As I sit in SFO waiting for my flight to return me to JFK, the impressions of SPTechCon still are fresh in my mind – the great speakers; the engaged, motivated attendees; the third-party software providers who have real solutions to overcome hurdles; the hotel staff; the SPTechCon team (Stacy, Whitney, Katie, Adam and the rest) that kept things running so smoothly that it looked like we do this kind of thing every day of the week.
What we sensed from the early feedback is that many people are still just starting out on their “SharePoint journey,” as Microsoft likes to call it. For a product that’s approaching 10 years of life (in various iterations, of course), double-digit growth (as cited by Microsoft) is truly amazing.
We also learned that many SharePoint users are firmly entrenched on MOSS 2007, and need more advanced help as their journey has brought them to a place where customization of the platform and building out applications on the platform require new skills.
We found that the enthusiasm of those “in the know” has not waned, and these experts remain committed to giving of themselves and their time to help fellow “pointers” along the journey. The way our attendees and speakers engaged on a variety of topics—from jQuery to InfoPath, workflow to project management, custom applications to integrations with other data stores—was absolutely energizing for all involved, and folks left with information, ideas and suggestions they can put into effect as soon as they get back to their offices.
We are proud to provide a forum that brings together business executives, systems administrators, developers, SharePoint experts, solutions providers and “the SharePoint guy” from many organizations. The thousand people who were on site with us for the past three days are a testament to the quality of the program that we’ve put together.
If you were there, thank you for attending. If you couldn’t make it, try to join us in Boston this coming June 1-3. As our keynotes Joel Oleson and Microsoft’s Jared Spataro emphasized, you get more value from SharePoint when you’re part of the community that has already “been there, done that,” and that can help get you there too!
—David
