SUGUK member Eric Shrupps has kindly done a write up on the Berlin conference. Eric can usually be found blogging at The SharingPoint
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The European SharePoint Conference, held at the Hotel Estrel in Berlin, was a resounding success. More than 2,300 people attended from more than 50 countries with 100+ partners represented and 90 vendors displaying their wares. The organization of the event was quite good and the Microsoft EMEA team should be commended for keeping everything running smoothly. Check-in was a breeze, there were big signs in each area detailing the day's events, and if you got a bit lost all you had to do was grab hold of one of the ubiquitous orange-shirted emissaries to point you in the right direction. The sessions were a bit spread out due to the configuration of the facilities but you had plenty of time between sessions to wander to and fro and numerous opportunities to grab some refreshments on the way (a little too much time, in some cases, but that didn’t detract from the overall experience).
Speaking of sessions, there was a tremendous amount of content to choose from. Presentations were organized into three tracks - Partners, IT Pros, and Developers. The Keynote speeches were, quite naturally, mostly rah-rah affairs but the breakout sessions had plenty of substance. Personally, I stuck to the Developer track, in which the usual suspects (Mike Fitzmaurice, Patrick Tisseghem, Arpan Shah, Ben Robb, etc.) worked their magic on those in attendance. Every session I attended was filled nearly to capacity and some, especially Patrick’s, were standing-room only (perhaps due to all his beer references?). In my opinion the two best presentations were Patrick Tisseghem’s second talk on the first day regarding Templates, Definitions, and Solution Deployment, following by the amazingly flawless, completely on-the-fly coding expertise of Steve Heaney during his Workflow demonstration. An honorable mention to Steve Smith of Combined Knowledge for his Capacity and Performance Planning presentation – he easily generated the most note-taking of any speaker (and apologies to Ben Robb as I had to travel on Wednesday and missed both of his sessions).
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I was struck by the variety of the conference attendees –\nboth the wide range of nationalities and the nearly equal blend of businesspeople\nand techies (or Suits and Wrenches, as we say in the States). I had some\nexcellent conversations with people from both sides of the fence, as it were,\non a wide range of SharePoint-related topics. Overall, I got the sense\nthat EMEA is firmly committed to the SharePoint vision, something which I honestly\nhadn’t anticipated, and which stands as quite an accomplishment for such\na US-focused company as Microsoft. I was also quite pleased to see the excellent\nUK representation at the event and extend my heartfelt thanks to all my British\nfriends for treating me as one of their own – I owe you all a pint!
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As with any event of this magnitude, there were a few\nglitches. A couple of speaker mixups and last minute cancellations\nderailed one or two presentations and there were the ever-present demo demons\nthrowing a wrench into the works from time to time. The biggest complaint\nof all the attendees was lack of free WiFi – a glaring oversight on\nMicrosoft’s part. They should have anticipated this need (how could\nthey not have?) and made the necessary arrangements, especially in the speaker’s\nlounge. The hotel was unable to handle anywhere near the number of\nattendees so many of us were forced to stay in various locations throughout the\ncity as there weren’t any overflow hotels nearby, which resulted in no\nsmall amount of cab fare being expended. But really, I only mention these\nshortcomings as suggestions for improving the event next year, as I give the\nwhole affair a solid B+ (or 8 out of 10). If you missed it, I strongly\nadvise you to make plans to attend the next one – you won’t be disappointed.\n
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I was struck by the variety of the conference attendees – both the wide range of nationalities and the nearly equal blend of businesspeople and techies (or Suits and Wrenches, as we say in the States). I had some excellent conversations with people from both sides of the fence, as it were, on a wide range of SharePoint-related topics. Overall, I got the sense that EMEA is firmly committed to the SharePoint vision, something which I honestly hadn’t anticipated, and which stands as quite an accomplishment for such a US-focused company as Microsoft. I was also quite pleased to see the excellent UK representation at the event and extend my heartfelt thanks to all my British friends for treating me as one of their own – I owe you all a pint!
As with any event of this magnitude, there were a few glitches. A couple of speaker mixups and last minute cancellations derailed one or two presentations and there were the ever-present demo demons throwing a wrench into the works from time to time. The biggest complaint of all the attendees was lack of free WiFi – a glaring oversight on Microsoft’s part. They should have anticipated this need (how could they not have?) and made the necessary arrangements, especially in the speaker’s lounge. The hotel was unable to handle anywhere near the number of attendees so many of us were forced to stay in various locations throughout the city as there weren’t any overflow hotels nearby, which resulted in no small amount of cab fare being expended. But really, I only mention these shortcomings as suggestions for improving the event next year, as I give the whole affair a solid B+ (or 8 out of 10). If you missed it, I strongly advise you to make plans to attend the next one – you won’t be disappointed.