South Coast User Group - Meetup - March 3rd 2026

South Coast User Group – March 3rd 2026, Evening Meetup

🗓 Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
📍 Location: Hilton Hotel, Utilita Bowl (Ageas Bowl), Southampton, In-person
🍕 Food & Drinks: Provided
🎟 Cost: Free

Join us for an evening of learning, sharing, and networking with the South Coast User Group. This is a relaxed, community-led Microsoft event bringing together professionals, enthusiasts, and practitioners from across the region.

Whether you’re deep into Microsoft technologies or just starting your journey, this session offers practical insights, real-world experiences, and the chance to connect with like-minded people.

Agenda
7:00 – 7:15 | Arrival & Networking
Grab some food and drinks, meet fellow attendees, and get settled.

7:15 – 8:45 | Community Talks & Demos
We’ll hear from several speakers covering a range of Microsoft-related topics, including real-world use cases, lessons learned, and practical tips you can take back to your day job.
Short, focused sessions with time for questions and discussion.

Session 1 - "The state of the threat landscape", Jon Carter, Microsoft UK Healthcare Executive Lead

• What is Cyber?
• Why do we secure the Cyber domain?
• What it is not?
• How does Microsoft do cyber security?
• What can you do to help protect your organisations?

Session 2 - "Storage is the foundation. Everything else is scaffolding", Anthony Mashford, Cloud Solutions Architect at NetApp working in the EMEA Azure Business Group
Cloud migrations often begin with applications—then slow down when the data layer can’t keep up. In this session, we flip the approach: move the data foundation first, so application cutovers get faster, safer, and easier to modernise. We’ll look at Azure-native, first‑party storage services designed for enterprise performance and reliability, and why that matters when you’re moving demanding workloads and shared file estates into Azure.

8:45 – 9:00 | Open Networking & Wrap-Up
Final conversations, follow-up questions, and community catch-ups before we close.

Who Should Attend?

• Microsoft professionals & practitioners
• Developers, architects, consultants, and IT leaders
• Anyone interested in Microsoft technologies and the wider community

Why Attend?

• Learn from local community speakers
• Discover practical insights and real-world solutions
• Network in a friendly, informal setting
• Enjoy free food and drinks while you learn

We look forward to seeing you there and continuing to grow the South Coast Microsoft community together.