SharePoint Saturday Cleveland November 14, 2009

“You’re doing what with SharePoint?” was displayed on the screen under the title “Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 -- Out-of-the-Box: A Case Study.” It was the first SharePoint Saturday event I attended as a speaker. I have presented at events before over the years, but I admit that it had been about eight months since my last presentation. At the previous three events I participated as an attendee, and it was always a marvelous experience. I always made sure to socialize with both trainers and attendees because that is what these events are really about -- gaining and sharing knowledge with folks who are there because of the common interest in SharePoint.

Sean McDonough popped in as I was setting up and chuckled at my quote on the screen. I was glad to see my attempt at humor worked.

Here are a couple examples:

And another:

I couldn’t take the chance of going live to my work site knowing wi-fi is sketchy at these events, so PowerPoint it was along with my use of pptPlex which people always enjoy.

I also brought a bag of mini candy bars with me to offer as reward for anyone who spoke up and actually contributed to the session. This alone offered a very nice interaction as I chucked candy bars across the room at people -- always good for entertainment. To those of you whom attended, thank you. I appreciate very much the time that you took to attend my session, and I hope you left with something more than you came in with --  even if it was just a piece of candy.

On Friday night I drove to Tremont to attend the speaker dinner at a place called Fahrenheit. What a nice little town. As I drove around the block I noticed a gallery and figured since I couldn’t find a parking spot anyhow, I would park and pop in to see what it was about. What a great move that was! I was able to buy my wife a very unique set of earrings and chat with one of the local artists. Below are a couple pictures of the storefront:

geode gallery

The definition of Geode: “A hollow, usually spheroidal rock with crystals lining the inside wall.”

 

The earrings I bought my wife were from Kim O’Neill.

 

After leaving geode right next door was Lilly Handmade Chocolates:

Check out the handmade chocolates paired with a particular brand of beer. I bought a bag of Lilly Barq chocolate and a Chomp Monster for my wife. Good stuff. Check out their website. I shared some of the barq chocolate at the speaker dinner. It had a bit of a spicy kick to it!

Mellissa picked a wonderful venue for the speaker dinner and Fahrenheit was fantastic. I was blown away by the whole experience and truly had no idea walking in that the meal and drinks were paid by a sponsor. This speaker dinner was sponsored by Rob from Blue Thread. Thank you Rob. The dinner and company were wonderful.

One of the fears I had after seeing the SharePoint horsepower signed up to present was whether I was worthy to be among them. These professionals make a living with this product and have amazing credentials. But you know what? I also make a living with SharePoint because it has become a part of the company that I work for and I am very proud of what we have accomplished so far. I quickly changed my fear of unworthiness to feeling proud to present and share some of what I do with SharePoint in my environment. The fellow speakers treated me with the utmost respect. Wonderful conversations ensued with everyone delighted to offer their knowledge. It is a unique thing to experience. I learned a lot.

I could go on and on about this eventful 24 hour period: obtaining my treasured SPS speaker shirt, GPS taking me back to my hotel via back roads making me a bit nervous, speaking with hotel staff to get free wi-fi for the speakers at the event, watching some great presentations, hanging out in the speaker area, watching Mellissa orchestrate the event, seeing Brian show off the Droid phone, finding out four people work for Sogeti, John Ferringer talking up BPOS, Callahan talking about VMs on her laptop, Rob talking about how he started StoragePoint, seeing Sean McDonough and John converse about creating their SharePoint DR Book, the Microsoft guy Brian showing up at the SharePint talking about bizspark, (but shhh.. he really wasn’t there), Sandy U showing me her SharePoint site projects, Eric Harlan belting out “I’m on a Boat” at the Blind Pig, me getting lost trying to find his hotel, and having breakfast at the Original Pancake House and a nice conversation with the owner about strong coffee. Believe me, that isn’t half of it! I apologize for not mentioning all of the other great conversations, stories, speakers, and people from the event.

Here are more pictures of the event:

Speaker Dinner at Fahrenheit.

 

StoragePoint and Microsoft. (Guys, I apologize not having your names here. Let me know!)

Rob and Eric

Brian showing off the Droid to Mellissa

Mellissa, Brian, and John

  Ron talking up StoragePoint

Speaker SharePoint horsepower: Sean, John, Eric and Brian

 

Microsoft guy… name? and Jesse.

Keynote with Mellissa and Paul Stork

 

Mellissa handing out the many great sponsor prizes

SharePint at the Blind Pig. Brian Jackett, Mellissa, Eric Harlan, Sandy U, and ?

 

Not sure (I’m sorry!), Brian from Microsoft and Brian Jackett

Thank you speakers, sponsors, Mellissa, the attendees and all of the wonderful people that I’ve met - many of whom I can say are friends. See you on twitter and hopefully very soon at another SharePoint event.

#spscle Twitterfeed

SharePoint Saturday Cleveland

PS: Please leave some comments and names I missed!