SharePoint Dan

So I figure that a month has passed and I owe a bit of a recapitulation of yet another speaking event that I had an opportunity to be a part of. First off, I must give credit to the team that put on the event, led up by Dan Lewis – well done!

For me, it was a great kick off to spending the week on the road, speaking in Boston, MA and Reston, VA thereafter.  While I was not able to make it to the speaker’s dinner due to unforeseen conflicts, I was stoked to spend the better part of Saturday and Sunday morning with the speakers that included a stellar bunch of folks.  I hadn’t met several of the speakers in person, but knew of them through their blogs and Twitter.

I presented on a topic near and dear to my heart dealing with logical architectures and the considerations that come into play when planning for and then implementing such a system.  The session went off without a hitch and the largest crowd I’ve had as well.

My slides for the event are available here:  PowerPoint 2007 format.

It’s been two weeks, it’s time to get back together and catch up with your colleagues over a cold pint with your SharePoint colleagues of the greater DC area.

What: SharePint, an opportunity to get together with other SharePoint professional, 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 through Andrew Woodward at http://www.21apps.com/sharepint/perchance/

Where: After hitting up Arlington, we figured we’d try the area of McLean / Tyson’s and SharePoint SharePint DC will be taking place at Gordon Biersch Brewery at Tyson’s Corner Center.

Gordon Biersch is located at 7861 Tyson’s Corner Center, McLean, VA (http://www.gordonbiersch.com/restaurants/index.php?pg=location⊂=loc&location_id=6)

When:  7 PM is when I hope to be there – you should be too!

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

Any questions, pop me a note – my contact info is over on the About Me page, and will point you to Linked In or Facebook to send a message.  Look forward to meeting folks and seeing some friends!!!

I’ve been accepted to speak at SharePoint Saturday Baltimore on 25 July 2009.  I’ll be giving a talk on the basics of authentication in the context of SharePoint Services platform, with the title of the topic aptly, “Why can’t I access the portal? SharePoint Authentication 101″.

More often than not recently at least I’ve found that it tends to be the surrounding infrastructure that is the true culprit causing my end users to not be able to authenticate.  In this talk I’ll be going into the basics of good ole authentication, different authentication methods and some basic troubleshooting tactics.

If you’re on Twitter, setup a search for conversations on the topic of SharePoint Saturday Baltimore with the hashtag - #spsbmore, as well as following @SPSBaltimore for the latest on the event.

For more details on SharePoint Saturday Baltimore, check out http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/baltimore – definitely a strong line up of speakers to include:

Adam Macaulay
Buddy Webber
CA Callahan
Cathy Dew
Dan Lewis
Dux Raymond Sy
Eric Harlan
Errin O’Connor
Gary Vaughan
Geoff Varosky
Joel Oleson
Kenneth Lo
Linc Williams
Martin Boggess
Michael Noel
Mike Watson
Paul Schaeflein
Russ Basiura
Sandeep Nahta
Shadeed Eleazer
Steve Andrews
Susan Lennon

…that I know of

So I’m hitting the road on June 19 for SharePoint Saturday Charlotte which is on the 20th.  From there it’s off to Boston for the SharePoint Technology Conference which runs from the 22-24 June.  I speak on the 24th in the afternoon.  If you’re wondering where I’m at after that, head on back to Reston, VA for the Regional SharePoint Users Group which runs from 26-27 June.  Hoping to meet a bunch of folks from Twitter as well as to see others from the community – it’s been too long.

SharePoint Saturday Charlotte – 20 June, 2009 – http://go.spdan.com/spsclt

SharePoint Technology Conference – 22-24 June, 2009 – http://go.spdan.com/sptechcon

Regional SharePoint Users Group Conference – 26-27 June, 2009 – http://go.spdan.com/rsug

This past weekend, SharePoint Saturday visited the local Northern Virginia region with SharePoint Saturday DC, hosted at the Microsoft Technology Center in Reston, VA. It was a great time with 28 sessions led by SharePoint professionals and MVPs from all around the country. Props to Dux Sy for his coordination of the volunteers and sponsors! Over 200 people attended the event which meant that it was standing room only for some of the sessions.

Joel Ward and I presented on the topic of SmartCard Authentication: Considerations, Options and Pitfalls with SharePoint during the final session of the day.  It was a lively discussion surrounding security, SmartCards, IA, infrastructure, membership providers and how it all fits in with the SharePoint architecture.

View the slides on SlideShare below, or download the PowerPoint files (PPT or PPTX) which includes the slides plus notes and resource links.

The SharePoint Meetup on Saturday, 4 April 2009 at La Madeline’s in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia went very well, with a diverse crowd of SharePoint professionals from the community coming out to discuss certifications, training and career paths.  Additionally it was great to meet other individuals and hear about some of the training that they’ve taken, what they liked, what they didn’t like and what they’re looking to pursue in the future.

I’ll be putting together a short presentation deck on this topic for anyone that’s curious as to what’s certifications are available, best tips for training and what to consider for if you’re looking to go down a particular career path or another.

Next Meetup will be on 2 May 2009 at the SharePoint Saturday DC event at the Reston MTC in Virginia.

For those of you in the greater DC region, looking to steer clear of the congestion and traffic downtown at the Cherry Blossom Festival, interested in collaboration and technology, then come on out to the SharePoint Meetup at Tyson’s La Madeline’s at 4 PM today.

It’s a pretty laid back group getting together for coffee, tea, wine and other beverages (buy your own beverage) chatting about their experiences with SharePoint.

I’ve submitted to speak at SharePoint Saturday in NYC – we’ll see if they accept my submission on the topic of Requirements Driving Logical Architecture Design.

What’s that? You don’t know about SharePoint Saturday?

It’s a grassroots organization that’s planning SharePoint events across the country. Check out their homepage for resources and for an event near you!

http://www.sharepointsaturday.org

If you’re in the greater Mid-Atlantic area, you should consider attending – space is limited though so register now if you’re definitely going.  And who knows, maybe there will even be an impromptu SharePint Event to meet others in the SharePoint community…

This morning started off quite early (around 4:30 AM) as Joel Ward and I headed down from Northern Virginia to Virginia Beach to attend the first ever SharePoint Saturday event. The turnout was tremendous, with numbers ranking up somewhere around 180+ individuals from the greater SharePoint community. It was a pretty laid back day, good to meet some of the other “SharePoint Tweeters” in industry and chat about projects.
If you have a chance to attend one of the SharePoint Saturday events in the future, I highly recommend taking advantage of it.
All in all a long but great day. After the event, Joel and I left around 6:30 PM and after a short stop in Fredericksburg at Buffalo Wild Wings, we ventured back to Northern Virginia – home at last.
More to come tomorrow…