Thoughts about the SharePoint Convention

I got back from the SharePoint Convention (SPTechCon) in San Fran late last night, so I thought that I would give some highlights about the conference.

• Overall, I was really impressed with the information at the conference. Granted, there were some sessions that left me cold. The "live examples" didn't work or took too long to do, and the presenter spent more time trying to get the demo to work rather than discuss the topic at hand. However, the majority of the presentations were really informative and productive, and I came out of the conference with more knowledge than I originally had.


• It was also a great networking opportunity. I was able to meet a number of professionals from all walks of life in IT (managers, administrators, developers) and all levels of SharePoint knowledge. I was able to learn about how these people were using SharePoint, and I learned about the trials and tribulations of using SharePoint in their respective environments.


• It was great to place names with faces. A number of presenters were authors of SharePoint blogs and/or books about SharePoint that I've read. One of the presenters (Errin O'Connor) co-authored one of the SharePoint books in my personal library.

If you are working in a SharePoint environment, I would suggest going to their next convention, which is being held in Boston in June. It's actually quite reasonable, especially if you register for the extreme early bird. In my case, the cost of the convention, flight from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, and hotel stay was $1000 less than a SharePoint Designer class that I took locally. Visit the SPTechCon site for further details on the next conference.

P.S. - I'll start publishing tutorials again on Monday!