I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and congratulate Pauline Kolde! Pauline was awarded with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award last week. Pauline has been writing awesome content and presenting at events, managing events for user meetings and generally embracing Customer Insights Journeys and Data. Congratulations Pauline, very well deserved!!!

I recently worked with a client who are using Microsoft Bookings to allow someone to book a demo via a link on their website. They are also then manually adding a new Lead (or Contact) in to Dynamics 365. As they’ve begun using D365 Marketing (Customer Insights Journeys), and the person is agreeing to terms and conditions when they book an appointment via Bookings, the question was, well how can we then get that back in to Dynamics to make sure that person is opted in for future marketing communication. This post shows how we can use Microsoft Bookings then take that booking and turn it in to a Lead along with Opting them in to the main Communication Purpose and any Topics linked to that Purpose.

If you love DATA, this is the event for you. It’s in Mechelen, Belgium on 7th to 9th October. They don’t have their agenda out yet, but looking at the archives and past schedules, there were tons of sessions on Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, and building and understanding data. Plus, a visit to Belgium!

I found a course on LinkedIn Learn that might be of interest. What if you could do less of what you don’t like in your job and create space for the good stuff? That is the promise of new generative AI tools: they will help automate routine tasks, increasing output, but also help you think smarter, collaborate more seamlessly, make better decisions, and more. In this course, Marily Nika shares her key hacks to help you reimagine your workday and make it something future-focused that works for you. Plus, learn how to develop a roadmap for continuous learning in the evolving AI landscape.

If you aren’t aware, Google Gemini (previously Bard) is Google’s answer to Chat GPT and something I often use if I’m not getting what I need from CGPT. Google Gemini is a family of multimodal large language models that works seamlessly across image, video, audio, and code. In this course, instructor Lynn Langit shows you how to use Google Gemini design patterns, tools, and best practices for building LLM-based applications. These include patterns for requirements identification and design, which can include prompt engineering, RAG patterns, and fine-tuning. Learn about the capabilities of Google Gemini, starting with understanding the generative AI studio, and then diving into the development, evaluation, and deployment of models. And explore Gemini applications like the Vertex AI model garden and the Vertex AI agent builder.

Now this one might not impact you at all, but it’s one to be aware of. You should have a DMARC policy set up for your domain by adding a record to the DNS. Several agencies are warning that attackers have been seeking out domains with the non-enforced DMARC policy of p=none to orchestrate social engineering intrusions. The p=none policy is intended as a monitoring phase and has no effect on restricting the unauthorized use of the email domain to prevent phishing. Take a look at their article to see what they are suggesting you use instead.