The last event of 2025 before we head into the holiday season. And what an event it was: Workplace Ninjas US 2025 in Dallas, Texas! As a Modern Workplace Consultant and co-founder of the Workplace Ninjas User Group Belgium, this was an opportunity not only to deepen my knowledge but also to exchange ideas with experts from around the world. In this blog called “From Belgium to Texas: Lessons Learned at Workplace Ninjas US 2025“, I share my key insights, trends, and personal highlights from this inspiring event.
Off we go!
Sunday, December 8, at 1:05 p.m. at Schiphol Airport, ready to take off for Dallas, with a stopover in Philadelphia. It promised to be a challenging trip, but we were happy to take it on. Dallas here I come!
Day 1 – Exploring Dallas & Hackaton
Since we don’t come to Dallas every week, I took an extra day to explore Dallas (especially the Deep Ellum and Downtown Dallas areas). What struck me was that Dallas is not a typical big city, but rather very relaxed and quiet. The goal of the day was to see the main landmarks and enjoy the local atmosphere.
After a pleasant walk in downtown Dallas, I headed to Deep Ellum and more specifically to the Westlake Brewing Company, where Workplace Ninjas US 2025 Hackaton was taking place. Finally, it was time to catch up with many familiar faces over a delicious beer!
Day 2 – Workplace Ninjas US 2025
Most important things of the day: registration, picking up your badge, breakfast, and coffee!
Ready for the real thing, a day full of breakout sessions by the best speakers from around the world. I started with the opening by the one and only Jon Towles, followed by a real Ninja performance, followed by the official opening keynote with Jason Roszak on “Navigating the New Frontier: Embracing Cloud-Native and AI for Enhanced Security and Productivity“. In this keynote, Jason gave us an overview of what Agentic AI will mean (or already means) in the world of Workplace, as well as how Cloud-Native is now the way to go!
Let the breakout sessions begin. Today’s first session was “The Future is Cloud Native” by Johan Arwidmark, where he showed us the best way to make the transition to Cloud Native and the best strategy to adopt.
In the next breakout session by Jose Schenardie and Dominiek Verham, it was all about securing your modern workplace in their session “Zero Trust, Zero Worries: Securing (Cloud) PCs like a ninja!“
After lunch, Dean Ellerby, Steven Weiner, and Andrew Taylor took us through the SoftwareCentral and Robopack journey and how these tools can help you on your app deployment and tenant management journey in their session “Mastering App Deployment and Lifecycle Management with Microsoft Intune.”
Joery Van den Bosch, Maxime Guillemin, Jeroen Burgerhout, and, as a surprise, Lavanya Lakshman joined forces and took us into the world of Security Copilot in Entra and Intune in their session “Security Copilot in Entra and Intune: The Ultimate Trio for Cybersecurity and Maybe World Domination“.
In the last session of the day, Richard Hicks spoke about the possibilities surrounding the use of certificates in a cloud-native world in his session. “Certificate Authentication Strategies for Cloud Native Users and Devices“.
For me, this first day ended perfectly during the Expo Party by Ferroque Systems. Did you ever have cigars as swag at a conference? Best Swag Ever for a cigar aficionado like me!
Day 3 – Workplace Ninjas US 2025
Day 2 was kicked off again by Jon Towles, followed by the opening keynote by Christiaan Brinckhoff and Scott Manchester about “The Everywhere Desktop: Secure productivity on any device with the Windows Cloud.” and showed us the advantages of Cloud PCs and what the future has in store for us. After the keynote, Jon was officially crowned a Master Ninja!
Kicking off the breakout sessions, Somesh Pathak took us on a journey during his session. “Think Different. Secure Smarter: Intune + Zero Trust for Apple Device Management” and how you can implement the Zero Trust approach for Apple devices managed with Microsoft Intune.
In the next session, Ugur Koc showed us a modern way to manage apps and automate tasks for Mac and Windows, in his session “IntuneBrew and Beyond: Modern App Management and Automation for Mac and Windows.“
The next session, after lunch, was entirely devoted to “Neurodiversity in Tech” industry. A session hosted by Megan Gremmell, with a panel consisting of Cat Schneider, Lindsay Shelton, and Peter van Roosmalen, where they discussed their neurodiversity and the obstacles and successes they encounter in the world of tech.
The session by Florian Salzmann and Niklas Tinner was all about modern remote access in their session “Global Secure Access: Modern Remote Access with Entra Private Access.“
Are you familiar with the saying, “Save the best for last”? This was certainly true during the session by Oktay Sari and Jeroen Burgerhout, who demonstrated the pitfalls of security baselines and how to best utilize them in true zombie style during their session, “What Zombies Can Teach You About Security Baselines.” Possibly one of the funniest, most original, and interesting sessions I have ever attended!
All good things must come to an end, and Jon Towles closed Workplace Ninjas US 2025 with the presentation of the Clippy Awards. These awards recognize the best community members for their contributions and hard work!
Day 4 – Time to say goodbye
Now it was really time to say goodbye to everybody and to Dallas. An early flight from Dallas to Boston, then from there back to Amsterdam. Was it a long trip back? Absolutely! Was it tiring? Definitely! Was it worth it? More than worth it!
Hope to see you all in Arizona in 2027!
