Our key learnings from Workplace Ninja Summit 2024

The 5th Workplace Ninja Summit took place in September 2024 in Lucerne, Switzerland. It brought together 647 people from around the world to learn and connect. With over 130 sessions, participants explored topics like Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Entra ID, and Microsoft Defender XDR.
This event was succesfully co-organized by the following MVPs:

• Thomas Kurth
• Mirko Colemberg
• Peter Daalmans
• Alexander Benoit
• Alex Verboon
• Oliver Kieselbach
• Frans Oudendorp

MVP Thomas Kurth gives us an overview of this special Ninja day:

Each afternoon after lunch, we had a keynote session led by senior Microsoft management, focusing on one of the key topics. These sessions helped attendees gain a better understanding of the vision behind the products.

It’s not only the Microsoft-led sessions that form the backbone of the event, as most of the sessions were actually delivered by MVPs. Bringing together such a wealth of expertise resulted in fantastic feedback from attendees, with comments like: “A must-attend event for Endpoint Engineers” and “I’ll go back home with a lot of ideas to improve things in my company”.

We introduced a dedicated newcomer stage, giving anyone a chance to share their knowledge through short presentations. The signup is open to all, and these sessions are scheduled during breaks and live-streamed on a large video wall in the main event hall. Participants can also receive a recording of their session to review and learn from later. This opportunity was embraced by many aspiring community contributors, and we hope to see them continue to share their expertise in the future.

A group of experts in a room, attending the MVP Pre-Day

MVP Pre-Day

Another highlight of the event was the MVP pre-day, organized by Lior Bela, Microsoft Director on Modern Workplace Apps & Endpoint, which was specially dedicated to fostering exchange between MVPs and the product group. This exclusive opportunity at the WPNinja Summit provided a valuable space for MVPs to interact, collaborate, and discuss NDA topics in a secure environment.

Key learnings

MVP Thomas Kurth mentioned that his key learnings from this event were that the attendees were very happy to have an in-person event, focused on topics such as Endpoint Management and Security with Microsoft Technology. They also appreciated having face to face interactions with the Microsoft Product Group members, being able to discuss current practical challenges encountered in the field. “In summary, sharing knowledge is the key!” is the conclusion of Thomas.

Growing Workplace Ninja Meetup around the Globe

Local meetup groups are another key pillar of the Workplace Ninjas community. During the summit, some of these groups even organized evening events for their members attending in Switzerland. Inspired by the summit, several participants have already decided to launch new local meetups in their own cities or countries, which will be announced soon. If you're interested in starting a local group, feel free to reach out to us at info@wpninjas.eu.

The next Workplace Ninja Summit is already announced for 2025, from September 22^nd to 25^th. 

The wish of the Workplace Ninja community is to increase the reach of this community throughout the world, and also the number of attendees at the 2025 event.