TheAvidAI
Talks, workshops & panels

Out in the community.

Free community sessions, user group meetups, conference talks and leadership panels. Here’s where I’ve shared the playbook so far.

Past events

Where I’ve been.

September 2026 Halifax, Nova Scotia · Municipal leaders from across Canada

Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio for Municipal Government

A hands-on, in-person day with leaders from municipal governments across Canada: what Microsoft 365 Copilot does today, what it costs to run once billing follows usage, and building agents in Copilot Studio for the services residents actually phone about. Constrained budgets, public accountability and records retention rules make municipal IT the toughest room any AI story gets tested in.

September 2026 Online

Microsoft Copilot Masterclass

44 people, 90 minutes, rated 4.5 out of 5 by attendees. A hands-on tour of Microsoft Copilot across the Office apps, Copilot Chat, agents and Cowork, plus the waste pickup agent that got more questions than any frontier model in the deck.

July 2026 Online

Copilot Chat and Copilot Basic

No Copilot licence? You still have Copilot. A lunch-break tour of everything already included with a Microsoft 365 work account, from the free Copilot Chat to Edge and Windows, plus an honest look at what the paid tiers add. Rated 5 out of 5 stars by attendees on Luma.

July 2026 Online

Microsoft Copilot Cowork

You learned the prompts, then we built the system. A live, hands-on session on Copilot Cowork: configuration, task delegation, consistent asset creation and Skills. We turned Copilot into a real coworker for files, tasks and the daily grind.

June 2026 Online

Microsoft Copilot Masterclass

A hands-on, online masterclass on getting real work done with Microsoft Copilot, the Office apps, Copilot Chat, agents and Cowork. Live demos and patterns you can use the next morning.

June 2026 Northeastern University, VanTUG + Van365View

Get Stuff Done with Microsoft Copilot and Cowork

Tired of AI demos that look cool but don't move work forward? This session is about using Microsoft Copilot to actually get stuff done. We walk through the Copilot options and agents you already have at your fingertips, then go deep on Cowork, the desktop tool that turns Copilot into a real coworker for your files, tasks, and daily grind. Bring your laptop, bring your backlog, leave with a workflow you can use tomorrow.

May 8, 2026 Microsoft Canada HQ

Central Canada AI Leadership Summit

A deliberate space for senior education leaders who are actively shaping AI strategy across provinces, systems, and schools. I moderated a round table on AI adoption barriers in education.

April 2026 And-Co Vancouver, Vancouver Startup Week 2026

Founder Clarity: Fix the Bottleneck Slowing Your Growth

Part of Vancouver Startup Week 2026: a working session for founders on finding and fixing the single bottleneck holding back their growth.

June 2025 Northeastern University Vancouver

Getting Ahead with Microsoft Copilot: What’s New and Why It Matters

Adopting Copilot isn’t just about keeping up. It’s about unlocking real value. Discover how organizations are leveraging Copilot strategically, beyond AI chat, to enhance productivity and drive innovation.

2022 BCNET Connect, British Columbia

Microsoft 365: Lessons Learned & Best Practices for Higher Education

An interactive roundtable at BC’s higher-education and research tech summit: what the pandemic taught us about Microsoft 365 at scale, and the practices worth keeping. Co-presented with the College of the Rockies.