid RAG Systems

Copilot Development

  • Microsoft Copilot Studio
  • Azure AI Foundry
  • Microsoft Semantic Kernel
  • Domain-specific copilots

Agentic AI

  • Microsoft AutoGen, AgentEval, AgentOps, etc.
  • Amazon Bedrock Agents, Amazon Nova
  • Google Vertex AI Agent Builder
  • NVIDIA agentic AI Blueprints

Intelligent Applications

  • Ethics and AI
  • Amazon Alexa, Google Home
  • Microsoft Bot Framework
  • Amazon Lex (and supporting technologies)
  • Google Conversational AI (Dialogflow, CCAI, etc.)
  • Other Chatbot Services
  • Azure AI Services
  • ML and GenAI model deployment and inference services on all major clouds
  • Quantum Computing
  • Edge AI
  • AI in IoT

Machine Learning Algorithms and Libraries

  • Picking the right algorithm
  • What is deep learning?
  • Scikit-learn, NumPy and Pandas
  • TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras
  • Federated Learning
  • Transfer Learning

Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) Platforms

Production ML and MLOps

  • On Azure Machine Learning
  • Within Microsoft Fabric
  • On Amazon SageMaker, Google Vertex AI
  • With MLflow and on Databricks
  • Other platforms: Dataiku, DataRobot, Domino
  • Feature stores
  • Model monitoring

Bias, Interpretability and Explainability

  • On Azure Machine Learning, SageMaker Clarify
  • With LIME and SHAP

Data Visualization

  • R plots and packages (ggplot2, etc.)
  • Python data visualization libraries (Matplotlib, Seaborn, etc.)
  • Plot.ly
  • D3.js

Cloud ML Platforms

  • Open AI
  • Large Language Models (LLMs)
  • GPT, ChatGPT
  • Azure Machine Learning
  • Amazon SageMaker
  • Google Vertex AI

Tools and Platforms

  • Jupyter & other notebook platforms
  • VS Code for data science and machine learning
  • SAS
  • DataRobot, Dataiku, RapidMiner
  • H20, Knime, Weka
  • Azure Data Science Virtual Machines
  • PyCharm, R Studio, R and Python in Visual Studio
  • GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and other AI coding tools
  • Applying AI/ML to CI/CD and other DevOps practices

Programming

  • Python, R, Q#, and other specialized AI related languages

ML and Spark

  • Spark MLlib on Azure Databricks, HDInsight, Synapse Analytics, and other environments
  • PySpark, SparkR and Koalas

GPU Technology

  • NVIDIA CUDA Programming
  • Intel MKL, DNN
  • Azure NC virtual machines, Google Cloud Platform GPU, Amazon EC2 Elastic GPUs
  • GPU coding in the cloud

Cybersecurity & Ransomware Live! 

Ransomware Industry
Ransomware is a complicated industry with attackers ranging from individuals to highly organized syndicates. Some operators have Service Desks with better SLA than us. We might face standard opportunistic criminals or nation level threats. The industry runs with affiliate programs and credential harvesting auctions. This track is dedicated to the higher-level descriptive sessions on how the industry works.

  • How Ransomware works
  • How Ransomware groups operate
  • Cyber-insurance
  • How Ransomware gets into a network
  • Teaching End-Users how to identify threats (like Phishing)
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Threat Intelligence
One of the most important aspects of securing your environment is to understand who you are against. Threat Intel tries to identify, analyze, understand and predict what we are facing.

  • Keeping up-to-date in securing environments
  • Identifying Vulnerabilities to Patch
  • Identifying Threats (Internal / External)
  • Ransomware Groups
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Human Intelligence
It's unfair to say that the biggest threat in security is the person between the chair and the keyboard, but we do need to understand the human factor.

  • Recruiting in Cybersecurity
  • Human mind
  • Human factor in Security
  • Soft skills in cybersecurity
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Security Operations Center
Cyberattacks don't happen during office hours but mostly during nighttime. 24/7 surveillance is mandatory for companies. A Security Operations Center tries to detect and isolate threats before they escalate to incidents. There are different kinds of, different levels, different sized, and different priced SOCs.

  • What is a Security Operations Center, and how do we get one?
  • Establish or Outsource a SOC?
  • What makes an effective SOC
  • SIEM solutions
  • Building a SOC
  • Running a SOC
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Incident Response
When an incident happens it's the IR-teams job to jump in, identify the threat and restoring operations. IR-teams gather evidence, expel the enemy, fixes vulnerabilities, and restores company operations.

  • Incident Response in general
  • Preparing for Incident Response and Recovery
  • Building a Cyber Security War Room with Microsoft Teams
  • Recovering from Cyberattacks
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Building a secure fabric
  • Backup and Restore
  • Microsoft 365 recovery
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Blue Team
Blue Team is the proactive defensive side of security operations. They aim to prevent breaches or at least slow down the enemy. Red Teaming is very popular, especially for young people, as it gives you the permission to attack someone. People should remember that for every one Red Team job offering, there are six offerings in the Blue Team side. Red Teams find vulnerabilities – Blue Team blocks/fixes them.

  • Encryption
  • Patching
  • Effective Hardware and Software Inventory
  • Protecting On-Prem Infrastructure
  • Protecting Azure Infrastructure
  • Microsoft Defender for ***
  • Microsoft Entra
  • Securing Microsoft Teams
  • So, you don't know where to start – A beginners guide to hardening hybrid Windows infrastructure
  • Protecting Microsoft 365 Infrastructure
  • Multi-Factor Authentication deployment made easy
  • Microsoft Baselines and CIS
  • Properly configuring Microsoft Attack Surface Reduction Rules
  • Securing Linux Systems
  • Zero Trust
  • Anti-Malware
  • EDR and XDR
  • How to build secure code
  • How to prevent supply chain attacks
  • Secure CI/CD pipeline
  • Firewalls
  • Effective Patching
  • Password Managers
  • Privileged Access Management
  • Privileged Identity Management
  • Privileged Access Workstations
  • Principle of Least Privilege
  • Allow-Listing (Binary Control)
  • VPN or not to VPN
  • What makes a great Blue Teamer
  • Tabletop exercises
  • IAM – Identity and Access Management
  • Protecting your home network
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Red Team
Red Team is the offensive side of security operations. Red Team uses tools and techniques that aim to find vulnerabilities and bypass the defenses companies have in place.

  • Penetration Testing
  • Hacking Windows Servers - can it be that easy?
  • Hacking Linux
  • Hacking Mac OSX
  • Hacking Mobile OS's
  • Hacking Tools
  • Hacking Techniques
  • What makes a great Red Teamer
  • Hacking Physical Hardware
  • Physical Security – Getting through the door
  • Hacking a bank
  • Hacking Networks
  • Reconnaissance
  • How to find vulnerabilities in code
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Purple Team
Purple Teams that perform both Blue and Red Team duties. They might be an external provider that analyses and audits the whole environment, both identifying vulnerabilities and fixing or mitigating them.

  • Are you Blue, Red or Purple?
  • What makes a great Purple Teamer
  • Security Audits
  • Threat Impact Analysis
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

OT & IoT Security
Operational networks, like in factories, are usually operated very different from Office networks. They might not have Internet access so Cloud Services are not usable. Defenses have to designed accordingly. Internet of Things, smart devices connected to and managed by Cloud Services, are an increasing attack vector to networks. Almost every home appliance now has a version with Wifi. Identifying, inventorying and protecting these new smart devices is vital.

  • The S in IoT, stands for Security
  • Protecting Smart Homes
  • Protecting Air gapped Networks
  • Microsoft Defender for IoT
  • Network Detection and Response (NDR)
  • Travelling over the airgap
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Security in Education Institutions
Not only are education institutions prime targets for cyberattacks, but they also face a unique combination of security challenges: lack of resources (budgetary and personnel), strict privacy regulations, sensitive research data, a culture of open access to information, impermanent user roles, and a complex decision-making structure, to name just a few. This track will provide practical instruction on a wide range of security topics specifically for K-20 education IT professionals.

  • Ransomware
  • Threat Intelligence
  • Human Intelligence
  • Security Operations
  • Incident Response
  • Red/Blue Teaming
  • IoT Security
  • Artificial Intelligence

TechMentor

Client and Endpoint Management

  • Windows 10
  • Windows 11
  • Future of Windows
  • Copilot in Windows
  • Servicing and patching
  • Microsoft 365
  • MDM
  • Intune
  • Intune Suite
  • Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM)
  • Configuration Manager
  • Autopilot
  • Endpoint Analytics
  • UEFI
  • Driver Management
  • Windows Virtual Desktop
  • Azure Virtual Desktop
  • Windows 365
  • Advanced Desktop Troubleshooting
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

PowerShell and DevOps

  • PowerShell State of the Union
  • PowerShell
  • PowerShell Core / Cross-Platform
  • PowerShell Tooling
  • PowerShell DSC / Azure State Configuration
  • CloudShell
  • JIT/JEA
  • Graph API
  • GitHub Copilot
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Classic Infrastructure

  • Group Policy
  • Windows Server 2019/2022
  • Windows Admin Center
  • Migration and Upgrading to Server 2019/2022
    • File
    • Print
    • Active Directory
    • DNS/DHCP
  • Protecting EOL Windows Server 2012/2012R2
  • Migrating IIS on-prem workloads to the Cloud
  • Windows Defender for Servers
  • Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) in Server 2019/2022
  • Networking in Server 2019/2022
  • Software Defined Networking (SDN)
  • WireGuard and other VPNs
  • Segmentation and Micro-segmentation
  • Storage Spaces Direct (S2D)
    • Azure Stack HCI
  • MFA in Server Management
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Soft Skills for ITPros

  • Living with AI
  • How to benefit from AI
  • Presentation skills
  • How to sell an idea to your boss
  • Documenting
  • Working Remote
  • Dealing with Conflict
  • Professionalism in a Work from Home Era
  • IT Burnout – Coping with issues like COVID-19
  • Blogging and Social Media for IT Pro's
  • Book Writing for IT Pro's
  • Security Training for end-users
  • Tabletop Exercises
  • Inclusion in the workplace and the industry
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Security

  • AI's role in Security
  • Hacking techniques
  • Security Baselines
  • Proactive security
  • Password Vaults
  • Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Security Tokens
  • Entra-ID Security
  • Microsoft Security Copilot
  • Privileged Identity Management
  • Privileged Access Workstations
  • Allow-Listing (previously Whitelisting)
  • 2nd generation anti-malware
  • Microsoft 365 Defender
  • Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
  • Microsoft Defender for Office 365
  • Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
  • Microsoft Defender for Identity
  • Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • Microsoft Defender for IoT
  • BitLocker
  • IPsec
  • Microsoft Sentinel
  • Azure Security Center
  • Teams Security
  • Ransomware in 2024
    • CyberSecurity Insurance
  • You are breached NOW WHAT?
  • Supply Chain attack mitigation
  • Successful SoC in-house or outsourced
  • Incident Response
  • Incident Revocery
  • Immutable Backups
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Cutting Edge AI

  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) - NLP techniques and advancements, including pre-trained language models like GPT-3/4, BERT, and their applications.
  • Ethical AI
  • AI in IT Operations - how AI and LLMs can be used to improve IT operations
  • Conversational AI - chatbots and virtual assistants powered by LLMs for customer support, user engagement, and internal IT helpdesk
  • AI in Cybersecurity - how AI and LLMs are leveraged for threat detection, anomaly detection, and security incident response in IT environments.
  • Explainable AI (XAI) - Understanding methods and tools for making AI and LLMs more interpretable and transparent, which is crucial for IT professionals to trust and use AI systems.
  • AI for DevOps - Exploring how AI can enhance the software development and deployment process, including automating code testing, deployment, and monitoring.
  • AI in Data Management - Learning about AI-driven data management, data cleaning, and data integration techniques that can benefit IT professionals working with large datasets.
  • Edge AI and IoT - Discovering how AI and LLMs can be deployed on edge devices and used in IoT applications, such as predictive maintenance and real-time data analysis.
  • Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) - Understanding best practices and tools for deploying and managing machine learning models in production environments.
  • Quantum Computing and AI - Exploring the intersection of quantum computing and AI, and how quantum AI can impact IT infrastructure and algorithms.
  • AI Hardware and Accelerators - Keeping up with the latest advancements in hardware designed for AI and LLMs, such as GPUs, TPUs, and specialized AI chips.

Azure (Public/Hybrid)

  • Microsoft Entra-ID
  • Microsoft Entra-ID Premium
  • Copilot for Azure
  • Azure IaaS
  • Azure Stack
  • Azure SQL
  • Azure DevOps
  • Azure Zero to Hero
  • Introduction to Azure Concepts
  • Azure Labs
  • Azure Backup
  • Azure Site Recovery
  • Azure Networking
  • Azure Scripting and Automation
  • Azure Resource Manager
  • Azure Licensing
  • Azure Virtual WAN
  • Azure VPN
  • Azure Firewall
  • Azure AD Conditional Access
  • Azure PIM (Privileged Identity Management)
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Office / Microsoft 365 for the IT Pro

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot
  • Migrating to Microsoft 365
  • Managing Microsoft 365
  • Troubleshooting Microsoft 365
  • Optimizing Microsoft 365
  • Teams
  • Metaverse
  • Mesh
  • Exchange Online
  • SharePoint Online
  • Onedrive for Business
  • Backup and Recovery for Microsoft 365
  • Reporting for Microsoft 365
  • Microsoft 365 Zero to Hero
  • Other (If you have other topics to suggest not in the list above, we welcome your ideas)

Cloud & Containers Live!

Infrastructure

  • Configuring Kubernetes on Azure, AWS, GCP, and other cloud providers
  • Choosing between, and configuring, the various CNCF offerings in your cloud
  • Cloud networking configuration
  • Securing cloud infrastructure
  • Setting up and managing hybrid clouds
  • Instrumentation and monitoring of cloud and Kubernetes environments (single pane of glass)
  • Manage private/hybrid clouds with Azure Stack, Red Hat, and other tools/vendors
  • Continuous integration and delivery
  • Managing virtual disks, networks, and other hardware analogs in the cloud
  • Configuring network bridges to implement hybrid public-private clouds
  • Implementing common infrastructure models in public and private clouds
  • How to work with software developers to define base containers and other aspects of the runtime environment (for dev, test, stage, production)
  • Understanding the internals of cloud platforms such as K8s, OpenShift, Azure, AWS, GCP

Cloud-Native Software Development

  • Install Kubernetes, Rancher, Docker, and similar tools/platforms on developer workstations
  • Building software to run in container technologies like Kubernetes, and container-based offerings from AWS, Azure, GCP, and other cloud platforms
  • Using .NET Aspire, Radius, and similar tools
  • Building software to run in PaaS offerings from Azure, AWS, and other cloud platforms
  • Microservices architecture, design, and implementation
  • Async message-based communication models
  • Working with the 12 Factor patterns and 8 Distributed Computing Fallacy anti-patterns
  • Leveraging PaaS services such as messaging, storage, and event grids
  • Kafka, RabbitMQ, Azure Service Bus, and other messaging services
  • Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Platform
  • Serverless computing (Azure Functions, Amazon Lambda)
  • Implementing instrumentation in software to provide for robust runtime monitoring
  • Web API design

Cloud DevOps

  • Infrastructure as code
  • Using infrastructure automation tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Bicep, Azure ARM, Pulumi, etc.
  • GitOps
  • CI/CD: Automated builds, unit testing, QA testing, packaging
  • Automated deployment (e.g. GitHub Actions or Octopus Deploy)
  • Release management for the cloud
  • Rolling updates: strategy and implementation
  • Culture building, team building, healthy communication that enables effective DevOps
  • Automated use of code scanning tools (e.g. SonarQube)

Submission Guidelines
Please include the following information with your submission (failure to supply all requested information may limit opportunities for selection):

  • Speaker's Name
  • Speaker's Title
  • Speaker's Company
  • Title of Presentation
  • 100-word Description of Presentation
  • 3-5 Bullets, explaining what the attendee will learn from presentation (learning objectives)
  • Speaker's Color Photo (hi-resolution)
  • Speaker's Bio, including previous conference speaking/presentation experience

Speakers chosen to present at Live! 360 will receive a full-conference pass and a stipend for each session they present. Speakers are responsible for their own travel costs and incidentals. That being said, the speaker stipend for two talks typically covers domestic flight costs and travel to/from the airport. Live! 360 will also cover hotel accommodation (room and tax only) for a pre-determined number of nights at a host hotel as outlined in the speaker agreement.

Proposals are due:  Sunday, March 23rd, 2025

Submit your proposals here:  https://sessionize.com/Live360_2025

We look forward to your submissions!
~ Live! 360 Event Team

For questions or to be added to our call for presentations notification list, please contact:
Danielle Potts 
Sr. Event Manager
dpotts@Converge360.com  
925.207.0468

For questions regarding exhibit or sponsorship sales, please contact:
Brent Sutton
VP, Events
bsutton@Converge360.com
415.518.1962