Wow. What a week! It’s been a while since I have been able to make it out to the Best Practices Conference. The last time I was there was back in San Diego last year. After coming back from that conference last year, I knew that I wanted to get more involved with the SharePoint community, as well as get a chance to speak at the BPC down the road. Those goals were based on both the content, and the conversations that took place at the conference.

I sat in on Christian Buckley’s session (ok, so I may be in the slide deck… but even being sick – which he was – and is a fantastic presenter, and he delivers great content) He was talking about data within an organization, specifically the conversations around content – a project, for example – which are as important, if not more important, than the content itself. I feel the same way regarding conferences. Yes – the content there was top-notch, and a lot of great information was given, however, the conversations that happen within sessions, and, outside of the session rooms, is where the real magic happens.

I am lucky to be part of a community that is so enthusiastic, not just about a product, but, what they do. I’ve made some great friends in the SharePoint community, who I know and trust, even after a few meetings, and it is this passion that everyone in the community has, that made me want to be a part of it, and I am happy I took the steps to do so, starting out with speaking at SharePoint Saturday Boston in March of 2009.

With that being said – it was a great conference, again. Great job by Bill, Meryl, and the rest of the team that ran the show, and thanks again for letting me be a part of it.

Below is the slide deck from the session that I did with Mark Rackley.

SharePoint Customization: Overcoming Hurdles and Avoiding Pain

Presenters: Mark Rackley and Geoff Varosky
Duration: 60 – 75 minutes
Audience: Developer

Abstract: "Why am I getting a security error?" "Why does my code work sometimes, but not others?" "I wonder if McDonalds is hiring." Writing custom code in SharePoint opens up unlimited possibilities but also throws many hurdles in your way that will slow you down if you don’t take them into account. So, before giving up and searching for careers in the fast food industry, equip yourself with the knowledge you need to succeed in writing custom code for SharePoint.

In this session you will learn:

• Best practices for avoiding performance issues
• Best practices for avoiding memory leaks
• Best practices for elevating privileges
• Avoid not disposing of SP Objects

Looking through my posts recently, I notice I had left out a major conference! The Best Practices Conference in Washington, D.C.!

 
In any event – my co-presenter Mark Rackley did a good write up about it here: http://www.sharepointhillbilly.com/archive/2010/08/03/the-truth-behind-sharepoint-best-practices.aspx and more information on the conference can be found here: http://www.bestpracticesconference.com

This is one of the biggest SharePoint related conferences of the year. And as luck has it, they usually have one on the east coast (D.C.) and on the west coast (San Francisco). So, which ever one you are closest to, and you are involved in SharePoint, you should be attending. There are many great speakers and sessions available on all sorts of SharePoint topics, centering around best practices. Even if you only learn one thing (and you are bound to learn a LOT more than that), it is worth the conference price alone.

While you’re there, be sure to drop into the session I am co-presenting with Mark – “SharePoint Customization: Overcoming Hurdles and Avoiding Pain”.

Abstract: "Why am I getting a security error?" "Why does my code work sometimes, but not others?" "I wonder if McDonalds is hiring." Writing custom code in SharePoint opens up unlimited possibilities but also throws many hurdles in your way that will slow you down if you don’t take them into account. So, before giving up and searching for careers in the fast food industry, equip yourself with the knowledge you need to succeed in writing custom code for SharePoint.

In this session you will learn:

• Best practices for avoiding performance issues
• Best practices for avoiding memory leaks
• Best practices for elevating privileges
• Avoid not disposing of SP Objects

Should be a hoot!

So – go ahead and register while there is still time, and we’ll see you in D.C.!

Day 2 at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference was another great one. Today, the tracks I attended were more on the technical and development side of things, starting off the day with the first part of Best Practices for Implementing Kerberos in a SharePoint Environment (and ended the day today with the second part of this session), put on by Spence Harbar and Bob Fox, the main takeaway from these sessions was this – kerberos configuration is very simple. This was a refreshing take on kerberos, as if you have ever attempted to setup kerberos (and not just for SharePoint), there is a lot of information out there that can be confusing, and down right wrong. Spence should be posting the slide deck today from their two sessions up on his blog at some point, so keep an eye out there for it.

The second session of the day was Data Protection, Recovery, and Availability, put on once again by Mike Watson and Ben Curry. This session not only focused on DR and HA as it relates to SharePoint, but also DR and HA in general. A highly informative session with some great information pruned from the best of the best in DR (Mike Watson will be teaching the DR portion of the Microsoft Certified Master program for SharePoint).

After a bit of a break for lunch, I attended the Agile SharePoint development with Scrum session hosted by Andrew Woodward of 21apps.com. This session was an excellent and informative introduction into Agile development practices using the Scrum methodology.

Another short break, and I was found attending Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Lifecycle Management Demofest: Methodologies, Tools, and Best Practices hosted by Rick Taylor. Rick reviewed some great tools for use with WSS and MOSS for managing, monitoring, and configuring SharePoint environments that he has worked on with Microsoft.

And as mentioned at the beginning of this post, my day ended with the second part of the Kerberos session. Now, I will be heading out shortly from my hotel to join the speakers and attendees of the conference at the unofficial SharePoint By Day, SharePint By Night event @ the La Jolla Brew House in, La Jolla, orchestrated by Andrew Woodward.

I am in beautiful, sunny San Diego this week for the 2009 US SharePoint Best Practices Conference. Yesterday the festivities were kicked off by an introduction to the conference by Bill English of Mindsharp, and then Joel Oleson started things off on the right foot with a short version of his session to be held later in the day “What the SharePoint Owners Manual Won’t Tell You… Avoiding Failed Deployments and Chaos”. It was a great start to the conference.

Following the keynote and introduction to the conference, I attended Mark Schneider’s session – “How to Develop a Taxonomy Plan”. Mark’s session was highly informative, and a great introduction to taxonomy.

I took the time around lunch to mingle with some of the exhibitors at the conference, and to get a read of what hot new products are being offered for SharePoint, and to meet some great people. There are some great 3rd party tools out there that I had no idea existed, and hope to leverage some of those in the future to fill some gaps that are inherently within the product.

I then attended Mike Watson (The SharePoint Mad Scientist) and Ben Curry’s session regarding Capacity Planning and Performance. These guys definitely know their stuff, and I took away quite a bit from the session.

To end the sessions for the day, I went to two back-to-back sessions by Bob Mixon regarding Taxonomy, and how to relate and apply taxonomy to SharePoint – “Learn Why Taxonomies are the Most Important Part of any Document or Information Asset Management System”. Once again, as seems to be the theme, I learned a lot from one of the masters, and enjoyed the sessions.

All of the presenters here definitely know their material inside and out, and are the best in their respective sections of the “SharePoint Pie”

I am part of the way through day 2 of the conference, and am excited for the rest of the sessions I will be attending today and tomorrow.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be attending the SharePint event taking place at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference in San Diego, but I will also be attending the main event, the SharePoint Best Practices Conference.

I am looking forward to attending and going to soak up some of the loads of information to be absorbed at the conference, as well as meet and mingle with other like-minded individuals that will be presenting and attending. To see all the great sessions that will be taking place, be sure to visit the agenda page at the SharePoint Best Practices Conference website by visiting this link: http://www.sharepointbestpractices.com/agenda

Be sure to keep an eye on my blog here during and after the conference, as I will be reporting back with information regarding the sessions and the event itself during my time out there.

I look forward to seeing some of you there!

If you’re planning on going to the SharePoint Best Practices Conference in San Diego this February, be sure to attend the SharePoint by Day, SharePint by Night event taking place at the La Jolla Brew House starting around 7pm on February 3rd.

Two of my favorite things combined, I’ll definitely be in attendance. Hope to see you all there!