Upcoming Speaking Engagements

January 11, 2011 Leave a comment

Wow, it’s been a busy few weeks, and lots of acceptances and confirmations have come through over the past couple of weeks, enough so that I have not been able to get out posts for each one. So, I thought I would cover a few bases at once, and get all of these out there. I also keep an updated speaking and event calendar hosted here: https://gvaro.wordpress.com/calendar/.

 

January, 2011

  • January 22, 2011: SharePoint Saturday EMEA – Live, Online
    • Presenting “The Ribbon UI and Custom Actions in SharePoint 2010”
  • January 29 2011: SharePoint Saturday Hartford – Bloomfield, CT
    • Presenting “Creating Custom Actions in SharePoint 2010”
    • Co-Presenting with Tim Farrell “Producing a Custom Solution from the Ground Up”

February, 2011

March, 2011

April, 2011

June, 2011

 

More events that I will be involved with, either through sponsoring, hosting, presenting, organizing, or other ways over the next few months are below.

Filed under Events Tagged with , ,

Speaking at SPSEMEA on January 22, 2011

January 4, 2011 Leave a comment

imageFound out a few moments ago that I am officially slated to present at SharePoint Saturday EMEA.

 

What is SharePoint Saturday EMEA?

SharePoint Saturday EMEA is a loosely knit group of SharePoint evangelists from around the world. We are working together, using SharePoint as a collaboration tool to sponsor live, online global events.

On January 22nd, 2011, we will hold our 2nd annual, live online SharePoint Saturday event in the EMEA Timezones.

Oh, and it’s free.

 

What will I be presenting?

The Ribbon UI and Custom Actions in SharePoint 2010

Custom Actions control features in SharePoint such as the List Item Menu, the Site Actions menu, toolbars, and the links within the Site Settings page, as well as the Ribbon UI in SharePoint 2010.

Learn how to leverage Custom Actions to extend the SharePoint User Interface. This session will describe the basics of Custom Actions, demonstrations to build and apply them in SharePoint as they relate to our lists using SharePoint Designer 2010, as well as provide resources for additional information.

Where can I find more information on SPS EMEA?

Right here: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/emea/

Filed under EMEA, Events, SharePoint Saturday Tagged with , , , , ,

Registration open for Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on 1/12/11

December 16, 2010 Leave a comment

BASPUG_195square_initialsRegistration is now open for the January 12th, 2011 meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group, at the Microsoft NERD center in Cambridge, MA.

PRESENTER
Our presenter for our next meeting is Scott Jamison, Managing Partner at Jornata. He will be presenting "SharePoint 2010 Usage and Adoption Best Practices".

SESSION ABSTRACT
This session will cover best practices for usage and adoption of SharePoint 2010. We’ll answer questions for both the SharePoint adoption team and users alike….

For the adoption team:

• How can I get my employees excited about using this new collaboration technology (champions, incentives)? 
• How do I make sure all the employees in my organization understand and feel comfortable using SharePoint?
• How can I make sure that SharePoint fits into existing business processes, and makes people’s jobs easier? 
• How do I manage the behavioral change required to integrate SharePoint into the way people work?

For users:

• What collaboration methods and site templates are most appropriate for which types of situations?
• What should I ask myself before setting up a SharePoint site? 
• How should I manage content? 
• What should I think about when tagging? 
• Etiquette for social interactions?

About Scott
Scott is Managing Partner and CEO of Jornata, a Boston-based Gold Partner and SharePoint consulting firm. Scott is a world-renowned expert on knowledge worker technologies and collaborative solutions and is an experienced leader with almost 20 years directing managers and technology professionals to deliver a wide range of business solutions for customers. Scott is a recognized thought leader and published author with several books, including Essential SharePoint 2007 and Essential SharePoint 2010. Scott received his master’s degree in Computer Science from Boston University, with post-graduate work at Bentley’s McCallum Graduate School of Business.  Scott is a SharePoint Certified Master.

MEETING SPONSOR
TBA

SUSTENANCE
Food and beverages will be provided at the event.

RAFFLE PRIZES
We will be handing out raffle tickets at the BASPUG meeting for the following items.

LOCATION
We will be meeting at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, located in Cambridge, MA. For more information on the facility, as well as directions, please visit here: http://www.microsoftcambridge.com

LINKED IN
Join our group on LinkedIn today to connect with the rest of the BASPUG members, and spread the word!

FACEBOOK
We are also on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Boston-Area-SharePoint-User-Group/113652405354617

TWITTER
Follow news about the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on twitter by following us @BASPUG, and by using the hashtag #BASPUG

WEB
Visit the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group website at http://www.bostonsharepointug.org

ORGANIZERS
Event meetings are organized by Geoff Varosky of Grace-Hunt, Eugene Rosenfeld of Black Blade Associates, Ryan Tacy of HP, and Talbott Crowell of Third Millenium.

Filed under BASPUG, Events Tagged with , , , , ,

Speaking at SharePoint Saturday Hartford – 2011

December 10, 2010 Leave a comment

I found out this afternoon from Pradeepa Siva (@PipsTips), that I will be having two sessions at SharePoint Saturday Hartford! SharePoint Saturday Hartford will be taking place just outside Hartford, on January 29th, 2011. The other details have been kept secret up until this point… maybe we’ll host it inside an abandoned submarine in the middle of downtown Hartford? Or even better yet, the HARTFORD CIVIC CENTER! I hope I can do my session in the locker room of the Big Whale. That would rock. Being a hockey-playing Western-Massian, I love The Whale.

I will be there in my HFD Whaler’s shirt no doubt – so please Pradeepa, don’t bother ordering me a speaker shirt Smile

Oh – wait – what sessions am I doing might be good information to give out here…

Creating Custom Actions in SharePoint 2010

And, I will also be delivering, with one of my esteemed colleagues, Tim Farrell –

Producing a Custom Solution from the Ground Up

Should be a great event, and I am definitely looking forward to it!

Filed under Hartford, SharePoint Saturday Tagged with , , , , ,

What’s that? You missed a Week3 Presentation??

November 24, 2010 Leave a comment

Please, have no fear. In fact, instead of sitting on the couch, attempting to overcome your Turkey, Turducken (I could be so lucky…) or Tofurkey coma on Friday and over the weekend, it may be a good time to pick out the bits of cranberry sauce from your keyboard, and head on over to http://www.Week3.org, and catch some recorded webinars from Week3, specifically, at this page here: http://www.week3.org/Pages/Sessions.aspx

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What is Week3? (Hint: it takes place on the 3rd week of the month…)

Week3 hosts webinar sessions on various relevant topics, using real-world information and case studies, during the third week of the month. We are sponsored by a team of companies that are dedicated to giving back to the collaborative community.

  • Monthly sessions are not “infomercials” or product promotions in disguise.
  • Our goal is to maintain a business focus around collaboration technologies.
  • We provide grounded, real-world information and case studies.

We encourage your suggestions and ideas to make sure Week3 sessions meet your need for balanced collaboration technology information.

There is some excellent content up there, that is not all developer or administrator focused, there is a high amount of business user content up there as well.

With that, be sure to sign up for the January Week3 event (we’re taking December off), where Grace-Hunt’s own Charlie Delong and Mike Davenport will be presenting: What is SharePoint 2010 and how can it help my Organization?

Currently there is a lot of buzz around SharePoint 2010 and all the great things it can do to help your Organization.  Join us and see real world examples of how SharePoint can enhance business process, streamline communications, and increase collaboration within your teams.  Through the context of these examples you will also be introduced some of the new features and functionality of SharePoint 2010.  If you can identify a particular pain point within your organization you will have a compelling argument to initiate a SharePoint project to improve your Organization.  These real world examples will help focus your project and send you down the path of  a successful deployment.  Your competitors are doing it why shouldn’t you?

For more information, and to sign up, visit: http://www.week3.org/Lists/Sessions/DispForm.aspx?ID=67

Filed under Events, Week3 Tagged with , ,

New England IT Community Leaders Meetup

November 24, 2010 Leave a comment

image

A big thanks goes out to Dan Stolts for organizing this gathering yesterday at the Microsoft office in Waltham. We had over 20 people in attendance on Tuesday afternoon, both physically there, as well as remote, connected via Microsoft Lync. What was this “gathering of the minds” you ask? Well, we had a great mixed audience, of those that run the BUG (Boston User Groups) site, Windows and Unix System Admins who run local User Groups, MVPs, Virtualization User Group organizers, and of course some representation for the local SharePoint Saturday Boston, SharePoint Saturday Hartford, and the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group. I had the chance to put some faces to some names, as well as walked away, and hopefully imparted, a wealth of knowledge on how we can make the community as a whole grow, as well as our user groups and community events.

Some background information on the meetup group… (copied from: http://www.meetup.com/NELeaders/about/)

The purpose of the group is to offer a central place for Information Technology Community Leaders to network, collaborate and share ideas. While the main purpose of the group is for Information Technology Community Leaders, other community leaders will also be welcome. Some examples of Information Technology Community Leaders include:

    Who Should Join?

  • User Group Leaders (Presidents, Board Members, Leaders, etc)
  • MVP – Most Valuable Professional (Microsoft MVP)
  • Influential Bloggers and Forum Participants
  • MCT – Microsoft Certified Trainers (and other trainers too)
  • Other people in the technology industry that help the broader online or in person community

The scope of this group initially is the New England and Upstate NY territory.
Who started this group and why?
Dan Stolts started the group. Dan has been very involved with the technology community for more than a dozen years. He is founder of Virtualization Group Boston (www.virtg.com) former president of Boston Area Windows Server User Group (www.WindowsBoston.com) and current president of Boston User Groups (www.BostonUserGroups.org). He owns a technology consulting and hosting firm (www.BayStateTechnology.com) and works for Microsoft as the North East District IT Pro Evangelist. Dan has been looking for a way to bring the many community leaders he knows together to share ideas. In his capacity at Microsoft he has had several gatherings of community leaders and in all cases there was a call out by many to do this more often. This group is the answer to those requests. Additionally, as the Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist for the North East territory, Dan wanted to have a monthly gathering of local user group leaders and MVP’s. This group is a perfect fit to bring these groups together to network, share ideas and collaborate.
To kick this group off we will have our first event be a discussion about what this community would like to see / achieve when they get together. If you would like to contribute or stay on the list but do not want to make your involvement known publicly, please email Dan Stolts http://danstolts.com/… directly and he will keep you in the loop.

Dan, and the other local evangelists at Microsoft do a great job at bringing the community together, and this was no different. We were able to hear how others “get people in seats”, as well as share information. If anything, myself, Ryan Tacy, and Talbott Crowell, walked away with some great ideas, new local contacts, and more, that we can in turn share back with the community as a whole. I look forward to more meetings like this, and hope other local voices in the community begin to attend these gatherings.

For more information, head on over to http://www.neleaders.com.

Dan – also, great job on keeping us on track, and in line Smile

Filed under Events, NEITCL Tagged with , , , ,

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Firestarter Event in Waltham, MA.

November 23, 2010 Leave a comment

image

I was at a “User Group for User Groups” (VERY simplified version – more on that to come soon!), and found out from our local Microsoft Evangelists, Chris Bowen and Dan Stolts, that there are some great local Firestarter events. These are described, on the site, as “Heat up your skills with the all-new Firestarter event series. Each day tackles a single Microsoft technology, including free sessions presented live by Microsoft developer and IT pro evangelists and technology specialists – with special appearances from community luminaries. Attend in person, via live meeting or download the webcast at your convenience.”

I am always interested into attending and participating in any event around SharePoint, especially if they are local, so, I wanted to help spread the word about this particular one. There are Firestarter events for Azure, Windows 7, ASP.NET, Windows Phone 7, and Silverlight. Basically, all of the new good things that have come out from Microsoft recently.

So, head on over to http://www.msdnevents.com/firestarter/ for more information and to register. And, if you are not in the Boston Area, they are happening elsewhere too. If you are in the Boston area, well then maybe I will see you there! Oh, and it takes place on December 2nd at the Microsoft Waltham office.

Filed under Events, Microsoft Tagged with , , ,

Registration open for Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on 12/8/10

November 22, 2010 Leave a comment

BASPUG_100square_initialsRegistration is now open for the December 8th, 2010 meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group, back again on our home turf at the Microsoft NERD center in Cambridge, MA.

 

PRESENTER

Our presenter for our next meeting Is Marc Anderson, President and Founder of Sympraxis Consulting. He will be presenting "Developing in SharePoint’s Middle Tier".

SESSION ABSTRACT

While most of the market focus in SharePoint development lies with .NET skills and techniques, there is a rich middle ground which has been rapidly gathering a following. Developing in the Middle Tier with SharePoint Designer, Data View Web Parts (DVWPs), jQuery, and the SharePoint Web Services using SPServices, you can build rich solutions with no risk of deploying managed code to your SharePoint servers. 

In this session, Marc will show examples of Middle Tier development techniques and answer your questions about when Middle Tier development may prove to be a highly viable alternative to traditional .NET development.

About Marc

Marc is the Co-Founder and President of Sympraxis Consulting LLC, located in the Boston suburb of Newton, Mass. He has more than 25 years of experience in technology, professional services, and software development. Marc is the developer of the jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services (aka SPServices) and a faculty member at the USPJ Academy focused on Middle Tier Development with SharePoint. Read Marc’s blog at http://sympmarc.com.


MEETING SPONSOR
TBA

SUSTENANCE
Food and beverages will be provided at the event.

RAFFLE PRIZES

We will be handing out raffle tickets at the BASPUG meeting for the following items.

LOCATION
We will be meeting at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, located in Cambridge, MA. For more information on the facility, as well as directions, please visit here: http://www.microsoftcambridge.com

LINKED IN
Join our group on LinkedIn today to connect with the rest of the BASPUG members, and spread the word!

FACEBOOK

We are also on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Boston-Area-SharePoint-User-Group/113652405354617

TWITTER
Follow news about the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on twitter by following us @BASPUG, and by using the hashtag #BASPUG

WEB

Visit the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group website at http://www.bostonsharepointug.org

ORGANIZERS

Event meetings are organized by Geoff Varosky of Grace-Hunt, Eugene Rosenfeld of Black Blade Associates, Ryan Tacy of HP, and Talbott Crowell of Third Millenium.

Filed under BASPUG, Events Tagged with , , , ,

SharePoint Saturday Boston #3 Webinar Series Recordings

November 7, 2010 Leave a comment

altGood evening! We announced this on Friday during Richard Harbridge’s webinar on Friday, and I also wanted to push this out here. We have been recording the webinar series, and are now posting the recorded videos of the presentations by our great presenters, at the SharePoint Saturday Boston webinar series page here: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/boston/Pages/SPSBos3WebinarSeries.aspx

Within a week after each session, barring any unforeseen obstacles (acts of god, clients, etc.), I will get these up and posted for everyone.

Please, also, let us know what you think of the webinar series! Either in my blog here, via e-mail at SPSBoston@live.com, or, on Twitter – use hashtag #SPSBos or tweet us directly @SPSBoston

Thank you!

Filed under Events, SharePoint Saturday Tagged with , , , , ,

Registration open for Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on 11/10/10

October 28, 2010 Leave a comment

BASPUG_195square_initials

Registration is now open for the November 10th, 2010 meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group, back again on our home turf at the Microsoft NERD center in Cambridge, MA.

PRESENTERS

Our presenters for our next meeting are Richard Harbridge, a Senior SharePoint Evangelist at Allin Consulting, and Mark Bramhall, CTO at Allin Consulting. They will be presenting "SharePoint 2010 Integration and Interoperability: What you need to know".

Session Abstract

There are countless challenges when dealing with business data. A few of note are:

  • Higher Overhead for IT to Service User Requests
  • Multiple Places to Search Results in Reduced Applicable Contexts
  • Multiple Places to Administer, Manage, and Maintain
  • High Data Integration Costs (100% Custom and Often One Offs)
  • Silos or Islands of Business Data Lead to Redundant Data or Processes
  • Multiple Interfaces Creates User Dissatisfaction and Increased Training Costs

Microsoft SharePoint is a platform than can help significantly reduce the challenges mentioned above by using an interoperable platform of connected services. In our session we will explore SharePoint’s new Interoperability underpinnings as well as the BCS to determine how they can be leveraged effectively in real world scenarios.

What we will be talking about:

  • SharePoint’s Important Interoperability
  • What is the BCS?
    • External Content Types
    • External Columns
    • External Lists
    • Extensibility and Tooling
  • Other Ways SharePoint Leverages the BCS
  • Demonstration of BCS
  • The Limitations of BCS

About Richard

Over the past 7 years I have had the pleasure of working extensively with SharePoint as an end user, developer, administrator, architect, business analyst, and consultant. In this time I defined, architected, developed, and implemented well over a hundred SharePoint solutions from small implementations of WSS on a single server, to 80,000+ user implementations in international organizations.
About Mark

Mark has over 40 years’ experience in Information Technology. As Chief Technology Officer, Mark is responsible for the evaluation and implementation of new technologies as well as being a core member of development teams that build client systems.  He has helped client’s assemble and deploy large, distributed application systems in the fields of healthcare, finance, distance learning, and entertainment.


MEETING SPONSOR
TBA

SUSTENANCE
Food and beverages will be provided at the event.

 

RAFFLE PRIZES
We will be handing out raffle tickets at the BASPUG meetings.

Black Blade Associates will be raffling off a license, valued at $2000 for their SharePoint Zip product, at each and every meeting of the BASPUG!

Lightning Tools will also be raffling off a license for their BCS MetaMan product. Lighning Tools has also stepped up to provide this as a raffle item at each of our meetings!

We also have books, XBOX Games, T-Shirts, and more!

 

LOCATION
We will be meeting at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, located in Cambridge, MA. For more information on the facility, as well as directions, please visit here: http://www.microsoftcambridge.com

 

LINKED IN
Join our group on LinkedIn today to connect with the rest of the BASPUG members, and spread the word!

 

FACEBOOK

We are also on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Boston-Area-SharePoint-User-Group/113652405354617

 

TWITTER
Follow news about the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group on twitter by following us @BASPUG, and by using the hashtag #BASPUG

 

WEB

Visit the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group website at http://www.bostonsharepointug.org

 

ORGANIZERS

Event meetings are organized by Geoff Varosky of Grace-Hunt, Eugene Rosenfeld of Black Blade Associates, Ryan Tacy of HP, and Talbott Crowell of Third Millenium.

Filed under BASPUG, SharePoint Tagged with , ,

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