Which SharePoint Conference Should I Attend?
I get the question wherever I go, “You speak at a lot of conferences. Which one should I attend?” That’s really a loaded question. Each conference has a different agenda, so I’d need to sit and talk with you about what your goals are with SharePoint, what your user level is, what projects are you working on.
Instead of me trying to give a specific answer to a question like that, let’s let the conference organizers tell you why they created their conference. I’m speaking at Best Practices Conference, Washington DC August 24 – 27th, and at SPTechCon Boston, October 20 – 22nd. Let’s hear what David Rubinstein and Bill English have to say about their events and then open it up for comments from people who have attended or plan to attend them.
Best Practices Conference, Washington DC
The Best Practices Conference is an outgrowth of the SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices book published by Microsoft Press. That book helped thousands of deployments avoid the more common pitfalls while also helping them gain a better deployment. The conference is focused on best practices for a SharePoint deployment and has content that will appeal to nearly everyone involved with SharePoint: from the technically-oriented developers and IT administrators to the non-technical project managers and decision makers.
The Best Practices Conference is the only conference that contains series elements in each presentation. We expect each speaker in each session to give out at least 3-5 best practices, at least one worst practice and at least one tradeoff decision (if you say “yes” to this, you’re saying “no” to that). In addition, while some of the sessions have portions that are highly technical, this conference will also have content that is planning, design and architecture in nature for the non-technical project manager and decision maker. We try to focus on the “why” of a decision and less on the “how”. There are plenty of conferences that will tell you “how”, but not many that will tell you “why”. We focus on the “why”.
This year, we’re also trying out a post conference filled with full-day presentations that offer more education on individual topics than can be presented in 75 minutes. Over a four-day period, you’ll learn a great deal about SharePoint Server 2010 and the best practices for deploying it in your environment. This conference will be held at the Reston Hyatt, outside of Washington, DC, August 24-27. We hope you can attend.
To learn more, please visit http://www.sharepointbestpractices.com.
Conference Organizer: Bill English
SPTechCon Boston
We agree with Bill English that the SharePoint market is a large one, with a great need for technical education. We have an excellent relationship with Bill and the Best Practices event, and Bill is actually one of the keynote speakers at our upcoming (Oct. 20-22) Boston event! And we agree that his description of Best Practices being a “why” event and SPTechCon being a “how-to” event is fairly accurate as well.
BZ Media has been producing conferences for many years, and we try to create large, inclusive, exciting events where we are somewhat “all things (in this case SharePoint) to all people.” We want SPTechCon to become “the place to go” for SharePoint technical education, whether you’re an IT administrator, a software architect, a developer or a business user. SPTechCon classes run the gamut from beginner to very technical and geared toward those wishing to become experts in the field – taught by experts in the field.
Interestingly, we have never seen a market with such an array of highly professional, entertaining, effective instructors. We don’t have an identical look and feel or structure to each class but use rigorous evaluations from attendees to weed out any speakers or classes that are not top-notch. At the last SPTechCon, the average score across all classes and workshops was 8.8 out of 10.0. Of course we do mix in about 15% new speakers and 30% new classes each event, to offer a mix of new material along with proven excellent sessions and instructors.
We must be doing something right, because our most recent SPTechCon, in the San Francisco Bay Area in February, attracted more than 1,000 registrants and more than 50 corporate exhibitors and sponsors. That’s the kind of community BZ Media has experience in bringing together. We hope to see you at an SPTechCon soon!
Conference Organizer: David Rubinstein
Summary
So there you have it. These are two very useful conferences that are looking for different audiences. I’m sure there are other conferences you will consider, and I’d like to hear about them.
In the meantime, pick and choose which is most useful for you. But no matter what, you’ll see me there along with a host of other SharePoint experts, looking to have some fun while working with SharePoint.
Our company might send somebody to one of the above. I actually just put in a request to go to the MS SharePoint Conference in Anaheim, CA 2011 – http://www.mssharepointconference.com/ – which was just announced today. Anyone know why MS decided not to have a 2010 conference?
Kind of ironic considering the products name. ;)
I choose SPTechCon Boston. See y’all there.
My only problem with finding a conference to attend this year has been the absolute elimination of almost anything related to MOSS 2007 other than the obligatory upgrade from 2007 to 2010 sessions. Look at the ongoing TechEd Conference in La. I don’t think there is a single session related to MOSS aside from those mentioned above.
I understand the desire of MS, conference organizers and session presenters to focus on the new technology but in doing so an awful lot of folks that are “stuck” supporting a 2007 environment, or god forbid a SPS 2003 environment, for the next serveral years are going to have a difficult time justifying to their employer why they should be sent to one of these conferences and in the end will get left out. Definitely a shame as these events are not only great learning experiences but also a way to build your professional network and meet those folks you have interacted with online.
Now all that being said I am trying to wangle a way into attending Best Practices again. Budget cuts have forced my employer to deny my request to attend so I may be footing some, or all, of the bill again this year. This is probbaly the one conference that will have content that transfers across platforms and addresses both 2010 and 2007. Having attended the last two I can tell you it was definitely worth every minute there.
- Jay
While the Best Practices Conference is focused on 2010, you’ll find that many of the best practices presented will be applicable to 2007. Also, because our speaker:attendee ratio is lower than most other conferences, you’re more likely to get some time with one or more speakers and ask all the 2007 questions you want to ask. In fact, I’ll make sure that we have at least one Ask the Experts panel discussion focused on 2007.
Will this help?
I choose Sharepoint Conference held on Colorado Convention Center this coming September 23, 2010.
Well that would make sense since you’re helping put it on :-) What’s your conference about? — Mark
I’m just thrilled there are lots of choices!
First, off… always keep an eye out for nearby SharePoint Saturday conferences! Nothing beats free!
I am planning on the Best Practices Conference this August in DC; first time for me to go to that one, but I am a big fan of the book and Ben Curry (who floored me with his deep understanding of everything related to SharePoint Administration in a previous workshop I attended).
I am also considering the SharePoint Connections conference in Vegas in November. I attended a previous one in Orlando a couple of years back and thought it was well done. I also like the idea of being able to attend SQL and .NET sessions in the concurrent conferences for just the one price. There wasn’t a single time slot that I couldn’t find a worthwhile session.
I passed on TechEd this year, and am not sure I want the massive crowds of the MS SharePoint Conference. The other one I considered was SPTechCon Boston… maybe next year for those two!
I have to agree with Jay (above) because there are a lot of us still using MOSS 2007. I work for a military hospital and don’t see us moving to SharePoint 2010 soon. We just transition to from WSS to MOSS and as ‘fast’ as Department of Defense (DoD) moves, I don’t see a change for many years (if we are lucky)! I’m hoping to attend the SharePoint Conference in Denver since I’m in Colorado and cost is what I have to keep down. Between the Colorado SharePoint Users Group http://www.cospug.com/SitePages/Home.aspx, EndUserSharePoint and other online blogs, web sites, I get as much information I can. Due to ‘budget’, I’ve even had to pay for some EndUserSharePoint workshops.
As much SharePoint as the Army/DoD is using they should put on their own conference, cover things that other conferences never think about. CAC authentication, PII, database “santizing” etc…
Talk to me, guys. We can DEFINITELY put something like this together. We’ll need Dux and Susan Lennon in on the discussion, too. — Mark
We looked at doing a “secure” SharePoint conference with some folks at the DoD and Summit 7 and Blackblade Systems at a secure facility, but since all security is based on a “need to know”, we didn’t think we could pull it off.
I’d be game to develop a track at the BPC for Army/DoD. If interested, ping me offline.
I’ve been trying to get it done for the pass two years and still waiting! Because I work in a hospital, if it is not ‘patient care’ we don’t worry about it! That is all over the Medical Command!
The problem(s) we have is budget. Depending on the location and what will be covered in the conference, I have to convince our command that I should attend the conference. I would be willing to help in any way I can. Some topics can include and not limited to what Jay mentioned “CAC authentication, PII, database “sanitizing” etc…” I would add HIPAA and PHI and anything ‘unique’ to DoD.
To help those with budget, we’re looking into some ways to help with the budget issue for the Best Practices Conference. If you have ideas we should consider, please ping me offline.
I think because of the budgetary constraints that currently exist within DoD the best solution might be to do some kind of virtual conference. Someone did one last year or the year before last that was pretty successful as I recall (Quest maybe?).
Cost to govt/DoD would have to be low enough to entice them to pay for it. Of course the benefit of doing virutal is that you limit the involvement to a single day and there are no travel/lodging costs associated with the event.
Do a kind of SharePoint Saturday format;
One day during the week, maybe a Friday (none of us do much on Fridays and half the gov folks are gone on alternate work schedules)
Same kind of sessions schedule, categories for enduser, information worker, administrator, developer, best practices, etc…
Sessions that are geared specifically towards govt/DoD entities. In addition to my previous and Franks additions governance, project management (Dux), basic end user training type sessions, security, etc…
Give “speakers” the option of presenting live or via a recorded session. I think if they do a recorded session they would have to commit to answering any questions submitted by attendees afterwards. Sessions aren’t much help if you can’t get that nagging question answered or at least discussed.
Given more time I am sure I could come up with more…..lol
Jay,
Checked out your blog and will be adding it to my favorites. Now back to the topic at hand, I wrote a governance and policy last year for our hospital, still waiting for approval. We are using MOSS for our Intranet and part of my job is checking for PHI, HIPAA and other things like that. I’m a one person Admin, Trainer, Web and anything that has to do with our ‘Public’ and ‘Intranet’. I have a IT FAQ/How-to sites for SharePoint and Office 2007. This one way we save money, our staff of over 3,000 can visit the sites and down load the PowerPoint slides.
It is hard for people to choose conferences mostly because of budget reasons, but also for the reasons mentioned above – content & conference focus.
I just did a blog post about this topic, and I agree with Jay and Frank. Many are left behind when conferences, vendors, and consultants all jump on the latest release band-wagon. While we may love to go to the latest release, reality and business force us to stay put longer than Microsoft wants us to.
Maybe segments have to create their own conference, such as suggested in earlier comments, but that seems to be a tough route to take when the resources are out there to provide ‘regular’ conferences…virtual or otherwise.
I read your post, good points.
I went as far as emailing the folks at techEd and expressing this concern to them and was assured that they were adding MOSS content and were aware of the concern. Of course if you go to the TechEd site and do a search on MOSS 2007 I think you get 2 hits, both migration sessions to 2010.
I’d be curious to know from Bill and David if this is a product of the conference organizers or if it is a situation where the people doing the presenting (usually consultants and vendors) are driving this by not submitting any 2007 content.
Jay,
It would be interesting to hear, although my bet is that it is a combination of presenters submitting sessions focused on 2010 and conference organizers focusing the conference. If presenters are asked to provide 2007 content I bet they would.
One more thought I had regarding CAC, PII, etc. – I know that is primarily a concern for folks working in the DOD but it should be addressed as part of a security track at a SharePoint conference. That is another thing that is slim pickin;s at SP conferences. Seems like there should be more sessions around security anyway, lots of people seem to take it for granted while working in the SharePoint environment. I would have thought that more private companies and gov. contractors would start implementing something like CAC on their systems by now. It creates limitations in SharePoint implementations, but it adds a significant layer of security.
Hello Jay.. this is Dave from SPTechCon. I’d say the majority of pitches I got for sessions for the upcoming SPTechCon in October were for 2010. But if you read my entry on http://www.sptechblog.com, you’ll see that we’ve come to accept that many (perhaps even the majority) of SharePoint users won’t be racing to 2010 right away, and so for our February event this year, and for the fall conference, we’ve ensured that we have a nice mix of sessions for the various users of SharePoint, on the various versions of SharePoint.
A conference focused only on 2007 at this point wouldn’t sell well, IMHO. However, I hear your message and will look into doing a 2007 track at the BPC. Since most of the speakers and sessions are selected, I can’t promise this, so don’t hold your breath.
As much as some want additional content, the market is usually larger for cutting edge content. We have alot of people looking at 2010 implementations in 2011 and are using the BPC in August to help them with their upgrade/deployment planning as well as getting a better understanding of the product in general.
Dave, I read your blog post last night and that’s awesome. It’s great that you’re taking that approach and I know that those of us “stuck” in a 2007 environment appreciate it more than most would imagine. I wish more people (MICROSOFT) would think along those lines.
I’ll definitely have to take a closer look at SPTechCon, that might be something I can slip into the budget for next year.
Bill, I wouldn’t expect you (or anyone else for that matter) to make a major change of that nature this close to the conference. I do think it’s something to keep in mind for next time.
Adding a track for 2007 content would be good and I think that the majority of your presenters have sessions they could do that would fit the bill. They may be “dated” but as Mark pointed out in an article a while back the more that someone does a session the more refined it becomes and the inherent value of the information being presented goes up.
On the “secure” conference, not sure that’s what I had in mind. I do think there would be some value in maybe some post-conference sessions or a track focused on government/DoD the next time BPC is in DC. That expands your potential audience fairly significantly IMO to government employees (CIO’s, deputies, etc…) that might not otherwise be inclined to attend.
I would also agree that a conference that is focused strictly on 2007 content wouldn’t be a draw and that’s not what I was suggesting. But I do think think that a complete lack of 2007 content eliminates a huge potential audience. If I have to justify attendence to a conference I have a far better chance of getting approval when there is something that will directly benefit my employer/customer now as opposed to a couple of years down the road.
The other thing that BPC has going for it is that in some cases sessions really are version “non-specific”. The underlying concepts related to search findability, governance, information architecture are essentially the same or very similar regardless of the product version.
Thanks to both of you for your responses. As Tony pointed out it’s great that people like yourselves are this engaged and involved in the community!
The Common Access Card (CAC) is a very ‘BIG’ part of our lives in DoD. We need our CAC to login to your work computer and most Army sites. Now that ‘Social Networking’ is part of our lives in DoD, security most and should be an important issue. Twitter, Facebook and the other social networking sites have been approved for use on DoD computers. I hope it never happens but I can see some staff member(s) writing on twitter information about unit(s) and Soldier(s) deployment information. I suggested a ‘training’ session for our staff, still waiting for an answer!
Sounds like we’re behind the times here then. No blogs, twitter, facebook etc… I hate websense with a passion known by few and most days feel like I am working with one hand ties behind my back because I can’t get to probably 60% of the stites I normally use for reference or troubleshooting purposes.
/end rant
Back to your regularly scheduled comments
Tony that’s a good point. Most of the security related sessions you see are pretty high level (user permissions/management etc…).
As for CAC most contracting organizations see the cost, training and inherent problems caused by a CAC implementation and go screaming and running in the opposite direction. Having been involved in implementing CAC authentication in a SPS2003 environment I can tell if that I owuld have joined the stampede running away if I could have.
David Rubinstein of SPTechCon responded in a blog post: http://www.sptechblog.com/2010/06/not-kicking-moss-2007-to-curb.html
Frank & Jay -Wow, when I was working for the Marine Corps none of the social networking sites were allowed – big change. I agree that how it is used can be scary, undoubtedly a problem will arise unless enough training similar to the PII requirement is implemented.
Tony some of the Army allows access to social networking sites but where I am they don’t. Not sure why but as I said above it’s a little frustrating sometimes when I am trying to figure something out and I can’t get to a blog post at Wordpress or Blogspot. Heck I had to go buy a domain and host my own blog just so I could get to it during working hours.
Twitter is quickly becoming another issue. It’s amazing how quickly that twitter has become a resource for help as opposed to an avenue for slacking. Would love to have full access to it but that’ll never happen here. Now that being said I can read/respond to twiiter from LinkedIn but I try not to do that much. :-)
See what I mean about the SharePoint Community being awesome – here we have Bill English and David Rubinstein actively taking part in this discussion and addressing the topics/concerns raised here. You guys are fantastic and are perfect examples of what makes the SharePoint community so great. Thank You.