SharePoint Dan

That’s right, we’re back. SharePoint Saturday DC, the third edition, will be on 15 May 2010 at the Northern Virginia Community Campus in Annandale, Virginia, just outside the Capital Beltway.

We’re expecting up to 800 individuals attending with approximately 45 sessions going on through out the day – and it’s all free!

Definitely an exciting event with the SharePoint Server 2010 platform being released to businesses a few days earlier in the week.

Interested in finding out more? Check out the site – we’ll begin posting speakers and sessions within the next few days … http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/dc

Want to register? http://spsdc.eventbrite.com

RDA Corporation, the fine people that gave us the ECAL Tracker on Codeplex.com, will be presenting a webcast this Thursday (25 February) at 1 PM EST to discuss enabling SharePoint portal sites for differing business areas, specifically for an enterprise extranet portal. The overarching agenda for the webcast is as follows:

• Definition of an Extranet
• Hardware
• Information Architecture
• Security
• Publishing
• Maximizing Search
• Stories from the Field

Dan Gilroy of RDA will be the presenter for the session.

Time – 1 PM EST, 25 February 2010

More information: http://go.spdan.com/filcj

Online Registration: http://go.spdan.com/kqjpt

Cloud Computing and Azure are two hot topics on the horizon, albeit somewhat SharePoint independent at the moment. Microsoft will be doing a deep dive this week in Tyson’s Corner on the topics of Cloud Computing and the Windows Azure Platform. The audience for this event is more geared toward developers, however IT Pros and Architects will definitely be able to get a good level of detail about these topics.

The event will consist of three sessions to include an (1) Overview of Cloud Computing and Windows Azure, a (2) Survey of Windows Azure Storage Options and (3) Going Live with your Azure Solutions.

The time – Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 1 PM til 5 PM
The place – AMC Tysons Corner 16 (7850 Tysons Corner Center, McLean, VA 22102)

More information on the event: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032438181&Culture=en-US

Event ID Number: 1032438181

Register Online

Come one, come all! SharePint!!!

So not to interfere with any SharePoint events this week, but I figured that with so many folks in town this week, why not have a few social events? Who’s in town you ask? Well, MindSharp is in town for a training event and with good ole MindSharp comes Todd Bleeker. Oh but wait, there’s more! Erica Toelle happens to be around as well. What’s more, I think I saw a tweet about Jason Medero being around this week as well. And for those familiar with SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach’s Susan Lennon, yup she’s here this week too! And not to be out done, Paul Swider will be around for a few days as well.

So what’s that mean? Social hour with the SharePoint Crew… aka SharePint

Originally we thought, “Let’s have it all in Springfield, that’s where most folks will be right?” But after a little bit of thought, it looks like we’re going to switch things up a bit:

Tentative Schedule (note changes will be tweeted by @sharepintdc)

Monday, 2/22/2010 – 7 PM – Houlihan’s in Springfield, VA (in the Hilton)
Tuesday, 2/23/2010 – 7 PM – Houlihan’s in Herndon, VA (in the Crowne Plaza)
Wednesday, 2/24/2010 – 7 PM – Rock Bottom in Arlington, VA (in Ballston Commons)
Thursday, 2/25/2010 – 7  PM –  Mike’s American Grill in Springfield, VA

So right now it’s all tentative, but hopefully we’ll be able to gather the crowd and hang out

Have a few questions relating to SharePoint that have been causing problems in your environment or looking for a better approach to development perhaps? Live or work in the Northern Virginia area? Check out the Stump the Experts Panel on 21 January from 2-4 PM at the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, VA.  SusQTech will be hosting this event and also presenting on the topic of  “Preparing for SharePoint 2010″.

For those tougher questions that might take a little time to come up with an elegant solution or you’re just curious if SharePoint can handle a particular business problem, send an e-mail to jenm at susqtech dot com prior to the event.

Who: SusQTech and other SharePoint Professionals, and Enthusiasts
What: Stump the Experts Panel & Preparing for SharePoint 2010 presentation
Where: American Chemistry Council, 1300 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA
When: 21 January 2010, 2-4 PM

Live in the greater Richmond metropolitan area? Looking for some great SharePoint information in a low key setting where you can easily interact with the Pros? Then check out SharePoint Saturday Richmond, a grass roots event with excellent speakers to boot.
If you’re free on 21 November, head on over for SPS Richmond. Registration opens up at 10 AM on 14 October 2009 – http://spsrichmond.eventbrite.com/

For more information about the event, check out http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/richmond

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last SharePint DC event held in Old Towne Alexandria and it’s time to switch things up a bit as we invade Washington DC.  Come kick back and catch up with your colleagues over a cold pint of your favorite ale or lager as we meet up just near Union Station at the Capital City Brewery.

What:  SharePint, an opportunity to get together with other SharePoint professionals, enthusiasts and folks in the community to chat about what’s going on – no pressure, no presentation, no phluff.    You’ve probably heard of SharePint before at events like TechEd, SPTechCon and SharePoint Saturday, with the term initially picked up and coined by the likes of Andrew Woodward across the pond.  More on this? Check out – http://www.21apps.com/sharepint/perchance.

Where:  Washington DC’s Capital City Brewery Capitol Hill Location located about a block away from Union Station.

The Capitol City Brewery is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20001.

When:  6:15 PM is when I hope to be there, the more the merrier!!!

How:  Well, it’s quite easy, you show up, you bring your own beverage money, and enjoy the atmosphere and fun.

Any questions, pop me a note via twitter @usher and be sure to follow @sharepintdc.

Yet another SharePoint Saturday Event has come and gone, this time in Baltimore, MD at the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s Technology Incubator on 25 July 2009. The event was sponsored by a plethora of different groups which if mentioned could entail an entire blog post, with a team led up by a core group of Baltimore SharePoint User Group leadership it was an event to remember with speakers coming in from across the country. The weekend started off in the Inner Harbor at the Speaker’s dinner at the Meli Patisserie and Bistro followed by an evening out about, exploring the inner harbor in the pouring rain. I decided that my best option was to hit up dinner and then make my way back to Arundel Mills to rest of and polish up slides for the talk I was giving on Saturday afternoon. The dinner was terrific and it was great to see Joel Oleson, Mike Watson, Geoff Varosky, Paul Schaeflein, Dux Sy, Cathy Dew, Susan Lennon, Dan Lewis, Eric Harlan, Shadeed Eleazer, Linc Williams, Ken Lo, Mark Miller, and last but definitely not least Michael Noel.
Saturday went off without a hitch with the presentations well received and probably the largest group I’ve seen stay through the entire day for the Saturday evening wrap-up.
Post SharePoint Saturday Wrapup, it was off to Ruby Tuesday’s where the power went out due to some torrential downpours, so SharePint was effectively delayed.
All in all a great event and I’m excited to see the momentum pickup with the SharePoint Saturday events – a big thank you to the planning committee!

If you’re looking for my slide deck, feel free to download it in PowerPoint 2007 format, or to view it through SlideShare.net.

Wrapping up a fantastic week of SharePoint goodness, I returned to Northern Virginia from Boston’s SharePoint Technology Conference and returned to the regular song and dance of being home. Friday afternoon however, I had the pleasure of presenting more Architectural Considerations goodness to the 2009 MidAtlantic SharePoint Regional Users Conference. The conference sported several SharePoint experts to include Bob Mixon, Sahil Malik and I even bumped into Paul Galvin in the hallways – thanks to the DC SUG for putting this event together!
Slides available at the following: PowerPoint 2007 Format