A Review of SharePoint Saturday Philly

I've been to two SharePoint Saturdays in New York.  This year however, I decided to branch out for the first time and take the trip to Philly for their SharePoint Saturday. I must say that the trip was well worth it. Yes, I saw a lot of familiar faces, many who I've met in New York.  But I was able to meet new faces, and even met Sandy Ussia, long time supporter of SharePoint ShopTalk for the first time.   She traveled even further than I did, though living in Pennsylvania.

SharePoint Saturday Philly took place at Devry University.  This was a great option for the event location.  The space provided an intimate feel, and the classroom's and the school for that matter had updated technogy, which allowed for smooth presentations.

Ellis Luboff

Edmond Avanesian

I was able to drop in on a couple of presentations at 9:00am.  Ellis Luboff gave out some awesome tips for Administrators. However, his session ended a bit early so I made my way to Edmond Avanesian's talk: So you want to implement SharePoint in your organization. Now what? 

Edmond outlined key tips on the next steps for an organization.   The thought Edmond wanted to leave in everyone's head is "You can't treat SharePoint like any other project" and the importance of communication throughtout and after the project is completed.

A slide, I found very useful was a basic list of IT Skills that are needed when implementing SharePoint:

1. Network Admin (Infrastructure)
2. System Admin (Windows OS)
3. Database Admin (SQL Server)
4. SP Architect
5. SP Admin (Farm/Central Admin)
6. SP Developer
1. Workflow
2. Custom Web Parts
7. SP Branding/Graphics
8. SP      Site Owner Admin
9. SP Content Migration (if applicable) 

Next up, I took a seat in Marcy Kellar's session: SharePoint User Experience, What Can it Do for Adoption? This was a very interactive session, as Marcy gave out neat gifts for those who participated and utilized some pictures to make you laugh and think while getting her point across. She quoted, Jeff Croft "Design by definition is the act of solving a problems. In order for anything to be designed well, we must first identify the problems we are trying to solve and the goals we are trying to reach." And stated The User Experience is the sum of all parts and it is tied to adoption by emotion, efficiency and engagement.

To my surprise, it wasn't the last time I was able to see Marcy, because she joined the panel on the first session after lunch, Women in SharePoint.  This session was a lot of fun.  These weren't women who bashed men and held up picket signs chanting.  No, these were women who loved SharePoint, who had valid experiences to share and who encourage other women to jump on board the SharePoint train. They expressed women are not necessarily emotional but passionate and that it is easy to be passionate about SharePoint because of the vast room for creativity.

Women in SharePoint

Women in SharePoint 2

Some of the attributes the panel found women usually brought to a team were, the ability to understand the end user, sharapy (sharing & therapy), teamwork, mentorship and  the ability to multitask. When leading a team, most women present themselves as approachable, patient and have the tendacy to express care.  Michelle, also known as @cyberslate shared two books she feels that women would benefit from reading: Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office and Leading from the Front.

After this session, I perused the vendor's booths. At this late hour, the representatives maintained excitement and shared their products and services with me. I met some new people and reminisced with some friends. Then, I went to see how my colleagues Paul Olenick and Natalya Voskresenskaya were doing as they prepared to set up for their talk: Migrating from 2007 to SharePoint 2010 - How to do it "Search First".

Paul & Natalya

On to the final session of the day. To my happiness it was lead by Stacy Deere and Stephanie Donahue as they discussed: Managed Metadata A to Z - Plan, Implement, Make it a Success. Talk about a session that was filled with information  that was clearly wanted and well received.  Stacy and Stephanie are a great team and they clearly understand how to get the most out of Managed Metadata. They highlighted the new functionalities of SharePoint 2010 Standard, Enterprise and Online editions which simplifies the task of assigning metadata.  During this session, questions were asked consistently throughout, and Stephanie and Stacy delivered. Review their blog: Not Just SharePoint.

Last, but certainly not least were the cool prizes given away and the after social at Brick House. Though, I didn't win anything post event, I did win a cool book, during the Women in SharePoint Session: The SharePoint 2010 Handbook.  I look forward to the read. I also looked forward to the after social, which I conclude as a another SharePoint Saturday Philly Success.  It was a great cap to the event, the community enthusiasm and love of social participation lived throughout the event and of course during the after social.  Good times.

Good Times...