Kudos to Gary Blatt, and his staff, of the SharePoint User Group of Washington DC. He put on a great two-day SharePoint conference (Second Annual Regional SharePoint Conference). It was attended by over 180 practitioners, developers, managers, designers, implementers, speakers, and sponsors. The sponsor/vendor attendance was quite impressive.
I particularly enjoyed the presentations by (in no particular order) Sahil Malik, Melvin Brown and Kevin Hans, Vanessa Williams, Ed Hild, and Greg Galipeau. And, of course, Gary. He's the only speaker that did not need a microphone.
Besides the technical presentations, I was particularly interested in what speakers as Melvin Brown, the KSN Program Manager at FAA, which received Excellence.Gov awards for demonstrating excellence in leveraging technology to enhance collaboration.
Many SharePoint implementers and practioners commented on the fact that SharePoint is much more than a technology, it is an enabler for collaboration. Several tips were suggested for getting users to participate, some quite ingenious, such as:
- Not allowing users to attach documents to emails
- Not allowing users to use email (radical)
- Turning off the corporate shared drive
The conference was Not-For-Profit, and Gary used the proceeds to donate a sizeable check to the Children's Miracle Network! Good job Gary.