Life, the universe and whatever

SUGUK and SharePoint in April

Things are really gathering pace in the SharePoint arena this month, both generally and specifically here in the UK.  It was announced on the SharePoint Product Team blog their intent to RTM (Release to Manufacturing) SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 sometime this month before the May 12th launch date.

This week Microsoft is hosting Microsoft Tech Days United Kingdom 2010; a “week of free technology events for developers, IT professionals and IT managers”.  There promises to be plenty of SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 coverage not to mention all the supporting technologies; Windows 2008, SQL Server 2008, a “Virtualization Summit”, Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010.

In support of the UK Tech days 2010 week the SharePoint User Group UK (SUGUK) decided it would be a great idea to host a few cinema nights around the country.  I am hosting the evening at the Showcase Cinema in Reading where we’ll start with an informal discussion about all things 2010 whilst nibbling pizzas and dishing swag (generously donated by Microsoft) before settling down to watch Clash of the Titans (2010) and then finishing the evening in the George pub next door for SharePint or two.  Special thanks here have to go to Mark Macrea and Steve Smith whose dedication and support made these events happen.  It’s not too late to sign up for Reading so if you’re in the vicinity then register here and come along.

And talking of Steve Smith, he has again brought a collective of some of the worlds greatest authorities on SharePoint together for a three day conference in London next week.  The SharePoint 2010 Evolution Conference will be happening between 19th and 21st April 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre near Westminster in London.  There are no less than 6 tracks running on all 3 days;

• IT Professionals
• Developers & Designers
• Information Worker, Business Strategy and Adoption (2 tracks)
• Deep Dive – Level 400
• Community – Tales from the trenches

There will also be lunchtime and evening partner sessions and over 90 sessions recorded for the post conference DVD that all attendees will receive.

Then before you know it, it will be May and we’ll all finally be able to get our hands on the real thing!

11th March London SUGUK meeting review

I had a nightmare day last Thursday!  I haven’t been feeling 100% for a few weeks now and I had a rearranged client meeting to attend that afternoon.  That went on way longer than advertised so I hit the rush hour traffic with all the kids leaving school and then I got stuck behind a road accident on top of all that!  I ended up abandoning my car somewhere in Sidcup and making a run for the station so eventually made it to Cardinal Place, Victoria just 15 before the meeting was scheduled to start.  Big thanks go to Ben Robb and Paul Hunt for making sure the pre meeting arrangements were in place and preparing to cover my absence.

Despite my antics the meeting went really well.  We had a great attendance again with 115 attendees and Ben’s first session on Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2010 went down really well.  There were some fantastic demos and great insights into how it all hangs together.

After half time pizzas and refreshments all very kindly laid on by Microsoft we had a Q&A session on Business Intelligence in SharePoint.  Mark Macrea very kindly came all the way down from Nottingham to join Ben out front to answer questions and they were also joined by a very nice and knowledgeable chap from the audience (whose name I have forgotten due to having the memory of an OAP goldfish!)

We finished the evening in the Duke of York opposite Victoria Station for a well earned SharePint.  I made mention of the upcoming UK Tech Days 2010 and SharePoint Evolutions events in my slides which I have uploaded here.

SUGUK meetings in March 2010

Following hot on the success of our January meetings the SharePoint User Group UK (SUGUK) have 4 meetings planned for March.  If you see a meeting you really like the sound of then make the effort to get along, support the speakers and meet fellow members with an interest in the product.  If you really can’t make it along on a particular evening then talk to me or one of the other regional coordinators and we’ll try our best to get the speakers along to a more local meeting.

Tuesday 9th March 2010 – Manchester

Net Monkeys have very kindly arranged the venue in the City Inn Hotel in Central Manchester. The location is very close to public transport links and there is an NCP car park very close for those who wish to drive in.

We are very happy to welcome Spencer Harbar who will be giving us a talk on Information Architecture in SharePoint, followed by Jamie McAllister who will be walking us through Multi-Lingual sites in SharePoint.

Please arrive at 6pm and we intend to run through until 9pm. As usual, we will finish off the evening by moving onto a local pub to carry on the SharePoint conversations.  Spaces are limited, so please sign up here to ensure your name is on the list.

Thursday 11th March 2010 – London

For the first session of the evening we welcome back Ben Robb (SharePoint MVP) to give us an overview of BI in SharePoint 2010.

After half time pizza and refreshments Ben will be joined by Mark Macrea for our second session answering your questions on BI in SharePoint.  Mark has presented on various applications of BI in SharePoint including integrated SQL Server Reporting Services and PerformancePoint.  If you have a question you would really like the panel to discuss then post it when you register for the event.

Sign up here leaving your FULL NAME and plan to arrive from 18:00 for a 18:30 sharp start. SharePint at a local watering hole from 21:00.

Thursday 18th March 2010 – Leicester

Our next Midlands meeting will be moving slightly south to an additional venue in Leicester at the Samworth Enterprise Academy.  A fitting venue for our theme for the evening “SharePoint in Education”.  SharePoint is a key player in education up and down the UK, and we are aiming to discuss various aspects of user adoption, implementation and development.

Alex Pearce MVP – 101 Questions before Implementing SharePoint into Education.  Questions that can be asked both from a technical and end user adoption point of view.  Have you got everything you need for your SharePoint or having trouble getting all your staff and students on board?  Maybe its just one of these questions and answers, that you need for your own school that will drive your adoption through the roof.

Arrive from 6pm for a 6.30pm sharp start
6.30pm – Session 1 [Alex Pearce]
7.30pm – Break for Snacks & Drinks
7.55pm – Session 2 [TBC]
8.30pm – Session 3 [TBC]

The final session will finish at approximately 9pm when we will be off to the pub for SharePint, and also trying out the local curry house for ShareCurry.  It promises to be a great evening for all those involved in SharePoint and/or Education. Please sign up here if you wish to attend!

Thursday 25th March – Southampton

Next meeting for the South region is at Southampton University.  Everyone welcome, especially newcomers, and attendance is free.  Agenda is as follows:

6:30pm Penny Coventry MVP – Best Practice for Designing and Deploying Workflow using SharePoint Designer 2007.  More often than not companies are never sure of the best method for building and using the workflow engine used by SharePoint. This session will briefly look at the out-of-the-box workflows using SharePoint Server 2007 and the browser and then look at using SharePoint Designer for building workflow solutions. Penny will discuss why this may or may not be the tool you need for your deployments pointing out the ease of use plus the limitations when trying to use SPD and solutions around these limitations.

7:30pm Ian Woodgate – SharePoint 2010 Records Management in 15 Minutes.  A quick tour of records management in 2010.

7:45pm Break

8:00pm Symon Garfield – Answering The Ultimate Question: What is SharePoint?  “What is SharePoint? This is still a question I get asked when out visiting customers… It’s kind of magical in a certain way. It’s a really special kind of product… It’s kinda like an operating system”, Steve Ballmer Microsoft CEO, SharePoint Conference 2009 Keynote speech.  Despite ten years in the market, one hundred million licenses sold, over one billion dollars of sales revenues, and four versions of the product people still ask the question, “What is SharePoint?”, and even those at the top of Microsoft struggle to provide a meaningful answer.  Answers range include; “An operating system”; “A business productivity infrastructure”; “A replacement for your file server”; “A web site with a database backend”; “A Collaboration platform”; “An Information Workplace Platform”; and, “A Horizontal Portal Product”.  This session explores why this basic question is so hard to answer, unravels some of the mystifying answers given, and explains why you should care!

8:45pm New Speaker Slot – Go on give it a go! This is your chance to tell us what you have been doing with SharePoint. Don’t worry you don’t need to be a SharePoint guru – contributions with a business or user angle are very welcome and of interest to all!

9:00pm SharePint!  We’re in a university, there are loads of pubs around, it would be rude not to…

Sign up for the Southampton meeting here.

SUGUK November meeting review

Last night was the first SharePoint User Group UK (SUGUK) meeting that I have taken responsibility for organising since taking on the role of a regional organiser.  We had a great  turnout of over 100 members and I was very well supported by several SharePoint friends including former organiser and group co-founder Nick Swan, Paul Hunt, Simon Doy and Chris Forbes (Scotland organiser) to name but a few. 

If the standard of presenters and presentations remains as high as last night then my job is going to be a breeze!  First up we had Martin Hatch from Content and Code presenting on building an accessible SharePoint system.  Now I know Martin from a mutual client we had a few years ago so I know that technically the guy is pretty sharp.  What we saw last night is that Martin has a very confident and engaging manner with the audience because he knows his subject inside out and backwards.  What I liked most about the presentation was that although the subject matter was accessibility (I learned a lot about that I never new!) all the techniques were demonstrated to be applicable for more general application which I wasn’t expecting.  (The slides and demo files from Martin’s presentation are all downloadable from his blog post).

Our second speaker was Chris O’Brien, independent SharePoint consultant.  Chris is a very relaxed and accomplished speaker and he gave us an excellent tour of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) enhancements in SharePoint 2010 demonstrating some Visual Studio 2010 enhancements for good measure.  Special thanks should go to Chris as he is a father of 8 week old twin boys and is preparing for best man duties this coming Saturday all on top of his normal hectic schedule!

Chris was one of several SharePoint MVPs in attendance and clearly from the questions and discussions during the evening there was a lot of experience in the room.  In all a great evening and even a quick SharePint in the local pub afterwards!