Speaking at Columbus Dog Food Conference 2010

DF2010-LOGO     On Thursday Nov 4th I will be speaking at the Columbus Dog Food Conference 2010.  My presentation will be on integrating line of business applications with SharePoint 2010.  Click here for registration information.  Be sure to register soon as spots are limited and fill up quickly.  Hope to see you there.

 

Where: Columbus Dog Food Conference 2010

Title: SharePoint 2010 and Integrating Line of Business Applications

Audience and Level: Developer, Beginner/Intermediate

Abstract: “One of the biggest value adding enhancements in SharePoint 2010 is the Business Connectivity Services (BCS).  In this session we’ll overview the BCS, demonstrate connecting line of business applications and external systems to SharePoint through external content types, and walk through surfacing that data with external lists.”

 

-Frog Out

Co-Authoring a Book and Guest Blog Post Coming Soon

    A few posts ago you may have read that I have a few side projects going on that would be taking up my time the next few months.  I can’t give you full details on many of those yet, but I did want to drop a little information as I’ve been getting questions from friends lately.

    The first thing that I’m working on is a writing two chapters for a book coming from a big (at least in the SharePoint world) publisher.  This project came about because of some great connections I’ve made in the SharePoint community through conferences, speaking engagements, user groups, etc.  I don’t have a firm publish date, but I can tell you that this book is exclusively SharePoint 2010 and I’m working with some amazing authors on it.  This is my first crack and writing for a book and it’s been quite a ride so far, especially draining much of that elusive “free time” I thought I would have after SPSColumbus finished.  More details on this later.

    The second thing I was working on (just finished a week ago) is a guest blog post for a fairly big name blog.  I was a bit surprised when the blog owner asked me to write a guest post, but I am honored to submit a post to them.  The subject matter is a really fun idea I had recently that a few people on Twitter recommended I blog about.  Looks like I will get the chance to, just on a much larger distribution than my own blog.  I do know the date that will be published, but I’ll write another post announcing when it actually happens in case dates get shifted for any reason.  You won’t have to wait long for that one though.

    Aside from those 2 big items there are a few other items a little further out that I’m working on.  I have confirmed two new SharePoint 2010 presentations that I’ll be giving for the first time at different conferences in the coming months.  One is on connecting SharePoint 2010 to Line of Business (LOB) applications and the other on the new SharePoint 2010 developer tools.  I’m excited to be creating new presentation materials in these areas.

Conclusion

    Hopefully I’ve answered some questions that I’ve been getting recently or at least given you some insight into what I’m working on currently.  Sorry I can’t give more details but they will come in due time.  Until then happy SharePoint-ing and keep sharing and growing the community.

 

      -Frog Out

Slides and Scripts from BuckeyeSPUG August 2010 Presentation

    This month I had the pleasure of presenting at the BuckeyeSPUG (formerly Central Ohio SPUG) meeting here in Columbus, OH.  This is the first time I was the main presenter at our user group, having done small presentations along with other presenters in past meetings.  The attendees had some great questions and hopefully learned some new tricks to use on their SharePoint 2007 farms.  Thanks to everyone who came out.  Below are the slides and demo scripts for those interested.

 

Slides and Scripts: click here

Recap SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2010 with Slides and Demo Scripts

SharePointSaturdayColumbus     This past Saturday I am very pleased to say that SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2010 (SPSColumbus) was a success.  I’m happy to say that for many reasons, not least amongst 1) I had an awesome team help me plan this event, 2) the session I presented went really well, and 3) the early feedback I’ve gotten from those who attended has been very positive.  This marks the first SharePoint Saturday in Columbus and second in Ohio (SPSCleveland was last Novermber.)  It’s great to see SharePoint Saturdays expanding across the US and now even to Europe (SPSUK).

The Team

I can’t talk about SPSColumbus being a success without mentioning my team.  Jennifer Mason, Sean McDonough, Nicola Young, Michelle Caldwell, Joe Hartsel, and myself have been meeting almost weekly for the past four months to take this event from just an idea in our minds to a complete event.  I can honestly say this event wouldn’t have been a fraction of how great it was without all of their time, hard work, and commitment.  To them a great thanks goes out.

Numbers and Twitter

In terms of numbers we are still tabulating the final results but we had just under 100 attendees, 24 speakers, and about 15 people representing sponsors putting us around 140 total.  This was great to see as past SharePoint events in Columbus draw anywhere from 50-80 attendees.  The twitter traffic and general buzz was really high yesterday which was great to see (SPSColumbus Twitter results.)

Photos, Slides, and Scripts

Aside from ensuring the event ran smoothly throughout the day, I also gave my “Managing SharePoint 2010 Farms with PowerShell” presentation and also snapped a few pics.  Check out Marcy Keller’s first batch of photos here for a much more professional looking album.  Below are my albums (FB and Live), slides, and demo scripts.

 

Facebook album with tagging and captions (click here)

MS Live album, larger size (click below)

 

Slides and demo scripts (click here)

 

Conclusion

SharePoint Saturday Columbus was a big success in my mind and I’m so glad to be a part of it.  It’ll be nice to have part of my daily life back now that the SPSColumbus is completed.  I do have a few other side projects that will continue to keep me busy the next two months, but I’m hoping to keep up with some technical blog posts now that I have a few week break until the next conference I’m speaking at (SPTechCon Boston.)  If you attended SPSColumbus and had any feedback (positive, negative, or otherwise) please feel free to send it my way via email or comment here.  Thanks and happy SharePoint-ing.

 

-Frog Out

Speaking at SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2010 and User Group

Ohio Large resized

This coming Saturday Aug 14th I will be speaking at SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2010 and next Thursday Aug 19th I will be speaking at the local Central Ohio SharePoint User Group (COSPUG) monthly meeting.  If you’ve been following me lately you may have overheard that I’m the lead event coordinator for SharePoint Saturday Columbus.  That alone has consumed almost all of my time for the past 3 months, even more so the last month.  It has truly been a wild ride so far but the event is coming together really well.  I’ll save more about it for my recap post after the event is over.  For now I just wanted to give a quick update about these two speaking engagements (nice to be speaking in-state as opposed to out-of-state the past 8 months.)  Below are the abstracts for my talks.  If you are in the Columbus area feel free to stop on by for either event.  Hope to see you there.

 

Where: SharePoint Saturday Columbus 2010

Title: Managing SharePoint 2010 Farms With PowerShell

Audience and Level: IT Admin, Beginner

Abstract: “Having you been using STSADM (or worse hand editing processes) to manage your SharePoint 2007 farms? Are you hearing about needing to learn PowerShell to manage SharePoint 2010 farms? This session will serve as part introduction to PowerShell and part overview of how you can use PowerShell to more efficiently and effectively manage your SharePoint 2010 farm. This session is targeted to farm administrators and IT pros and no previous experience with PowerShell is required.”

 

Where: Central Ohio SharePoint User Group (COSPUG)

Title: Real-World Deployment of SharePoint 2007 Solutions

Audience and Level: IT Admin, Intermediate

Abstract: “All I have to do is run some STSADM commands to deploy my SharePoint solutions, right?” If you are saying that to yourself, then you are missing out on some of the more advanced processes you can employ to deploy and maintain your SharePoint solutions and farm. In this session, we will cover lessons learned from three years of deploying and automating SharePoint solutions. This will include using a combination of STSADM, PowerShell, SharePoint API and a number of other tools in a real-world situation to deploy an entire suite of custom SharePoint solutions. This session is targeted to farm administrators and developers. Prior experience with SharePoint solutions, STSADM and minimal PowerShell experience is suggested.

 

-Frog Out

 

Links:

State of Ohio Image

http://scrapbookershaven.com/shop/images/Ohio%20Large.png

Recap SharePoint Saturday New York City 2010 with Slides and Demo Scripts

This past weekend I gave my “Managing SharePoint 2010 Farms with PowerShell” talk at SharePoint Saturday New York City (SPSNYC) 2010.  Thanks to everyone that attended my talk.  They had a lot of great questions and seemed engaged.

I’ve begun to lose track of how many SharePoint Saturdays I’ve attended or spoken at now, but it’s close to 9 and 7 respectively.  This was a great trip as it’s been over 10 years since I’ve been to New York and this time around held it’s own set of stories to share.  For those just interested in the slides and demo scripts those are provided just below.  For those interested in some of stories and photos from this trip proceed further down.

Slides and Scripts

Download here

Pictures

Pictures on Facebook (with tagging)

Facebook album

Higher Res pictures on Windows Live album

Stories

One great story from this trip involves my last blog post about blue screening the morning of my presentation.  Luckily I was able to recover within a few hours and give my presentation later in the day.

The first night in New York was also great as we followed up the speaker dinner with a Japanese karaoke house and then Russian bar.  Special thanks to two of our group members who ordered some excellent food and drinks (including caviar and borsch soup.)  That diversity of cultures is something that we here in Columbus, OH don’t get as much exposure to.

Following the conference on Saturday I was able to meet up with an old high school friend who showed me around downtown and east village New York.  The pizza at Lombardi’s (pictures in albums above) was a true highlight of the trip.

The one negative story from the trip (aside from blue screening above) was that I missed out on the speaker photo after the conference.  We assembled for it but then split up to do some clean up.  As I was returning from another room fixing up chair arrangements they just finished up taking the pictures.  Only a minor disappointment.

Conclusion

SharePoint Saturday New York was a big success with over 200 attendees (I heard close to 270).  My next SharePoint Saturday will be in my new hometown for SharePoint Saturday Columbus.  In addition to being the event coordinator I’m also speaking at the conference (same presentation for SharePoint 2010 and PowerShell.)  there is still a week left to register so if you are in the area feel free to sign up: register here.

 

-Frog Out