The SharePoint Yankee
April 25, 2012 Leave a comment
Yes a month late… but, hey, it’s been a busy month!
Had a grand time in New Orleans – a well put on event as always, that I was happy to be a part of, in one of the greatest cities in the world.
http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/neworleans
Below are my two presentations from the event.
April 3, 2012 Leave a comment
I am pleased to announce that registration is now open for SharePoint Saturday Boston! Register today to reserve your spot. Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
SharePoint administrators, end users, architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft SharePoint Technologies will meet for the 5th SharePoint Saturday Boston event on Saturday, April 28th, 2012 at the Microsoft Office located at 201 Jones Road in Waltham, MA, 02451. SharePoint Saturday is an educational, informative, and lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals and MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint! Follow us on twitter @SPSBoston. Register today to reserve your spot before they are all gone.
Our sponsors will be providing breakfast, lunch, and a snack. Microsoft is providing the facility. Many other sponsors will be providing wonderful giveaways at the end of the day.
We have speakers from around New England plus speakers flying into Boston from around the globe to provide the best event for learning cutting edge skills and techniques for implementing SharePoint at your company. SharePoint Saturday is also a great way to network with like-minded professionals.
For up to date schedule and agenda see our web site at:
http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/boston
Don’t forget to print your ticket and bring it with you to the event in order to use the Rapid Registration Line.
Saturday, April 28th, 2012
8:00AM – 6:00PM
SharePoint Saturday Boston will be held at the Microsoft Waltham office at 201 Jones Rd., Sixth Floor, Waltham, MA 02451 http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&style=r&lvl=100&where1=201%20Jones%20Road%2CWaltham%2CMA%2C02451
Jornata, ThirdM, Microsoft, and Sympraxis Consulting
Registration is limited and based on first come first serve basis http://spsbos.eventbrite.com
January 9, 2012 3 Comments
A big thank you to the organizers, sponsors, and attendees of SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach! The event was well put-on, and it is a great location, with a great layout! I cannot believe it took me 4 years to get down there, I wish I had gone much sooner!
I am looking forward to the next #SPSVB, but in the meantime, you can find my presentation from my session, Planning and Configuring Extranets in SharePoint 2010 below… please leave any questions you have in the comments!
December 29, 2011 1 Comment
New England is a bustling SharePoint community, and I am happy that I just happen to live in the area, and can experience most or all of what the New England area offers as far as SharePoint is concerned.
Since this is the season of giving, being the holidays and all, I thought this was a great time to inventory the resources in the New England area to allow people to give and to receive SharePoint community goodness. In building this list, I also learned that there are more SPUGs in New England that I did not even know existed – so I hope this does the same for you!
Please feel free to add to the comments on this post with any other resources I may have missed, I know I must have! Also please feel free to send any updates for information below. All group and event information has been culled from their respective websites and other various sources.
UPDATED 8/3/12:
UPDATED 2/6/13:
ABOUT: The Boston Area SharePoint Users Group (BASPUG) was founded to bring together like minds to network and share their experiences, triumphs, and tribulations around Microsoft SharePoint, to provide a community platform for Boston area SharePoint users, administrators, developers, architects, of all experience levels, even those brand new to SharePoint, to share their knowledge with the community. We (usually) meet the 2nd Wednesday of every month at either Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge, MA, or at the Microsoft Office in Waltham at 201 Jones Road.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly, second Wednesday of the month
MEETING LOCATION(S): Microsoft New England Research & Development Center (NERD), 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA and Microsoft Waltham, 201 Jones Road, 6th Floor, Waltham, MA
WEBSITE: http://www.bostonsharepointug.org
ABOUT: While there are a plethora of after-hours SharePoint events and user-groups in the Boston area, we felt that what was missing was something a little less formally structured and a little more convivial. With the Boston SharePoint Salon, we hope we’ve created a leather armchair forum in which local and visiting SharePoint enthusiasts can partake in a spirited and meandering discussion of current and looming business, technological and cultural issues. Thus far we’ve discussed cloud, mobile, self-service BI, cigars and small batch Bourbon.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Various
MEETING LOCATION(S): Various (Boston Area)
WEBSITE: http://www.bostonsharepointsalon.com
ABOUT: SharePoint Saturday Boston is a free community‐focused SharePoint event dedicated to educating and engaging members of the local technical community. SharePoint Saturday draws upon the expertise of local SharePoint IT professionals, developers and solutions architects who come together to share their real world experiences, lessons learned, best practices, and general knowledge with other like‐minded individuals.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Yearly
MEETING LOCATION(S): Microsoft Waltham, 201 Jones Road, 6th Floor, Waltham, MA
WEBSITE: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/boston
ABOUT: The purpose of the Women in SharePoint Boston chapter is to connect the many women in the New England area currently working with SharePoint. This group is also intended to build the SharePoint community alongside the other local SharePoint groups including the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group (BASPUG), the Granite State SharePoint Users Group, and local SharePoint Saturdays.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly
MEETING LOCATION(S): Meadhall, 4 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA
WEBSITE: http://www.womeninspboston.com
ABOUT: The SharePoint Technology Conference is the world’s premier independent event for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server technology and services. The format includes 90+ technical classes, workshops and breakout classes with content geared to IT professionals, business managers and developers. It features a top Microsoft MVPs, dozens of expert MS speakers and solutions from 50+ exhibitors.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Yearly
MEETING LOCATION(S): Various
WEBSITE: http://www.sptechcon.com
ABOUT: Coming soon… will update when completed! See the SPUG link below for details!
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly
MEETING LOCATION(S): Microsoft Farmington CT Office, 74 Batterson Park Rd, Farmington, CT
WEBSITE: http://ctdotnet.org/CTSPUG.aspx
ABOUT: The mission of this group is to establish a local community for the FCSPUG members to discuss and collaborate on SharePoint best practices and evolving technologies. The vision is to empower the users with the resources and better understanding of how to build applications/solutions for their organizational needs leveraging Microsoft SharePoint.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly, second Wednesday of the month
MEETING LOCATION(S): Bigelow Tea, 1 Constant Comment Way, Fairfield, CT
WEBSITE: http://www.sharepointusergroup.com/FCSPUG/
ABOUT: SharePoint Saturday Hartford is a free community‐focused SharePoint event dedicated to educating and engaging members of the local technical community. SharePoint Saturday draws upon the expertise of local SharePoint IT professionals, developers and solutions architects who come together to share their real world experiences, lessons learned, best practices, and general knowledge with other like‐minded individuals.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Yearly
MEETING LOCATION(S): New Horizons Learning, 340 West Newberry Road, Bloomfield, CT
WEBSITE: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/hartford
ABOUT: We’re about tip sharing and making connections in the industry without having to head south of the border.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly, second Thursday of the month
MEETING LOCATION(S): Daniel Webster College, 20 University Drive , Eaton Richmond Center, Room 122, Nashua, NH
WEBSITE: http://www.granitestatesharepoint.org
ABOUT: SharePoint Saturday New Hampshire is a free community‐focused SharePoint event dedicated to educating and engaging members of the local technical community. SharePoint Saturday draws upon the expertise of local SharePoint IT professionals, developers and solutions architects who come together to share their real world experiences, lessons learned, best practices, and general knowledge with other like‐minded individuals.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Yearly
MEETING LOCATION(S): Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), Manchester, NH
WEBSITE: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/nh
ABOUT: The Vermont SharePoint Users Group is an open and independent forum for evaluating and extending the knowledge of the SharePoint Products and Technologies architecture, technologies, tools and business applications for its membership. Its purpose is to provide information and guidance to the full breadth of its capabilities.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly
MEETING LOCATION(S): White River Craft Center, 50 Randolph Avenue, Randolph, VT
WEBSITE: http://www.vermontspug.com
ABOUT: Swap tips and tricks with other local SharePoint professionals. Share problems and solutions at an old-school user group, meant to support everyone’s knowledge of this extensive application. Our goal is to bring the local SharePoint community together to share tips, tricks and ideas on the uses of the various SharePoint products and technologies.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly
MEETING LOCATION(S): Winxnet Offices, 5th Floor, 84 Marginal Way, Portland, ME
WEBSITE: http://www.winxnet.com/spugme
ABOUT: The Rhode Island SharePoint User Group (RISPUG) is a community based organization focused on driving awareness and support for the Sharepoint Community in Rhode Island and its surrounding areas.
MEETING FREQUENCY: Monthly, First Wednesday of the Month
MEETING LOCATION(S): Providence College, Moore Hall, Room 1, 1 Cunningham Plaza, Providence, RI
WEBSITE: http://www.meetup.com/RISPUG/
December 23, 2011 1 Comment
I am pleased to announce that I will be presenting at SharePoint Saturday Austin on January 21st, 2012, presenting my session on Planning and Configuring Extranets in SharePoint 2010, with my colleague Donal Conlon.
Information on the session is below:
Planning and Configuring Extranets in SharePoint 2010
Session Level: 300
Session Type: IT Pro / Admin
Most companies, large or small, require contact and collaboration with external entities, whether they are vendors, clients, or contractors. SharePoint gives us the ability to open up portals for collaboration with these external entities – this session will show you how to accomplish this using SharePoint 2010.We will review what is required to make SharePoint “open” to the external world, discuss scenarios regarding security and privacy, as well as walk through configuring Forms Based Authentication, Claims Based Authentication, as well as using Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010, to authenticate, and manage our external users.
Once completing this session, you should have a firm grasp on how to configure an extranet environment using SharePoint 2010, as well as what should be considered during the planning of your extranet scenarios.
I will also be giving away 2 copies of the book I am working on of the same subject.
About SharePoint Saturday Austin:
SharePoint Saturday Austin is a joint effort headed up by Jim Bob Howard and Matthew Lathrop, but made possibly only through the dedication and commitment of our volunteers, sponsors, the local Central Texas SPUG, the speaker community, and all of our attendees.
If you have any questions or would like to volunteer, please us the contact form on this page.
SharePoint Saturday Austin is part of a national and international calendar of free events, organized and overseen by the SharePoint Saturday Board of Directors. For more information about SPS and other events, visit: www.sharepointsaturday.org.
When and where will this magical event be held, you ask?
SharePoint Saturday Austin (#SPSAusTx)
Saturday, January 21, 2012
AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, Austin, TX
8AM – 5PM
SharePint following ’til 7PM
Hope to see you there!
December 19, 2011 Leave a comment
I cannot believe it has been 4 years since SharePoint Saturday started, and I am honored to be speaking at the very place where it all started, at SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach! Who knew that in 4 years, SPS is now a GLOBAL phenomenon, in almost all parts of the world? I owe a lot to SharePoint Saturday, as it gave me my start in speaking on SharePoint almost 4 years ago in Boston.
I will be presenting “Planning and Configuring Extranets in SharePoint 2010”. I will also be giving away 2 copies of my upcoming book of the same topic. You must be present to win, obviously 
Planning and Configuring Extranets in SharePoint 2010
Session Level: 300
Session Type: IT Pro / Admin
Most companies, large or small, require contact and collaboration with external entities, whether they are vendors, clients, or contractors. SharePoint gives us the ability to open up portals for collaboration with these external entities – this session will show you how to accomplish this using SharePoint 2010.We will review what is required to make SharePoint “open” to the external world, discuss scenarios regarding security and privacy, as well as walk through configuring Forms Based Authentication, Claims Based Authentication, as well as using Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint 2010, to authenticate, and manage our external users.
Once completing this session, you should have a firm grasp on how to configure an extranet environment using SharePoint 2010, as well as what should be considered during the planning of your extranet scenarios.
What’s SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach?
SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach is an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of topics focused on Microsoft SharePoint technologies.
SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!
When is SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach?
January 7, 2012, Saturday
Schedule outline is listed below and we are currently looking at over 60 sessions for the event, including some sessions for the City of VA Beach Public Schools.
7:30 am – 8:00 am – Registration & Breakfast
8:00 am – 8:45 am – Welcome and Keynote
8:50 am – 10:00 am – First Sessions
10:10 am -11:20 am – Second Sessions
11:30 am -12:40 pm – Third Sessions
12:40 pm -1:30 pm – Lunch
1:30 pm – 2:40 pm – Fourth Sessions
2:50 pm – 4:00 pm – Fifth Sessions
4:10 pm – 5:20 pm – Sixth Sessions
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm – Closing & Giveaways
Where will SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach be held?
Virginia Beach Advanced Technology Center
VA Beach Campus of Tidewater Community College
1800 College Crescent
Virginia Beach, VA 23453
http://www.vbatc.com
For more information and to register, visit the site here: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/virginiabeach
September 26, 2011 Leave a comment
SharePoint Saturday New Hampshire was a great event! A job well done by the organizers. This was the first SharePoint Saturday New Hampshire, and there seemed to be a great turnout, and the location worked out well. Saw a lot of familiar faces, as well as was able to meet a bunch of great new people. This was also my first official event as a Jornata employee, even though today is officially my first day
This next part of this post is special for those who attended my session, it’s out little inside joke.
My session was very well attended, and I got nothing but great remarks.
Thank you all again for attending, and for the standing ovation – really, you didn’t have to. But thank you none-the-less. Below you will find my slides from the event.
And if you missed my session, or just want to see it again, come see me in a couple weeks at the Granite State SharePoint Users Group, where I will be presenting the same session, on October 13th.
And if you’re in the Baltimore area, I will be presenting this at the Baltimore SharePoint Users Group on October 20th.
Without further ado – here is my slide deck from the event.
In the slide deck is also the updated URL for access to the demonstration environment (http://go.gvaro.net/ExtranetsVM3).
August 17, 2011 2 Comments
Organizing and maintaining a SharePoint Saturday can be hard work. LOTS of hard work. Luckily, the way we run SharePoint Saturday Boston, we have less hard work than other SPS events. We put the responsibility of ordering shirts, pads, pens, food, etc. on the sponsor, so we do not only have to deal with the event, speakers, sponsors, etc., so we do not also have to order shirts, food, etc. It makes life a lot easier.
Then there are other SharePoint Saturday events, such as SharePoint Saturday New York, they take it to the next level, and deal with all of that. Now, these are just single day events.
Now, with SharePoint Saturday – The Conference, this was a 3-day event, they had roughly 1800 people registered, well over a thousand attend. IMAGINE STUFFING 1800 ATTENDEE AND SPEAKER BAGS?! GAH! They had LOTS of volunteers however. It was not the best well-oiled machine, but, there was no chance of the motor seizing up on this one. They did one heck of a job. This is not to slight the conference in any way, the organizers of this event actually have day jobs, that are not all about planning and putting together conferences, so this was done in their spare time, if they had any.
I was amazed at the level of sophistication that a basically free ($39-$59 for a 3 day event is the best price out there for a SharePoint conference of this size). They had the ability to change name tags on the fly, lots of volunteers had radios, there were session and schedule updates on monitors around the campus, people all over the place directing traffic and offering help getting from building to building, and if for some reason your session time and date had changed, people to find you and drag you to them! (more on that in a moment).
Great job by everyone involved! I was happy to be a speaker and attendee at the conference, and look forward to another one down the road!
With that, I delivered 3 sessions. Below is information on each, as well as slide decks. Thank you to all who attended my sessions!
This was supposed to take place on Saturday, not Friday. So, when I arrived at the conference on Friday at 5 after 11 in the morning, I saw the lunch table, and headed over… got a plate of food, and then all of a sudden, I was approached by one of the volunteers, and a friend of mine, Jennifer, and the interaction went something like this…
Jennifer: “C’mon! You’re 15 minutes late for your session!”
Me: “What? I don’t have a session until the end of the day”
Jennifer: “No, you have one now”
Me: “Ok then, what session is it?”
Jennifer: “9 Ways to Become a (SharePoint) Rock Star”
[EDITORS NOTE: She did not exactly use parenthesis when she said it.]
Me: “That’s not until tomorrow”
Jennifer: “There are 40 people waiting in there for you now”
Me: “Uh oh, [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted], Let me grab my bag!”
Jennifer: ”Let’s go!”
[winded dash to another building … then walking, well, being dragged into the classroom]
Me: “Sorry I am late everyone! I slept late and am hung over, you know, living the rock star lifestyle”
…and then we began the session, after my laptop booted up. So we only got through about 6 of the 9 steps. Luckily, Christian Buckley (the band broke up before the session, so he wasn’t there), is starting a blog series at EndUserSharePoint.com here 9 Ways to Become a SharePoint Rock Star, which will cover each of our “9 Ways”.
For some background on “the best fake SharePoint band EVER, EVER”…
and without further ado… the slide deck.
This basically boils down to a best practices around SharePoint development. As well as a fun edu-tainment session with my co-presenter, Mark Rackley. We had a blast, had some good questions, and got through the entire session. Here’s the deck!
And my last session, which after this was delivered, I had to run to the airport to head home. Again, a great session, great questions, and again, finished up on time. I hope to have that Cloudshare virtual image up and running soon.
August 8, 2011 Leave a comment
I have to hand it to the organizers of the event, Becky Isserman (@MossLover), Jason Gallicchio (@PrincetonSUG), Greg Hurlman (@ghurlman), and Tasha Scott (@TashasEv) as well as their volunteers, for putting together once of the best organized SharePoint Saturdays I have been to. Great job! Lots of great sessions, sponsors, and speakers made this quite the memorable event! I was able to connect with old friends, and meet plenty of new ones.
The organizers also did something very special and unique with the speaker, volunteer, and organizer shirts – each of them either had a patch for the NYPD, NY Port Authority, or FDNY, remembering the attacks on the World Trade Center, as in just over a month from now, will be the 10th anniversary of that tragic day, in which thousands of lives were lost. This shirt will be definitely one of the conference shirts that I will be holding on to. There were lots of conversations about that day – the people we knew, where we were, and what we were doing… and how it has affected our lives since.
I had a great time giving my session (once I caught my breath after literally running around right up until the starting bell, searching for a power adapter, as mine would not work!), and had a lot of great questions from the crowd! With that, here are my slides from the event, with one important update – the CloudShare link no longer works… found the expiration notice in my junk mail folder the day after the environment was removed 
I will work on getting a new one up and running within the next couple of weeks – then the link should be functional again.
Thank you all for attending, if you were able to make it. Someone was even there due to my extranets blog post series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), so I know at least once person is reading this!
If you’re in the DC area this week, be sure to catch my session at SharePoint Saturday – The Conference!
July 28, 2011 Leave a comment
If you’ve read my last post on the matter, or, if you are reading this for the first time, or, just do not remember anything I write… the schedule (or “shedjule” if you’re British, or, just are into non-American English dialect), has been posted for SharePoint Saturday – The Conference in (well, near) Washington, D.C.
Find it here: http://www.spstc.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=32
I’ve also copied and pasted it below, saving you a step!
