Author: steverezhener

Introduction

Microsoft 365 subscription. Whenever you have a paid Microsoft 365 subscription or free via a Microsoft for Nonprofit program, there is small, but handy feature that you might want to enable. This blog post is going to talk about how to enable dial-in option for your MS Teams.

Let’s assume that you already setup your Microsoft 365 subscription (BTW, Microsoft did a fantastic job in making it super easy) that gives you an access to the entire Office Apps suite. You can now enjoy all the Office products including a very popular Microsoft Teams (“MS Teams”) online communication and team collaboration tool. MS Teams provides a very potent replacement to Skype for Business enhanced by adding collaboration with OneDrive, SharePoint, Forms as well as other Microsoft tools. Essentially, MS Teams allow you to chat, call, collaborate and much more making it more not just a product, but rather a productivity platform. It’s like having Slack, Zoom, and more all-in-one place.

Problem

While MS Teams best experience comes with Windows/MacOS desktop and/or iOS/Android mobile apps, you can also enjoy it within the browser. Both browser and app will allow you to have audio and video using the power of the Internet, but what if I you have a bad Internet connection or let’s say you are driving, but still want to hear and enjoy the conversation? In that case, you will be looking for an old tech – a dial-in phone number that you can call-in. Unfortunately, Microsoft 365 doesn’t have that option enabled by default.

Solution

All you need to do is to enable Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing Adoption (Fig #2). Audio Conferencing is effectively an add-on to existing MS Teams that will add a dial-in phone number option.

Once Microsoft 365 Audio Conference is on, MS Teams meeting info will change and now include all the dial-in information (Fig #3).

We are looking for volunteers. We are looking for awesome people to help us to moderate sessions.

https://tinyurl.com/1ixzy7dt

Sponsorship Plan

We appreciate you taking time to consider sponsoring 2021 Data.SQL.Saturday in LA. We have assembled a few sponsorship plans that you can select from. Donations for this event will be used to cover the costs of running the event and the LA Data Platform SQL User Group meetings. The event is put on by the Data Driven Technologies, Inc. a local 501.c.3 non-profit.

Event Overview

The Data.SQL.Saturday is a single day conference that offers data professionals the opportunity to improve their stills and learn about new products while networking with others in their field and connecting with other members of the local Database community and our sponsors.

This event is put together by a group of dedicated Los Angeles database community volunteers and local database user groups as well as volunteer speakers from across the globe. 

Attendance

When the event was held in-person, it used to bring in 300+ attendees.  In 2020 we moved to a virtual event for the first time and had 700+ registrations from all around the world, with 400+ attending the event.

Cost of Sponsorship

This year, sponsorship ranges from Swag Only to $1,000.00, depending on the package you select:

Tier	Swag	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Amount	$0	$250	$500	$1000
Sponsor Logo and URL on the event web site and	x	x	x	x
Sponsor Logo and URL included in email campaigns	x	x	x	x
Sponsors Logo included in session slides	x	x	x	x
Sponsor Logo included in YouTube videos	x	x	x	x
Social Media posts Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram	x	x	x	x
Sponsor Raffle	x	x	x	x
Collect Raffle Leads		x	x	x
Email sent on behalf of a sponsor			x	x
Product-focused sponsor session  (based on availability, first come first serve)			x	x
Sponsor a virtual room (name a room) (based on availability, first come first serve)			x	x
Short video advertising embedded in a recorded session (YouTube video will contain a paid promotion like a product placement, sponsorship, or endorsement)				x
12-months of LA Data Platform User Group sponsorship				x
Dedicated virtual sponsor rooms (MS Teams breakout)				x

*To collect and received leads you must participate in the raffle and offer a raffle prize valued at $50.00 or more.

To sponsor please follow this link to fill out the sponsorship form: https://tinyurl.com/3zjp744s.  An invoice will be emailed to you (generated by PayPal) and can be paid by check or credit card. All fees must be paid in advance.

Cancellation Policy

Any cancellation that is caused by us will result in a full refund. It’s really that simple – no event, no expenses, no need for sponsorship money.

Raffle

The raffle registration is used to opt-in for us to share their information with our sponsors.  Remember the raffle prize is your key to success and the better the prize the more leads you will collect.

We will manage the raffle and collect, cleanup and de-dup the data for you and send you the leads after the event.  We will let you know who the winners of the raffle are, and you can send them the prize.  If you prefer that we manage the prize for you, please let us know and we will work on the details. 

Dear PASS members,

Today is the last day to stay connected with LA Data Platform and SQL Saturday in Los Angeles. PASS is ceasing it’s all regular operations, effective today, January 15, 2021.

The many ways we can stay connected:

1. Follow #LADataPlatform / #SQLSatLA on social medial channels (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/LinkedIn/YouTube)
2. Sign up to our monthly newsletter – https://lnkd.in/g38-FYF
3. Visit our web site – https://lnkd.in/gmyPpuA
4. Email us – ladataplatform at datadriventechnologies.org
5. Scan QR code below

Your friendly neighborhood,
Los Angeles Data Platform & SQL Saturday in Los Angeles Teams!
#sqlfamily#passcommunity

We are officially starting the preparation for 2021 SQL Saturday in Los Angeles.

Event placeholder – https://sqlsatla2021.eventbrite.com

Call for speakers – https://sessionize.com/2021-sql-saturday-in-los-angeles.

Web Site – https://datadriventechnologies.org/sqlsaturday-in-losangeles/

Email – sqlsatla at datadriventechnologies.org

Just in case you haven’t heard the latest news – PASS is ceasing it’s all regular operations, effective January 15, 2021 (read more here – The Future of PASS). That means that both ladataplatform@pass.org and ladataplatform.pass.org assets are no longer available.

However, while PASS is shutting its doors, LA Data Platform is here to stay. While we would need to implement a few changes, we are a complete and separate legal entity and will remain here to server our local Data community.

To keep our communication going and keep you up to date on all current and future events, we would need to update our mailing list. Please follow this link to register – https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/l0u9k0.

Events – https://ladataplatform.eventbrite.com

Social Media – #LADataPlatform

Our new web site – https://datadriventechnologies.org/ladataplatform-usergroup/

Our new email address – ladataplatform @ datadriventechnologies.org

With the conclusion of Virtual 2020 SQL Saturday in Los Angeles event organized by Data Driven Technologies Inc (“DDT”), a local 501.c.3 non-profit, we realized that we had one unanticipated sponsor that signed up last-minute – Google Cloud Platform (“GCP”) with $100. You can of course rightfully say, don’t look at a gift horse in the mouth – you have a sponsor and money, be thankful.

While we are thankful for every sponsor dollar spent, it’s hard to see why $100 would buy a sponsorship at our event since our tiers are starting at $250. Additionally, it would be hard to explain to our lower tier event sponsors (the insurance agency and car dealership) how Google can spend only $100 while receiving the same benefits. Somehow Google sponsoring with just $100 doesn’t click for me. I’m sure Google can afford more than that for a technical event, especially since we had a session on Google Big Query ML. Ironically, this is not about Google, but rather the ill-fated PASS new sponsorship tier – Global SQLSaturday Supporting Sponsor starting at $22K (read more here). 

We at the DDT decided to step up and provide sponsors with options, lower-cost alternative to PASS. While PASS is charging about 50% for it’s overhead, we will do it at cost, i.e. 5% (we just need you to cover any PayPal/credit card fees).

What is there for you as a sponsor? You get the same job done cheaper and we are confident that we will do a better job.

What is there for us you would ask? We truly think that community events such SQL Saturday should have more sponsors and virtually every dollar from sponsor needs to reach the organizers.

What do I need to do as a sponsor? You as a sponsor decide how many and which SQL Saturday events you would like to sponsor (we can provide you with a list), send us the money, and we will take care of everything else. We can provide you with the same Branding Benefits that PASS has to offer (excluding SQLSaturday website that we have no control of) and more.

DDT offerings for SQL Saturday sponsors:

• Provide you with data, so you target specific events (historical event attendee numbers, titles, locations, employers)
• Money disbursement (we will sign up on your behalf and pay the invoice)
• Logistics (we will contact the organizers and provide them with your marketing) materials
• Brand presence (we will try to source local speakers for your sponsor session and ask organizers to man the table)
• Provide you with post-event numbers

Questions, feedback, comments? Please feel free to reach us out –

info at datadriventechnologies.org.