Thoughts on SharePoint Saturday DC
Thoughts on SharePoint Saturday DC
I do a lot of speaking engagements in the SharePoint Community… everything from large conferences to small users groups, trying to get and keep people excited about SharePoint. What happened in Annandale, VA. this weekend during SharePoint Saturday DC was outside the norm and raises the bar for future events of this type.
It wasn’t just the number of people who attended (over 900) or the number of speakers at the speaker dinner on Friday night (over 80) or the number of presentations delivered on Saturday (over 90). As Jen, one of the coordinators of the event said when talking to me about the number of sessions, "The system wasn’t meant to hold this number of presentations."
The main stand out point for me is how the SharePoint Community in the DC area didn’t just participate in the event, but volunteered to help in anyway they could. It was impossible to turn around and not see an "Orange Shirt" offering help, cleaning up, passing out swag bags, doing the little things that make an event flow smoothly.
A free event of this size is unprecedented in the SharePoint Community.
Imagine trying to coordinate the stuffing of 1000 swag bags with vendor flyers, swag cups and keychains. How do you order lunch for 1000 and not run out of food or beverage? How do you coordinate and accommodate the schedule for 80 presenters? Who tells the volunteers what needs to be done? How do you coordinate a check-in system for 900 attendees and not have people standing in line for hours at a time.
What does it take to organize a single day event of this size without having the entire system implode on itself?
The credit must come from leadership. There has to be a strong direction and focus that comes from the top. I know there were lots of people working on this event, but credit must be given to Dux for stepping up and saying, "Yes, we’re going to do this thing and we’re going to do it in the biggest way possible."
There was never any doubt in my mind that the DC crew would pull off the event, but the enormity of the task didn’t hit me until I saw the amount of swag bags that were leaning up against the wall and stacked in piles in the speaker room. I honestly didn’t know what they were for until I walked out and saw the attendees carrying them around. I thought someone had screwed up and over ordered! Nope, those bags were gone at the end of the day.
The line at lunch was enormous. Don’t even try to imagine 1000 hungry geeks trying to remain calm in a line that snaked through the exhibit room. I really didn’t think there was going to be enough food. How could there be? How could someone know how many sandwiches, how much fruit salad, how many drinks are needed to feed and water 1000 people?
Keep in mind now, we’re not talking about professional party planners here. We’re talking about people like you and me who had a vision and ran with it. Did I think there was going to be enough food? No way. I was actually waiting for the food to run out as I saw 25 to 30 people standing at the buffet table with nothing available. I thought this was going to be the big snafu.
I went up to one of the people volunteering at the buffet table and asked if more food was coming. "Yes, hold on a bit. It’s on the way!" Are you kidding me? Sure enough within a matter of two or three minutes, a huge tray of sandwiches with a corresponding bowl of fruit salad was brought out. Who figured out how to do that?
As a former concert promoter, I know what it takes behind the scenes to get things to work. I have the highest praise for the DC SharePoint Community for putting a plan together and executing with no excuses made for anything. If something needed to be done, it was done. If there was a problem it was handled.
The bar has been raised, not by numbers, but by vision. The next time you attend a free SharePoint event, I hope you’ll slow down a bit and thank the volunteers and staff who make it possible. It’s not easy to do, and many times it’s thankless. A little praise goes a long way to keep things running smoothly.
Thanks, Dux and team, for a job well done.
For more pictures from SharePoint Saturday DC, go to End User SharePoint on Facebook, and search for SPSDC on Flickr.
Awesome! Simply awesome!
I second that. Simply awesome!
It was great to meet you this weekend, Mark!
As a speaker at this event, I’ve got to hand it to Dux and the team. All the effort behind the scenes was amazing. Good job Dux et al.
Thanks! We appreciate your being a part of the event Ben!
Well stated Mark
I agree. A speaker at one of the sessions talked about the power of saying “Thank You”. Well…. a HUGE THANK YOU goes out to everyone that helped pull SPSDC together. It was the first SP event I have ever attended and I found it to be both HIGHLY educational and inspirational. My batteries are now recharged and I am ready to continue to teach and inspire others at my organization to make the most of SP.
Mark, let me thank you again for all your hard work and dedication to transferring you knowledge of SP. You have been a valuable resource in helping me along my SP journey.
Kindest Regards,
Dean
Hear hear! Thanks to all!
Good write-up mark! Future considers should be made for using Mac’s at SPS keynotes… :D
I fully agree! I’ll do my best to make it a part of the SharePoint Saturday charter that Macs can’t be used for keynote
Great write-up Mark. It was a fantastic day – thanks again to all who made it possible!
Flawless simply flawless. The bar has not only been set for SharePoint Saturday but for any other event I attend. Dix, Dan, Jenn, Gino and all of the volunteers did a fantastic job!
This was one of the best conferences I have ever attended. Thank you to everyone who helped pull it off.
John – we appreciate all your help! Your assistance on Friday was very valuable.
Great article, Mark! It was indeed an unbelievably HUGE event and it was AWESOME!! And, it was FFFRRREEEEEE!!!
“A free event of this size is unprecedented in the SharePoint Community.” Actually I would argue that a free event of this size is unprecedented in ANY community. Kudos to everyone who arranged it, kudos to everyone who helped, and the biggest thanks to everyone who came out on such a nice day to spend it inside learning about SharePoint.
We’re going to surpass this with “SharePoint Stampede Weekend in Calgary” next year, right? — Mark
Well written. I agree wholeheartedly. I was overwhelmed by how much volunteer effort was put forth and everyone was smiling after it all!
What a fantastic event! It was great to meet you, Mark, and so many other notables in the SharePoint community… Dux and others. To meet so many other people who share the excitement about this product was just great. So many great sessions to choose from! The networking was flat-out awesome! Instead of waiting for the next SPSDC, I will have to hit the road to make some of the out-of-town SPS events in the future! Dux, Jenn, you both did an outstanding job! Kudos to you both!!! I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Hi, Robin – your help was invaluable! That’s what make SP Saturday great – it is a COLLABORATIVE effort of a passionate community as a whole =)
Big thank you and congrats to the SPSDC team for sure…has anyone mentioned how well this event was promoted? On top of a well organized event, the mass promotion of this event truly shows the power of the SharePoint Community! Glad I was able to attend!
Outstanding event. I applaud the ambition of the organizers to put together a community event of this magnitude. I believe that the success of this event will up the ante for all SharePoint Saturday organizers to continue to put together high quality events. Hope organizers submit a white paper on successes and lessons learned in putting SPSDC together. It would help many.
I second that. I’m going to put some pressure on Dux and crew to spend some time putting together an article on “How We Did It!”.
Just so you know, putting pressure on Dux means buying the biggest, best bowl of Pho you can find. I’m all in on that.
Mark
We’d be happy to put together a writeup on “How We Did It!” – as long as I get my big bowl of Pho w/ lotsa Sriracha sauce on the side
This was truly an amazing event. I wish I could think of some constructive criticism for them. You are always supposed to be able to improve upon what you do, right? So why can’t I think of one wrong turn they made?! Dux and crew are just amazing, and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to attend this FREE event. It really is awesome to tell folks that I had a blast on Saturday and didn’t spend a dime all day. How often can one say that?
I can’t wait for the next one. And I certainly would love to help them out. I’m very good at putting together swag bags. I also think the location was brilliant- classrooms, free parking. Genius! :)
HI, Kat -
Thanks! Will definitely sign you up to stuff the swag bags for the next one =)
Great! Just let me know when and how I can help. I live in the area so I can be available for help w/ pre-planning. Would also be interested in doing a session about how we are using SharePoint for our intranet. I’ve been our intranet manager for nearly 5 years, so I have some good examples of successes and failures to share, if you think folks would be interested. :)
Thanks, again, for everything you guys did for us on Saturday! MUCH appreciated!
What a fantastic event. Honestly I am still a little speechless.
I am still trying to process all the great insight, ideas, and stories attendees and speakers have shared with me over such a short amount of time. There were so many people who were so passionate about SharePoint, learning, and SHARING. All of which was really focused on doing it for free, and helping one another.
Well worth twenty 10+ hour drives down from Canada in my opinion. :)
Job we’ll done! I agree that participants should be more mindful that this was FREE, especially those complaining on TWITTER early in the AM.
Congrats to all on awesome DC event. In re seattle times article — impt to point out that the way SharePoint keeps up (one concern highlighted by e.g. Goldman Sachs in the article) is via the partner ecosystem. That’s more vital than ever as pace of competitive change accelerates. SharePoint, for example, as the Social Platform a much stronger position than SharePoint as Facebook for the Enterprise.