Category Archives: MVP

SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities–May 2013

Another great event this past weekend – for those of us that were able to navigate the monsoon in the morning. Almost 500 attendees made it in.

Slide decks should be posted to the www.spstc.com soon. Until then I posted mine out on Slideshare if anyone wants to take a peek at them.

SharePoint 101: What is this thing called ‘SharePoint’?
This is a really high level overview of what SharePoint is and what it offers to an organization…

Understanding SharePoint Roles
This is an overview of all the different roles and responsibilities that can play a part in a SharePoint implementation… lots of discussion during the session…

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

Microsoft SharePoint MVP 2012

January 1, 2012 – Got word early that I was re-upped for 2012.

(yea yea, I’m slow.  But hey, I’ve been busy…)

A big Thank You goes out to Microsoft and the SharePoint community for another year being recognized as a Microsoft SharePoint MVP.  I am honored and humbled to be recognize in such a rich community filled with great speakers, authors, forum participants, consultants, vendors, users, and customers.

I don’t want to say that the honor is bitter-sweet, but while I am very excited, it does make one stop and think about all the people that make up our community: both those that are recognized and those that should be.  The SharePoint community wouldn’t be what it is without everyone that participates and contributes on a regular basis. It’s risky to name a few because there are so many, but a few I want to mention are:  Raymond Mitchell (@iwkid), Sarah Haase (@sarahhaase) and Mark Rackley (@mrackley). 

So, what do we have to look forward to this year?

  • Lots of ongoing user groups, both locally and online
  • More SharePoint Saturday and mini-conference events
    • We are planning 2 this year in Minnesota (Twin Cities) starting with the first on April 14th. Last fall we had over 400 people in attendance!
  • SharePoint Conference 2012 !!
    • Likely with the first tidbits about vNext!
  • Lots of other conferences and summits
  • More SharePoint books on all kinds of topics
    • We’ve got one coming in March… another post coming on that

Another fun year ahead in the SharePoint world – I hope to visit with lots of you throughout the year.  Now, keep an eye on the SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities site.  Registration will be opening soon!

SharePoint MVP Chat – Wednesday June 22, 11am CDT

In case you don’t already have it on your schedule, the next MVP chat will be next week.  These are helpful and crazy events where folks pepper the MVP panel with questions for an hour with MVPs responding as quickly as they can.  Having seen both sides of the event, it’s crazy, impressive and helpful.  So, if you haven’t participated, give it a shot.  Transcripts are also made available after the event so you can take a breath and go back to see what you may have missed in the dialogue. 

Wednesday June 22nd at 9am PDT / 11am CDT. Visit the MSDN event page:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/events/aa497438.aspx

Twitter: #spmvpchat

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=218219718208348

Enjoy!

SharePoint Community Events… Busy Days

There are a handful of things happening in the next day or so that might be interesting to folks in the SharePoint space:

  • Wednesday 4/20 8:00 AM – Michael Gannotti’s Coffee Talk will be taking place. His talks include:
    • Microsoft Productivity News
    • Productivity Customer Onsite Experience
    • Special Guests
    • Tips and Tricks
    • Gadget of the week
    • Live Audience Q&A
  • Wednesday 4/20 11:00 AM – Q&A with the SharePoint MVP Experts.  Access the event by checking out the MSDN Events and Webcasts page.
  • Wednesday 4/20 6:00 PM – Microsoft Store at the Mall of America.  From 6:00 – 8;00 there is a Special Event for Business solutions.  They’ll be covering Microsoft Signature Pro and Microsoft Office 365 – Cloud versions of Microsoft’s communications and collaboration (yep – SharePoint) products.  Oh, and did I mention a 15% store discount during the event?
  • Thursday 4/21 11:25 AM – SharePoint ShopTalk
    Register for this week’s event.

Hope to see you there!

MVP Global Summit 2011

One of the benefits of the Microsoft MVP award is being able to attend the annual Global MVP Summit – which happened last week.  This is an event where MVPs from all over the world gather to meet with each other and members of their respective Microsoft Product Teams. Though almost all of the information shared during the MVP Global Summit can’t be shared publicly, I think it’s interesting to know that the event happens and why each of our technical communities benefit from it.

Building relationships and communication channels helps MVPs be better conduits between MS and the community. It helps us to know who we should go to at MS with issues and concerns while also allowing the product teams another avenue to share information that needs to get to the community. Everyone benefits.

Yes, a big part of the event is the socializing – and the SharePoint community is REALLY good at this.  Smile  Though I’m obviously biased, I think the SharePoint community is one of the closest knit groups out there. Ultimately I think the closeness helps information flow more effectively with constructive conversations happening more often. Getting to know each other in person and meet Microsoft folks that we’ve only heard of in passing is extremely valuable.

This also means that in addition to being colleagues, many of us are also friends. Yes, SharePoint topics dominate conversations, but there are also plenty of chats about kids, families, who’s working where, and who shot who in the back during paintball.  Yet another thing that sets the SharePoint community apart from many other communities.  We’re social because, well, that’s our job too.  Smile 

When it comes to SharePoint, there are currently over 250 SharePoint MVPs worldwide, with almost half of them attending this week’s event – the most ever. 

This year – the weather sucked.  I’ve been in Seattle/Redmond a few times now and have been pretty lucky in how nice its been – many times having at least a clear day or two where you can see Mt. Rainier.  This time however its been colder than I’ve ever seen it with rain each day and and even some snow thrown in there for good measure.  Oh well.  At least the paintballs didn’t freeze and hurt even more than usual. 

Toby Richards, General Manager – Community and Online Support at Microsoft also posted about the summit:  Post by Toby Richards