SpiceWorld 2025 Agenda

Mid-market teams know AI can transform IT, but integration snags and hybrid demands often slow you down. Let’s change that. Join Lenovo and Microsoft for a lively 1-hour discussion on our partnership: Lenovo’s AI-ready endpoints and services paired with hybrid cloud. We’ll explore actionable steps organizations can take to automate operations, unlock predictive insights, and harness secure edge computing—cutting costs while leading AI innovation. Share real customer stories, practical strategies, and insights to supercharge your stack. Walk away ready to infuse your IT with flavor and stay ahead of the curve.

The multilayered approach always works best when it comes to security, so treat your infrastructure like you would treat baking a cake. In this session, we’ll discuss how to whip up the most effective security — in multiple layers. With a healthy dash of technology and an equal amount of strategy, you can stack your defenses high against modern cybercriminals. And let’s not forget the frosting on top: Personalization and customization to your specific environment. Attend to learn the recipe!

Let’s explore together the things that AI can’t do (yet) and the things it does well. As we go over some of the biggest job titles, you will form your own opinion as to whether the LLMs can do your job or not. More importantly, you’ll take away some valuable tools of how to make AI work for you.

Whether your like or not, passkeys are coming. Unfortunately, adoption is taking longer than it should due to misinformation and confusion about how they work. And they’re easy to screw up. Too easy. But they’re so much more secure than traditional credentials that, whether it’s for yourself or your end-users, it’s time to make the move. In this session, you learn about how passkeys really work, why they’re so secure, and how to optimize them for your security and that of your end-users.

Lets explore how to effectively integrate AI tools into your PowerShell development workflow without losing sight of what really matters: solid scripting fundamentals. This session shows you where AI can genuinely help with things like rapid prototyping and learning new concepts but also reveals the common traps that can bite you in production, from security holes to missing error handling that AI just doesn’t catch.

Through live demos and real-world examples, you’ll see a practical approach that uses AI to speed up the boring stuff while relying on your expertise to make sure everything actually works when it counts. We’ll cover specific techniques for writing better prompts, validating AI-generated code, and building review processes that catch problems before they become expensive mistakes. By the end, you’ll have concrete strategies you can use right away, and a clear understanding of why your PowerShell knowledge is actually more important now, not less, in a world where anyone can generate code in seconds.

In today’s AI-driven landscape, the most significant data breach risk often isn’t a sophisticated external hacker, but an unintentional mistake from a trusted employee. While traditional security focuses on external threats, internal human error—amplified by the rapid scaling of AI tools—can instantly expose sensitive data, damage reputation, and trigger severe compliance penalties.

This session moves beyond theory to explore the psychology behind common user mistakes and presents a proactive deterrence framework. Join cybersecurity expert Usman Choudhary to learn practical strategies for identifying issues before they become breaches. He will demonstrate how to combine a strong security awareness culture with modern tools like DLP, UBA, and AI Usage Controls (AI-U-C) to stop data loss at the source.

The official end-of-support date for Windows 10 was October 14, 2025. Hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide are still running that OS even though they’re no longer eligible to receive security updates from Microsoft. In this presentation, I’ll talk about why this transition is different from any Windows version that’s come before it, including:

Why is Microsoft doing this? Windows has been around for more than 30 years, and this is the first time would-be upgraders had to deal with such stringent hardware requirements. Is there a technical justification or is this just marketing?
How many PCs are still running Windows 10? Some of the most widely quoted statistics are wildly wrong. So what’s the real number?
What should you do with hardware that fails the Windows 11 compatibility checks? You have at least five options.
Is there a way to continue getting security updates for a Windows 10 PC? Businesses can extend the support deadline by up to three years. Here’s how to get extended security updates and how much you’ll need to pay.

Looking to break into management and don’t know how to get there? This session is for you. We will dive into topics such as Servant Leadership, Human Skills, Conflict Resolution, and having difficult conversations… all valuable skills needed to go from workforce to management.

Welcome to AI for du…, err SMB ownership. We know AI is evolving how business works, but how do you talk to SMB owners and principle to make them understand? This session is designed to help you learn how to bring AI into the business as a real tool. It does not matter what industry your business is in, there is going to be some business workflow that will benefit from AI.

Explore how neurodivergence can enrich the IT industry and how SMBs can create inclusive environments. This session was well-attended last year, and is valuable for anyone attending SpiceWorld!

IT teams everywhere are being asked to do more with less, while keeping systems running, employees productive, and customers satisfied. In this 30-minute Tech Talk, Freshworks will show how AI and automation can transform IT Service Management for organizations of any size.

We’ll dive into real-world examples and use cases that demonstrate how modern ITSM can streamline workflows, accelerate resolution times, and cut through complexity—without the heavy lift of traditional tools. Whether you’re an IT manager, system admin, or technology leader, you’ll leave with practical ideas and a clear view of how to deliver smarter, faster, and leaner IT service delivery.

In this presentation, I cover the essentials of setting up and configuring Git for efficient version control. I show how to install and use the posh-git module, a versatile Git integration for PowerShell. I illustrate the Git and GitHub Workflow, covering concepts like repositories, commits, and pull requests, and show how they all fit together. I discuss the process of forking a repository and cloning it to your local machine. These essential skills will enable you to contribute to projects and collaborate effectively with others.

Do you use AI in a small shop? Is it a hard sell for your boss? Worried about losing the “human touch” in a world of algorithms?

In this session, we’ll explore how small businesses can introduce AI in ways that enhance — not replace — human intelligence. Drawing from practical, real‑world experience, we’ll look at strategies for identifying high‑impact use cases, earning leadership buy‑in, and capturing quick wins without sacrificing the culture, creativity, and talent that make your business unique.

Let’s face it—no one calls IT when everything is working. IT professionals are constantly expected to deliver under pressure: competing priorities, shrinking budgets, rapidly evolving technologies, vendor challenges, and the ever-present urgency of “keeping the lights on.” This unrelenting pace makes IT one of the most high-stress professions in today’s business environment. When stress becomes chronic, it takes a serious toll—not only on performance and problem-solving ability but also on physical and mental health. Left unmanaged, it can lead to burnout, characterized by exhaustion, decreased motivation, sleep disruption, and even depression.

In this session, we’ll explore the science of how chronic stress impacts the body and mind, specifically in the context of IT work. Attendees will walk away with actionable approaches to strengthen their resilience, enhance their effectiveness at work, and protect their health in one of the most demanding and critical professions.

The multilayered approach always works best when it comes to security, so treat your infrastructure like you would treat baking a cake. In this session, we’ll discuss how to whip up the most effective security — in multiple layers. With a healthy dash of technology and an equal amount of strategy, you can stack your defenses high against modern cybercriminals. And let’s not forget the frosting on top: Personalization and customization to your specific environment. Attend to learn the recipe!

Part 1: AI agents are quietly spreading across IT stacks, from copilots to ticketing bots. They’re powerful and easy to trust, but when they can read internal wikis, access data, and make API calls, they become potential attack vectors. In this session, Todd Horner shows how to spot the “Lethal Trifecta,” assess vendor claims, and use a trait-based approach to secure your stack.

Part 2: In today’s IT environments, change is constant and often invisible. A new entitlement added in a SaaS app, a device slipping out of compliance, or a policy exception that is never rolled back and these small drifts away from your intended state accumulate silently until they create security gaps, compliance failures, or operational headaches.

In this session, Rippling Product Lead Alex Meadow will explore why drift happens, how it impacts identity, access, and devices, and what IT leaders can do to get ahead of it. He will share best practices from across the industry, highlight the principles of effective drift detection, and walk through a brief demo of Rippling’s approach to detecting, explaining, and remediating drift automatically.

Ever feel like you’re just one typo away from being exposed as a total fraud? Like everyone else got the memo on “how to be legit” and you’re just winging it with caffeine and charm? You’re not alone, and no, that doesn’t make you more of an imposter. It makes you human.

Dive into the weird, whispery world of imposter syndrome: what it is, why so many IT pros feel it (even the brilliant ones), and how to shut that inner saboteur up before it crashes your confidence like a corrupted database.

Come for the catharsis, stay for the community, and leave knowing you absolutely belong here. Even if your brain keeps telling you otherwise.

Over my IT career and interaction with peers, I find these topics (ticketing and documentation) to be glossed over. These are important items for any service type field of work, from SMB to larger orgs. It’s important to be able to track current issues, examine repeated issues to identify patterns, and provide a method to show your value to stakeholders. Tickets along with documentation also allow for historical knowledge that can be passed down or referred to when issues come up again.

Lets discuss the challenges and the perception that PowerShell practitioners aren't "real" developers by showing how everyday PowerShell work already encompasses the full software development lifecycle.

This session breaks down the imposter syndrome that keeps talented professionals from recognizing their legitimate developer skills, demonstrating how PowerShell work involves complex problem solving, architectural design, testing, version control, and professional deployment practices that define software development. Through real-world examples and case studies, attendees will see how their scripts have evolved into enterprise applications, learn professional development practices specific to PowerShell, and discover concrete career growth opportunities in the expanding PowerShell ecosystem.

The session provides practical strategies for building a developer brand, contributing to open-source projects, and changing conversations with management and peers who might undervalue PowerShell expertise. Participants will leave with renewed confidence in their developer identity, actionable steps for professional growth, and a clear understanding of how their PowerShell skills translate into valuable software development capabilities that the industry desperately needs.

Technology never sits still and neither should your skills. As we head towards the next decade security and IT professionals need to be prepared for a new generation of technologies and the potential pros and cons they could bring. With advances in quantum, AI and ML and sticky technologies, we must ask: “Is Trust based computing dead?” Join MVP & YouTuber Andy Malone as he discusses emerging and future threats to data security and what we can do to protect data from malicious actors.

Now that AI use is moving past pilots and trials, this talk will investigate real world use cases, goals, and the impact on businesses that AI is actually having. A recent Aberdeen research study looked into the state of AI use in businesses as we move into the next phase of AI implementations. In this session, we will also look into the rising interest in AI agents and agentic frameworks.

A pros-and-cons comparison of working in IT for a big organization vs. a small organization, based on points of view from IT professionals who have worked in both.

We will explore practical lessons learned and explore how to get the best of both worlds, sharing tips on how to make a big organization feel like a small business.

As IT professionals, especially if we either dabble or work full-time in Digital Security, there are times when you must check to see if suspicious content is legitimate or malicious. This presentation will discuss and demonstrate three approaches for how to safely check the content, how to implement each approach, and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.

This talk isn’t directly about PowerShell, but PowerShell will be used to speed up the setup and usage of the approaches.

Technology alone doesn’t create business success—people do. And being technically proficient often doesn’t translate into successful leadership. In IT, the strength of a team can make the difference between projects that thrive and initiatives that stall.

This session goes beyond task management to focus on the leadership practices that create engaged, resilient, and innovative teams. We’ll explore the critical differences between managing and leading, and how each plays a role in IT organizations.

Attendees will leave with practical strategies to strengthen their own leadership approach and cultivate IT teams that not only deliver results but also grow, adapt, and thrive in today’s rapidly changing technology landscape.

Talk about foothold prevention vs. foothold detection. Take a dive into what threats are out there, how they try to exploit you, and what you can do to shore up your cybersecurity foundations with a more in-tune defense-in-depth strategy. Beat the bad guys at their own game by denying access to the important things they need for success.

The tech industry has always been driven by innovation, but for many women, building a career in IT means navigating challenges that go far beyond technology. Women in IT is a candid, interactive session that shines a light on the unique experiences of women working in a predominantly male-driven field.

This session is not just for women—it’s for everyone. Men will gain practical insights into how to be stronger allies, leaders will learn ways to foster more inclusive cultures, and all attendees will walk away with tools, stories, and fresh perspectives they can bring back to their workplaces.

Hear from the team working on the Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk and discover what's new to help you get the most out of the tool.

Join Charles Mitchell, Co-Founder Guardare as they explore the transformative power of AI and decentralized technologies in reshaping the modern internet. This session will dive into how AI can enhance security, efficiency, and personalization, while decentralization empowers users with control over their data and digital interactions. Attendees will gain insights into the evolving landscape of online trust, privacy, and innovation — and how these technologies are enabling a more open, resilient, and user-centric internet.

Windows 10 may be dead, but don’t worry! We will discuss all the options for how to simplify your deployment and provisioning of Windows 11 to make your life easier that ever before!

In the Spiceworks Ziff Davis State of IT 2025 report, more than 600 organizations weighed in on the question “Do you believe your organization spends enough to support its technology needs?” Among technical staff, “no” outnumbered “yes” by more than 3 to 1, a gloomy net adequacy index of -51.9%. In sharp contrast, IT and senior business leaders indicated a more positive perception overall, at +18.7%.

In this interactive, masterclass-style session, attendees will gain insights into a new way to define and articulate their organization’s cybersecurity risk appetite — the amount of risk it’s willing to accept, in pursuit of its goals — and understand how this relates not only to budgets but also to fostering a healthy risk culture where shared values and behaviors guide more effective decision-making. Attendees will leave with a new conceptual model to better understand, communicate, and navigate their organization’s cybersecurity risk landscape, moving beyond the technical details to a more strategic conversation about acceptable risk, reward, and resilience.

Prominent voice in IT, Jennifer Bleam, recently posted on LinkedIn: “I just came back from a major AI conference. Incredible speakers. Powerful use cases. Custom GPTs, agents, automations. Innovation everywhere you looked. But you know what no one was talking about? Security. Privacy. Data protection…. it’s time MSPs start leading this conversation.” So how can small IT teams and MSPs keep SOME of the horses in the barn? This discussion will look at setting security-oriented policies, practices and training for clients, and tap into the herd wisdom of attendees.

Come learn about AIShell, the newest AI user experience brought to you by the PowerShell team. AIShell integrates with you PowerShell session and provide easy access to many different AI agents. Chat with AI from the PowerShell command line or in AIShell and post the resulting solutions back into your command line. Use AIShell to write PowerShell and Azure CLI code and explain how it work. Connect AIShell to your own language models trained with your own data. Integrate with MCPs to let AI perform actions for you.

This is a beginner session that shows you how to get started with AIShell.

With IT, everyone is a customer – from the internal end user to any external client the business deals with, and even your colleagues in IT. Some users are not technical and only understand how to use the application the way they were taught by someone else, making them resistant to change due to fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) that they could seem “stupid” or be embarrassed when you try to show them another way.

Rather than criticize, act like its a “little known trick” that they can show others! This not only empowers them, it makes them feel good, too – both to themselves and towards you and IT. If you teach them rather than do it for them, they will feel a little more empowered, may show their coworkers how to do what you showed them, and also not call next time it happens. It’s a win for everyone.

Today’s IT leaders often feel like firefighters, constantly putting out crises, climbing harder and faster, only to discover the building itself is on fire. Traditional leadership models have focused on upgrading individuals: more skills, more certifications, more frameworks. While valuable, this approach ignores the deeper issue: systems that demand constant heroics.

In this session, I introduce Living Systems Leadership (LSL), a model that shifts the focus from heroic individuals to healthy environments. Drawing lessons from nature—orchards, beehives, coral reefs—LSL shows how leaders can design conditions where collaboration, innovation, and resilience emerge naturally.

We’ll explore how Human Intelligence (skills AI cannot replace: EQ, creativity, communication, leadership) and Organizational Intelligence (ROI clarity, feedback loops, and system design) combine to transform IT leadership from survival mode into sustainable growth.