Category Archives: MNSPUG

Minnesota SharePoint User Group

SharePoint Saturday – Twin Cities – Fall 2012

Yep, it’s that time of year again. We’re ramping up for the Fall 2012 SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities event. We’ll be meeting on November 3rd this year, still at the Normandale campus down in Bloomington.

We’re not planning on covering a lot for 2013 in our sessions just yet – too many folks are still interested in and using 2010 and the final 2013 version hasn’t been released yet. So, we’ll be focused on 2010 for one more round at least and then see where things are in the Spring. You’ll likely hear a LOT of news about 2013 the following week with the big Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Vegas happening and most of it centered on the 2013 platform.

Speakers and sessions have all been posted – take a look when you have a chance. We’ve got great folks coming from all over and bringing a ton of great sessions, content and experience.

We are also continuing with our 101 Track – so if you have folks that are new to SharePoint, the event has content for them as well. We’ve got 4 sessions specifically in the track – starting with my ‘What is this thing called SharePoint’ session – but there are other sessions throughout the day not in the 101 Track that folks new to the platform can certainly benefit from as well.

Keep an eye out for registration to open next Monday – Sept 10. We will be limiting registration to 600 people again this time as it seems to be getting us to about the level we can manage at the current location. The Spring event had over 460 attendees… Smile We’re one of the largest SPS events in the country.

There are lots of great sponsors again as well, we hope to fill up our space with 30 vendors – they’ll be added to the site as soon as they are validated.

Finally, when putting the event in your calendar, don’t forget to set aside Friday night as we’ll be having our SharePint (the night BEFORE the SPS event). More info to come on that…

If you have any questions about the event, let me know!! I look forward to seeing you there.

Back with a Vengeance – MNSPUG Tomorrow

June? Really? It’s been that long since I’ve actually completed a post and uploaded it? Sad. Well, it’s been a crazy busy summer and now that that is wrapping up (the kids walked to the bus stop for the first day of school just 2 hours ago…) I can hopefully get back to it. So much to do and so much coming. I’ve got a few posts to hopefully get out in the next day or two – stuff that’s been sitting around 90% done.

In the meantime, I’ll be participating on the Panel Discussion tomorrow for the Minnesota SharePoint User Group if you’re interested and in the area. Come and join us! I’ll have a few copies of the SharePoint 2010 Creating and Implementing Real-World Projects book as well.

Check back soon – lots of fun news to get out here… Smile

Minnesota SharePoint User Group (MNSPUG) Location Change

With Microsoft’s Bloomington Minnesota office moving to Edina, the Minnesota SharePoint User Group meetings will be moving as well. The next meeting on November 9th and all meetings after that (I believe) will be held at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) location in Edina.

Hopefully they’ll get information about the new location, parking, etc. on the MNSPUG site soon.

SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities – 4/9 Recap

The latest SharePoint Saturday event in the Twin Cities was a huge success! Some of the numbers:

Registered to attend: 430+
Actual attendees: 260+ (smashed the old record!)
Vendors/sponsors: 16
Speakers: 19
Sessions: 22

The new location worked out very well – holding everyone without too much crowding (other than a few really popular sessions), with free parking and wireless access available. A nice upgrade from our previous digs. We also had a Kinect play area during the day. Smile

Presentations are now available on the site for download.

Keep an eye on the official site for updates and news about the fall “ScarePoint Saturday” event – tentatively scheduled for October 29th.

A big thanks to Sarah Haase for overseeing the organization of the event, as well as to all the sponsors, volunteers, and attendees.

See you in the fall!

New SharePoint Blogger!

Lookout SharePoint world – Sarah Haase (locally of Best Buy fame) has entered the blogosphere. Sarah has been a presenter at the Minnesota SharePoint User Group, SharePoint Saturday – Twin Cities and the Best Practices Conferences and always has great information, especially when it comes to measuring the ROI of SharePoint solutions.

Well, she finally started up a blog here: http://sarahlhaase.wordpress.com/

Go check it out!

Minnesota SharePoint User Group – February 2011

Raymond Mitchell and Brian Caauwe delivered a presentation on SharePoint Search at today’s MNSPUG. If you’d like to learn more, check out the PPT deck HERE. Check back soon to download the recording of the session. We had about 90 attendees between folks in the room and joining us online.

March’s session will be on SharePoint workflows and Business Process. Check back to the MNSPUG site for more information as session details are rolled out.

See you next month!

SharePoint 2010 – RTM

Microsoft announced today that SharePoint 2010 has reached RTM status. Read about it on the SharePoint Team Blog – HERE.

Sounds like the earliest availability for downloading bits will be on April 27th for Volume License and Software Assurance Customers.

The official (virtual) launch will be on May 12th – which also happens to be our next MNSPUG meeting. We’ll be streaming the launch live and working on adding some more fun as well – check the MNSPUG site for more information as we have it.

February 2010 MNSPUG – Migrating to SharePoint 2010

Brian Caauwe will be presenting tomorrow on Migrating to SharePoint 2010. Join us either in person or on Live Meeting. More details are available on the Minnesota SharePoint User Group (MNSPUG) site. The presentation will be available after the event.

SharePoint Server MVP for 2010

2010 was welcomed in with a SharePoint Server Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award renewal message from Microsoft for the new year. What a wonderful honor and great way to start the new year – this is my second year being awarded. Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen.

To be included with the SharePoint MVP community is really cool – everyone I’ve met has been incredibly gracious – eager to help and to share. As with the greater SharePoint community, they are a community themselves – a lot more cohesive than some of the other MVP product groupings out there. They are amazing technical resources and provide so much energy to the community at large, making the products we support and the people we work with so much better and more fun to work with.

2009 was an interesting year for the MVP community. Maybe this happens every year and I wasn’t aware of it, but being a part of the MVP community this past year has made me more aware of it. There were changes driven by the economy as well as conversation and criticism regarding who is awarded and how awardees are chosen – amongst other topics. There are still plenty of things I’m not privy to, but I do know that regardless of who receives the MVP awards, there are a lot of people in the SharePoint community and other technical communities that are amazing contributors out there – people that love to learn and to share – people that will continue to advance our communities through their efforts – people that should be recognized and thanked. Kudos go out to them as well.

A huge thanks goes out to the SharePoint community that I’ve been blessed to be a part of. I hope we can continue to learn, share and grow in the coming year. See you at the Minnesota SharePoint User Group (MNSPUG), other SharePoint user groups, SharePoint Saturdays, SharePoint Camps, conferences and other events online and in person.

God Bless.