Category Archives: Events

Events, SharePoint

23 Lessons from SharePoint Saturday the Conference

This past Thursday-Saturday, Alison, Nick, Ben and I repped SoftArtisans and OfficeWriter at the inaugural SharePoint Saturday The Conference. Between speaking engagements, vlogging, dance parties and running demos on OfficeWriter’s SharePoint integration, there wasn’t a whole lot of downtime, but as Sandy Ussia told me, “I’ll sleep next week.” (Plus, unless you have Freudian recall, sleeping makes for a boring blog post.) Many attendees and speakers have already published their recaps, but this one is coming to you fashionably late, in a fashionable list.

Claire:

1.       If you don’t have anything nice to say, look up. The cloud was definitely this conference’s hot topic, with everyone from Mary Jo Foley to Jeremy Thake to Joel Ward weighing in. One takeaway: Microsoft’s in-the-works Online Services Delivery Platform will bring all the hosted services into one infrastructure. Maybe it’ll be accessible through a browser-based tool bar, too. Continue reading 23 Lessons from SharePoint Saturday the Conference →

Events, OfficeWriter, SharePoint

SoftArtisans at SharePoint Saturday The Conference

Mr. Jones Goes to Washington

Plus three more of us, but Ben’s surname is most conducive to Capra-homage. Anyways, this Wednesday through Saturday, the SA Crew is storming das Kapital/Annendale, VA with the lofty intentions of a) getting to know the people behind the avatars, b) talking shop, which in our case translates to demonstrating some of the things you can do when you integrate OfficeWriter into SharePoint, c) learning about everything from Office365 to migration to branding to unicorns, d) blasting our speaker-sourced SPSTCDC playlist all day, urry day. If you have some downtime between sessions, please stop by booth 320 to hang out/bust some moves/ ogle some schmancy SharePoint-to-Office reports with us. Also, if you’re a developer, admin or BI analyst, you should definitely check out Ben’s two sessions on  custom workflow actions and advanced document processing with OfficeWriter in SharePoint: Continue reading SoftArtisans at SharePoint Saturday The Conference →

Events, SharePoint

Cloudy with a Chance of SharePoint

There’s been a lot of talk, recently and not so recently, about SharePoint in the cloud, especially with the release of Office 365. Hell, there’s been a lot of talk about cloudification, period (though perhaps not using that particular term). Cloud computing provider CloudShare just finalized a$10 million round of vc funding, Apple is letting users store and stream backups of their iTunes downloads in the iCloud, Google Docs now has pivot tables…From financial and ease-of-use standpoints, it’s easy to see why moving data to the cloud is such an appealing proposition. From a security standpoint, as we witnessed with the Amazon/Playstation hack this year, it’s rather less appealing. And then there’s the current lack of feature paritybetween SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Online, and the fact that the latter doesn’t support farm-scoped solutions, full-trust solutions or WebApplication-scoped features. Continue reading Cloudy with a Chance of SharePoint →

Events, SharePoint

Things Learned at SPTechCon

[Striking a pose with the Hillbilly. Pre clog-off.]

1. The lack of readily available caffeine was kind of a problem,

2. A lot of the attendees we met were about to take the SharePoint plunge, and we salute your courage. But also, learning your way around won’t be that difficult – it only appears that way.

3. Dux was so right when he said we need to stop thinking about SharePoint as a solution and start thinking about it as a platform. (Upon which anything is possible. Almost.)

4. People are totally willing to fill out a survey if you ply them with SD cards

5. The SharePoint Hillbilly is just as nice in person as he seems on his blog. Actually, sometimes he seems cranky on his blog—but then again, when we met him, he’d just won an iPad.

6. Planking has nothing to do with SharePoint. But a lot to do with SharePints.

7. You don’t have to watch Jersey Shore to see a staged fight. Continue reading Things Learned at SPTechCon →

Events, SharePoint, Social Media

SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 2

So tweeps at the ‘Con have definitely gotten past the point where I can keep up. Meaning, perchance you tweeted something ah-mazing, and I missed it, and thus you missed your chance to be immortalized here. Mea culpa! Talk to me at tonight’s SharePint–perhaps I’ll let you beat me in a plank-off.

  • @mikegil Best tweet of #sptechcon from my 20 y/o nephew, just lurking: “Everyone here looks like you.” Compliment? Jab? If so, to whom?
  • @BCJonesey: back of @cmcnulty2000 session = tweep-ville, glad I wore my glasses @janishall @mikegil #SPTechCon #Nerds
  • @DougHemminger Just heard @WonderLaura refer to a “G – U – I – D” instead of “Gooid”…Is “Gooid “a developer pronounciation? #SPTechCon
  • @lefteyes: “Everyone likes rainbows and ponies” #SPtechCon
  • @TiffanyWI: All the cool #SharePoint kids are at #sptechcon Continue reading SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 2 →

Events, SharePoint, Social Media

SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 1

While we aren’t rolling into the ‘Con until tomorrow morning, the party has definitely already gotten started. I know, right? Sounds impossible, and yet a quick search for #sptechcon on twitter says otherwise. Tweets have ranged from the informative recap to the feed-me-seymour to the cheerleader. Below, a few of my favorites:

  • @timferro Great #InfoPath session at #SPTechCon @cwheeler76 ! I now only dislike it rather than my previous outright loathing!
  • @Chomp1313 Loving #sptechcon but lack of chocolate may be a problem
  • @buckleyplanet @gvaro + Lady Gaga meat outfit = #SPTechCon lightning talks tonight at 5pm
  • @sitwalkstand Useful tool for explaining “virtual folders” and metadata in SP is Excel filter feature to create a SP view #sptechcon
  • @lefteyes: The base metaphor for document management is a filing cabinet. Why are we still using 1950 tech to organize info in 2011? #sptechcon Continue reading SPTechCon’s Top Tweets, Vol. 1 →

Events, SharePoint

SPTechCon Boston: 10 Must-Do Extracurriculars

SPTechCon is looming, the SharePoint community is booming, and, here I’m zooming in on a few of the Hub’s not-to-be-missed activites. Because everyone needs a at least a little r&r between sessions. And because my hometown is a pretty swell city—it’s very walkable, aesthetically and gustatorially pleasing, and, yes, crammed with people who sound like extras from The Departed (you can usually identify them by their ever-present liter of Dunkin’ and their well-worn Sox sweatshirts). I’ve divided them by time of day, and kept most of them in or close to the Back Bay, but remember: for all its blessings, Boston is also a city cursed with subways that stop running at 1am, bars that close at 2am and sky-high cab fares.

Morning:

1)      The Banks of the River Charles

a.       Neighborhood(s): all over

b.      Why:  Runners (and walkers and city planners), welcome to paradise. Boston offers many fantastic runs, the most obvious, and picturesque place to run is along the Charles River, which separates Bostonians from Cantabridgians and offers a uninterrupted views of both cities’ skylines. You can hop on and off from almost anywhere, but, if you’re a breakfast sandwich afficianado, you should end at the Boston Common, and proceed to no. 2:

2)      Mike and Patty’s

a.       Neighborhood: Bay Village

b.      Why: This wee slice of a breakfast/luncheonette makes the city’s best sandwiches. This is according to more renowned palates than mine, but you can’t go wrong with the fried green tomato BLT, the bacon and egg fancy (fried egg, cheddar, avocado, caramelized onion), the grilled banana and nutella sandwich and the breakfast torta. Weekends, the line snakes up the cobblestoned street, but on a weekday, you should be fine. Continue reading SPTechCon Boston: 10 Must-Do Extracurriculars →

Events, Social Media

Are Tweets Another Way of Saying I Love You at 300 baud

Yesterday I attended the very useful MIT CIO Conference. For the first time at a conference, I was one of those a live tweeters, using HootSuite on my iPad. Unlike that curmudgeon Bill Keller,  I did not experience anything akin to crystal meth. Tweeting along the way enhanced the conference experience significantly.

The most enjoyable part was sharing thoughts with others in the room in real time. I was able to see the emphasis on parts of the dialogue that I would have otherwise missed. Based on retweets of my own messages, others likewise found value. Being constantly tuned in helped me keep my focus even after hours in a darkened theatre.

The immediate feedback from presenters was a nice surprise. To comment about a presenter and then get an individual response three minutes after the session is new and exciting. Continue reading Are Tweets Another Way of Saying I Love You at 300 baud →

Events, SharePoint

Around the World in 139 Days: Further SharePoint Vacations

[Oh yes, this view can be yours]

In honor of our own city’s upcoming, much anticipated Dux Raymond Sy/Jared Spataro-keynoted SPTechCon, and because the crop of international SharePoint fests just keeps mushrooming, I’ve put together another globetrot. Whether you’re hankering for swan boats and Sox games (.500? I’ll take it), hefeweizen and street art, waffles and, er, other Belgian things, or straight-up networking with the grand poo-bahs, this list will scratch that itch. The end of it puts us squarely into fall, which I can’t. Gahh. No. I refuse to think about it. Warm weather, where art thou?

Events, SharePoint

Around the World in 63 Days: a SharePoint Vacation

We’re officially three days into spring, but as any New Englander knows, “official” is code for “probably not going to happen,” or “snow falling on crocuses.” Which is what’s currently happening, by the way. There are two time-tested ways of dealing with late-onset SAD:

1)Drown it in liquid courage. Nowhere’s warmer than an Irish bar two hours after a Dropkick Murphys’ concert!

2)Nurse it under a palm tree.

Now, if you’re type 2, but a full-on vacation isn’t really in the cards, but you happen to work with SharePoint, you’re in luck.* These next few months are filled with top-notch SharePoint conferences in locales warm (Vegas), historic (London) and warm, historic and exotic (Lima). Here are 7 that caught my eye—if I’ve left any out, let me know in the comments! Continue reading Around the World in 63 Days: a SharePoint Vacation →