Registration is now open for the 5th meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint User Group (BASPUG) taking place on September 8th, 2010, at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA, from 6-8PM.

We will have Steven Fowler. He is an author, speaker, consultant, founder and principal of Fowler Consulting, Inc. He will be presenting "Becoming a SharePoint Solution Provider".

Session Abstract

What are the basics when designing and delivering SharePoint based business solutions? How do I approach a business problem? What are the available tools and techniques? In this session we’ve cover the basics and get you pointed in the right direction.

We’ll cover:

• An Overview of Lists and Web Parts
• Site Columns, Content Types, List Definitions
• Using Out of the Box > SharePoint Designer > Visual Studio
• Page Viewer, CQWP, DVWP
• Next Steps

About Steven

Steven Fowler is an experienced author, speaker and consultant possessing a mix of advanced technology and strategic business acumen derived from over 15 years of progressive project management, architecture and engineering experience. Steven has worked with SharePoint since the 2003 versions, and recently completed one of the world’s largest SharePoint implementations for the Department of Defense. 

Steven maintains an active blog at www.SharePointSteven.com, and can be found on Twitter @stevenmfowler.

Sustenance
Food and beverages will be available at the event. After the meeting, depending on interest, we will adjourn to a local watering hole to keep the discussions going.

Meeting Sponsor
Our sponsor for this meeting is Axceler.

Specializing in software for Microsoft SharePoint, Axceler has delivered award winning administration products worldwide since 1994. For Microsoft SharePoint, Axceler offers ControlPoint and, with the recent acquisition of echoTechnology, Davinci Migrator for SharePoint 2010. ControlPoint is the best way to get control over a SharePoint environment and gives SharePoint professionals the ability to manage permissions, copy sites, analyze activity and much more. ControlPoint was recently named the Best SharePoint Product of 2009 by the editors of WindowsITPro. Davinci Migrator for SharePoint 2010 reduces the risk, lowers the overall cost, and shortens the time it takes to complete a SharePoint 2010 migration. Axceler is based in Woburn, MA with offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, and London, UK.

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

• 2 Free passes to the SharePoint Technology Conference ($1295 value/each) 
• 1 License for SharePoint Zip from Black Blade Associates ($2000 value)
• 1 2009 SharePoint Conference Content Pass (access to all slide decks and recorded presentations – $500 Value)
• 1 Licenses for BCS MetaMan from Lightning Tools ($1200 value)
• And more!

For more information, and to register, please visit http://www.bostonsharepointug.org/

Please help spread the word on twitter, blogs, and by any other medium! Follow us on twitter at @BASPUG, and by twitter hashtag #BASPUG. Join our LinkedIn group here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468

We hope to see you there!

Registration is now open for the 4th meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint User Group (BASPUG) taking place on August 11th, 2010, at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA, from 6-8PM.

We will have Asif Rehmani, a SharePoint Trainer, MVP, and Consultant, will be presenting "Creating Workflows with SharePoint Designer 2010, InfoPath and Visio".

Session Abstract
Forms and Workflows are important for automating business processes. Companies usually rely on programmers to create the forms and workflows using code. Not anymore! With InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create powerful data driven form composite solutions on your SharePoint sites. InfoPath gives you the ability to pull data from databases and lists, and create forms with data validation and conditional formatting. SharePoint Designer’s workflows let you then design powerful multi-step workflows centered around the form collected data, building upon the out-of-the-box reusable workflows and even import workflow designs from Visio!  In this presentation, you will see how these tools come together to design workflows and route forms across your organization for task assignment and approval.

About Asif
Asif has been training and consulting on primarily SharePoint technologies since 2004. He is a SharePoint Server MVP and MCT. Asif runs a SharePoint Videos website (http://www.sharepoint-videos.com) which provides SharePoint, SharePoint Designer and InfoPath Video Tutorials. Some of his videos have also been published at Microsoft’s TechNet site. Asif also provides in-person and online SharePoint training publicly and in private workshops through Critical Path Training (http://www.criticalpathtraining.com).

Over the years, Asif has been a speaker on SharePoint topics at several conferences including Microsoft’s TechEd, SharePoint Conference, SharePoint Connections, and Advisor Live. He is the co-author of the book "Professional SharePoint Designer 2007" by Wrox publications (http://tinyurl.com/8tdsoq) and is currently working on two more book projects. Asif was the co-founder and is currently one of the active leaders of the Chicago SharePoint User Group (http://www.cspug.org)

For a more detailed bio, please visit http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/about/.
You can reach Asif at: asif@sharepointelearning.com.

Food will be provided for free as well from Source Consulting.

For raffles this meeting, Black Blade Associates will be raffling off a license for their SharePoint Zip product. Lightning Tools will be raffling off a license for BCS Meta Man. We will also be raffling off one free 2009 SharePoint Conference content pass, as well as X-Box Games, Books, Shirts, and more!

For more information, and to register, please visit http://www.bostonsharepointug.org/

Please help spread the word on twitter, blogs, and by any other medium! Follow us on twitter at @BASPUG, and by twitter hashtag #BASPUG. Join our LinkedIn group here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468

We hope to see you there!

Registration is now open for the 3rd meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint User Group (BASPUG) taking place on July 14th, 2010, at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA, from 6-8PM.

We will have Bob German, a Technology Architect with Microsoft, presenting "Developing Great Solutions with SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight”.

Session Abstract
SharePoint and Silverlight make an unbeatable combination for building great web applications. In this session, you will learn how to develop these solutions more easily than ever with Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint’s new client object model and REST services. We’ll begin with an empty Visual Studio project and show how to get started, and then move on to topics such as how to deal with large datasets, out-of-browser support, building mash-ups and more.

About Bob
Bob German is a Technology Architect at the Microsoft Technology Center in Boston, MA. Bob specializes in web sites, portals and collaboration technologies, including Microsoft SharePoint and related technologies. With over 30 years of industry experience, Bob helps customers create and prove out solutions which fit their business and technology needs.

Food will be provided for free as well!

For raffles this meeting, Black Blade Associates will be raffling off a license for their SharePoint Zip product. Lightning Tools will be raffling off a license for BCS Meta Man. We will also be raffling off one free 2009 SharePoint Conference content pass, as well as X-Box Games, Books, Shirts, and more!

For more information, and to register, please visit http://www.bostonsharepointug.org/

Please help spread the word on twitter, blogs, and by any other medium! Follow us on twitter at @BASPUG, and by twitter hashtag #BASPUG. Join our LinkedIn group here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468

We hope to see you there!

Unfortunately, Craig Pilkenton was called out of town for a long term client engagement, and will be unable to present at our June 9th meeting on PowerShell. In an effort to keep our meeting at the administration level – we will be welcoming in Ryan Sockalosky, a SharePoint Technology Specialist from Microsoft to present "SharePoint 2010 Service Applications – A New Shared Services Architecture".

Session Abstract
SharePoint 2010 introduces a new services architecture that represent a major change in architecture and design considerations as well as enhanced capabilities scalability, and extensibility over the Shared Service Provider (SSP) of MOSS 2007. This session will provide an overview of the services architecture, the services shipped with the product, how to manage and administer the services, topology considerations as well as considerations for extending service applications.

About Ryan
Ryan Sockalosky works at Microsoft as a SharePoint Technology Specialist. He works with customers to explore how the SharePoint platform can be used to achieve  business and technology needs. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ryan worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers for over 10 years building repeatable client solutions on the Microsoft platform in areas such as finance, tax, cost reduction, M&A and mutual fund accounting across multiple industries. His role included national leadership for SharePoint strategy planning, system architecture, and solution design.

For more information, and to register, please visit http://www.bostonsharepointug.org/

Please help spread the word on twitter, blogs, and by any other medium! Follow us on twitter at @BASPUG, and by twitter hashtag #BASPUG. Join our LinkedIn group here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468

Registration is now open for the meeting of the Boston Area SharePoint User Group (BASPUG) taking place on June 9, 2010, at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA, from 6-8PM.

We will have Craig Pilkenton, a Senior SharePoint Consultant with EMC, presenting “SharePoint 2010 Administration with Windows PowerShell”.

Food will be provided for free for the BASPUG from AvePoint.

For raffles this meeting, Black Blade Associates will be raffling off a license for their SharePoint Zip product. Lightning Tools will be raffling off 2 licenses for BCS Meta Man. We will also be raffling off one free 2009 SharePoint Conference content pass, as well as X-Box Games, Books, Shirts, and more!

For more information, and to register, please visit http://www.bostonsharepointug.org/

Please help spread the word on twitter, blogs, and by any other medium! Follow us on twitter at @BASPUG, and by twitter hashtag #BASPUG. Join our LinkedIn group here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468 

We hope to see you there!

I am pleased to announce that we have opened up registration for the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group inaugural meeting, being held on May 12th, 2010 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA.

Chris Bortlik, a SharePoint Technology Specialist with Microsoft, will be presenting a session to kick off the user group, as well as coinciding with the official launch of Office and SharePoint 2010, also taking place on May 12th, “Introducing SharePoint 2010”. Come and learn more about the new product, network with others, enjoy some free food, and participate in the free raffle!

Please sign up today by visiting http://www.bostonsharepointug.org and clicking on the Register Now link on the site, or, right here: http://baspug51210.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount

Fore more information on this event, and the group itself, please head on over to http://www.bostonsharepointug.org.

Also, please help us spread the word! Follow us on twitter @BASPUG and by using the hash-tag #BASPUG. We also have a group on LinkedIn.

We look forward to seeing you there!

I mentioned yesterday about the Boston Area SharePoint Users Group that we are putting together, however, I wanted to fully dedicate a blog post to it, and use this as a placeholder until we have the actual website up and running, so, if you came to http://www.bostonsharepointug.org, then you probably got directed to this post. Welcome!

The Boston Area SharePoint Users Group was founded by Geoff Varosky of Grace-Hunt, Ryan Tacy of AvePoint, Eugene Rosenfeld of Black Blade Associates, and Talbott Crowell of ThirdM. We wanted 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, to share their knowledge with the community. We meet on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA.

We are currently in the process of developing the real website, so, stay tuned here for more information, as well as @BASPUG on twitter, for more up to date information regarding the Users Group.

INAUGURAL MEETING
We will be holding our first meeting on May 12th, 2010, from 6pm – 8pm EST at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center. Our speaker will be Chris Bortlik of Microsoft, presenting “Introducing SharePoint 2010”. Our first meeting will also coincide with the official launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Watch the live launch event during the day, and come and see SharePoint 2010 in action at night!

A little bit about Chris…
Chris Bortlik works at Microsoft as a SharePoint technology specialist. He works with Enterprise customers and partners in the Northeast in a pre-sales technical role. Chris speaks frequently at Microsoft events (including the SharePoint Conference) and is a contributing author of the upcoming "Essential SharePoint 2010" book. He also publishes a blog on TechNet at: http://blogs.technet.com/cbortlik/  Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, Chris was a customer for 14 years working in technical IT architect, development and management roles – primarily leading .NET and SharePoint related projects.

SUSTENANCE
Food for our inaugural meeting, as well as the first few meetings, will be sponsored by AvePoint. The meetings will also not stop to a dead halt at 8pm, that is just when we need to be out of the facility. After the user group meetings, we will most likely announce and adjourn to a local watering hole, to continue on our discussions and networking, which may or may not be sponsored.

RAFFLE PRIZES
We will be handing out raffle tickets at the BASPUG meetings (when we have items to raffle that is!). 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!

We will also be working with some publishers as well to extend discounts, be able to raffle off free books, and more, to the members of the BASPUG.

FREQUENCY
The BASPUG will meet on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, from 6pm to 8pm EST, starting May 12th, 2010.

LOCATION
We will be meeting at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center, located in Cambridge, MA. For more information on the facility, as well as directions, please visit here: http://microsoftcambridge.com/About/Directions/tabid/89/Default.aspx

LINKED IN
Join our group on LinkedIn today to connect with the rest of the BASPUG members, and spread the word! http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2878468

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

INTERESTED IN SPEAKING OR SPONSORING?
Contact us at info@bostonsharepointug.org today!