Are you a developer? There are so many dev conferences out there, but I found out about this one a few months ago. I am speaking on SharePoint and Silverlight at devLink in Nashville. The conference lasts about 3 days from August 13th to the 15th in Nashville, TN (as Rob Foster says NashVegas). I am looking at the speakers from the .Net Community (and SharePoint) and some notable mentions would be Claudio Lassala, Jessica Moss, Steve Andrews, Clint Edmonson, Rob Foster, Eric Shupps, Jeremy Sublett, Dennis Bottjer, Kathleen Dollard, Shawn Wildermuth…The conference only costs $100…Why not go? Here is the registration link: http://www.devlink.net/. How often do you get to see all these people for this little of a cost?
For the price of zero dollars and zero cents you can attend SharePoint Saturday Ozarks in Harrison, Arkansas. I know a lot of you Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma people are always wondering when we will get more events out this way. We had a ton this year with MOSS Camp St. Louis, SPS KC, SPS Tulsa, and now SPS Ozarks and SPS Dallas. You guys can attend two events within a decent driving distance (Dallas and Harrison are not too far from each other). Mike Watson, Laura Roger, Lori Gowin, Eric Shupps, Matt Bremer, Joy Earles, Mark Rackley, JD Wade, and then some. Register at https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=138593 for SPS Ozarks. Come on guys you know you want to do it.
I am a woman in technology and I am very proud of what I do. I love SharePoint and I love the community. I automatically get involved with anything I can that I think would help in the long run. I run the Office Geeks and I try to help Michael Lotter out with SharePoint Saturday. No one has once told me I could not speak at an event or participate due to my gender. Yes sometimes a conference may be harder to get in due to the amount of submissions that the coordinators may receive. I understand I may not get in because someone better was chosen above me. That’s how it works out occasionally with TechED or SharePoint Conference or some of the other events. I am also the new kid on the block and I don’t expect automatic admission until I improve my skills, but it will never stop me from trying. There may be some women who do not submit and that I can’t help. If you are not submitting then you are not going to get into a conference. Telepathy doesn’t work. I have tried it many times hoping it would it just doesn’t. I am all for more women in technology, but we need to promote that more women push themselves harder to get into conferences. We need to encourage them to submit. We need to encourage them to take the initiative. I have never met a single person pushing women back because of gender. If you look at the conference attendee list for .Net in general and not just SharePoint you will notice people like Rachel Appel, Dana Coffey, Kathi Kellenberger, Susan Lennon, Jessica Moss, Kathleen Dollard, and many others. There are some groups out there that are not going about how to get more women involved the correct way. It is splintering the community. We need to make sure that we encourage a more professional community. I understand there are social aspects to the community, but picking fights is never a good idea. So if you take one thing out of this blog post please understand that we should encourage more women to get involved without instigating a rift of men versus women when there is no male versus female oppression. I am not trying to name names or point fingers, but don’t you agree we all have much more fun when there is no drama involved? I hope that you all have a good weekend.
For anyone interested here are some Silverlight Project Samples (databinding, animation, hello world, plus wcf webservice):
http://cid-8e2654c5f01e6069.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/CodeSamples.
Overall I had a pretty good time and it sounds like I projected pretty good. Some people said they could hear me in the hallway that's a good sign. I'll just keep on trying to project just as good each time. It was a pretty long weekend, but well worth meeting the people I did. I met so many and hung out with so many others that it could take a while to throw some shout outs. I look forward to SPS Charlotte next week. I will probably attend two more events after Ozarks for SPS and devLink that are local. Check back in upcoming months for some announcements relational to St. Louis and Kansas City. The balls have been set into motion. Hopefully everything will go really smooth alongside the big move and all the other stuff.
So I’ve blogged about this a lot. If you read my blog you know how I got started. Kansas City .Net User Group and walking up to the right person at the right time plus meeting the right people at the right events that just clicked as good people (Lee, Brian, Jeff, John, Tim, Michael). I guess looking back over the past 2 years (as of this month I believe?) in retrospect would be nice. I was pretty hardcore into World of Warcraft back then without many friends newly moved to Kansas City. Right now I am finally getting on with my life doing some stuff that I always wanted to do. My goals were to travel all over the place. I never really saw myself getting up in front of a crowd. In fact I was the least likely person to get up in front of a crowd. I feel like I am improving each time. Anyway I digress…
So the SharePoint Community to me seems like this club of all these people with differing knowledge. Some of us go out and they share this knowledge. Some are just here to gain the knowledge so one day they can share the knowledge. I’d like to hope that I have something that I am contributing each time I go out and speak to people. Each time that I try to answer questions. I too go to other people’s sessions with the hopes that I can gain some knowledge. So is it one huge network of people transferring knowledge as one part perhaps. The other parts are social aspects. You get to a certain point in life and think how am I going to meet a bunch of really cool people with similar interests? I would have never started watching Chuck without the help of Dan Usher. I met a lot of people at Tulsa Techfest and other events just playing Rockband. Matt Bremer, JD Wade, and Todd Kitta are all Cardinal’s fans and we showed our pride on Twitter the other week for our team joking around with Cubs fans. Todd Klindt and Tiffany Songvilay are Barenaked Ladies fans. I’ve seen a few people that do the whole dress up and go to the Renaissance Faire deal like I used to in St. Louis. There are a lot of Trekkies on twitter and movie buffs and lacrosse players or ex-players. It’s pretty nice to know where you fit in with people. As of stated before I walk into a room and I immediately feel alienated if I don’t recognize one person. I usually stick to that person. Nowadays at events you walk into a room and recognize several people and it’s hard to choose from the people. I feel bad because I have to choose. Anyway that is sort of what the community is to me. I guess you could say it’s the make up of a bunch of different individuals sharing a common interest. There are so may different descriptions. I go to events to share knowledge, but I also do it to hang out with the people attending. My dad keeps asking me why spend all the money. I am using my own person dollar, because these events help keep me sane. I get to hang out with people who potentially could be friends for years to come. I am not wasting money, but investing money. Just know this it takes me years to decide on buying a new system. It took me 6 months to build my new computer (probably even a year). I don’t throw away money lightly.
If it is possible I would love to attend SharePoint Conference, but due to the economic situation and the fact that I am moving it might not happen. I am going to try, but I have priorities. The number one thing this year on my goal list is to move to the east coast. I have talked about moving since I started college. I will move. SPC is less of a priority over moving. One day I will get to a major conference, but this year it just might not happen. I would love to see all the SharePoint 2010 sessions. I am sure the content will be great and the people attending will be awesome. It kills me that I probably won’t go. I just can’t justify taking out $1100, then paying for hotel and flight when we really need to put the money towards deposits, paying the moving company, and driving the 2 day trip to get our cars, ourselves, and our cat transported. I like to overcompensate too, so all the money will get thrown into the move. In case some furniture is lost or something is broken. I am a little neurotic and certain items will come with us, such as our computers. I know we are going to get rid of some furniture and that will cost some money. So if I’m not at SPC it’s not a loss it’s a gain in a different direction. I hope to see you guys at SPS events throughout next year if I don’t see you this year at the events or devLink. Have a pint for me when you go to SPC. I’ll catch you all later.
Last night someone said that you could not use a SP Designer Workflow with Infopath. I guess it’s one of those things that not everyone has worked with. I take it for granted, because I have been using SPD workflows and Infopath. For all of you who never actually have used Infopath. You can publish an Infopath Form and elevate certain fields in the form to a SharePoint Form Library. Before you want to add these columns to the library you want to add them to the Form Options Section (Tools Menu –> Form Options). When in this menu select Property Promotion and you can add or remove any Infopath field. You can even name the fields what you want, so that it looks a lot nicer in the form library. Then what you want to do is add a workflow the same way you would normally add one in SPD. Click on File –> Open Site and type in your site name. Then click on File –> New –> Workflow. You can attach the workflow to your form library once it is published. The one gotcha you have to remember is an endless loop will occur if you have the workflow running when the form library is updated. You want to add a Stop command for each If/Else statement or you will end up with endless looping that could possibly have some fun consequences. Now I wouldn’t recommend using SPD for hardcore complicated workflows, but it is very nice for simple easy workflows tacked onto an Infopath Form Library or even a list that could use a simple workflow. Don’t get me started on really complex Infopath Forms with crazy repeating fields and XPath. I created a few for 2003 and it ended really scary. Remember Repeating Fields do not mesh well with columns if you want each step broken into separate fields in your form library. If you really wanted a pretty display you could create your own custom one with XSLT or a nice webpart. It’s doable, but probably not easy if you want something on every single form library. I am hoping this helped some people understand that you don’t need to do anything crazy with Infopath and that it’s all out of the box with SPD and Infopath. I hope that you all have a good weekend.
This month Howard Davy will be discussing SharePoint Designer Workflows. He was one of the volunteers for SharePoint Saturday Kansas City. He helped orchestrate the event with me and a ton of other people. As his day job he’s a SharePoint Trainer, so this should be a really good presentation. If you guys are in Kansas City and find SPD a little scary. I would show up just to see what it actually can do. We are meeting as usual this Thursday at 5:45 pm at Centriq (8700 Stateline, Leawood, KS 66206). Drinks and food will be provided. Please sign up here: http://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=138707.
This is one of the last 6 meetings that I may be at this year. It’s kind of nice to leave the group on a high note. We have been getting between 20 and 30 people steadily the past few months. So RSVP or we won’t have enough food to feed you all.
It’s not that I’m avoiding blogging it’s just that I need some non-SharePoint weekends and weeks. I need to just take some time to chill out. I have three weekends off from events and I am just relaxing and kicking back with friends. I am trying to plan out my move a little more. We narrowed down our options to New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Somerset, Highland Park areas in New Jersey. I am a little stressed right now, so taking some time away from my blog and events for a few weeks is something I just need. I really want to move, but it’s a huge step. I’m leaving my comfort zone, which is awesome. I’m moving far away from all the bad family members towards the good family members. It’s going to be awesome, but I am the type of person that needs to lay out some form of groundwork. Logistically figure out how I am going to move, where I am going to move, and how much it’s going to cost. Then I need to over estimate and save up. I also have some furniture I want to dump off, so we have a lighter load. Johnny, my boyfriend, is also taking his last few classes. We can’t look until August, so I’m anxious and excited at the same time. It’s something I have really wanted for my entire life. I told myself when I was a teenager I wanted to live in NYC or Los Angeles at least once in my life. I figure I’ve visited both and I don’t want to live in the cities, but maybe living nearby one would be awesome. Plus I will be near Philly and Baltimore where my aunts live. I can visit one of my favorite states, Maine. I’m going to miss tremendously all the people out here like Lee, Brian, John, Jeff, Bianca, Leah, Jason, Joyce, and St. Louis. I will most definitely miss the ability to drive home and see the Cardinal’s. I will have to go to Shea or whatever the Phillies stadium is when they come into town. The other things I want to do are hang out with my friends out here as much as I possibly can. Take a tour at the Boulevard brewery before I leave is another huge deal. I am going to Chicago three times. Just having the ability to drive while stopping St. Louis is a huge deal. On the upside I’ll be able to drive to all these new places. There is only so much of the midwest you can drive to before you’ve seen most of it after 27 years. How awesome will it be living 4 hours from D.C. or Baltimore? I could go visit people I see once a year every other weekend. I could take a train into Central Park or Brooklyn and just sit at the park in front of the bridge. I could meet all kinds of new people at SharePoint events on the east coast and user group meetings. So the payoff overall will be worth it. I may be quiet a lot of the time through December, but know I’m out here. I’m working with SharePoint. My name will pop up at events and I will continue to attend. I just won’t be here as much or there as much. I already have several things schedule, such as SPS Chicago, SPS Charlotte, SPS Ozarks, and devLink. I might try and submit to STL Day of Dot Net. Then in November October we may have another SPS KC. Most of September, October, November, and December I will work on the move. I’ll catch you all later. Live long and prosper!
My name is Becky Isserman. Everyone in the Kansas City Community knew me as Becky before they even knew who MOSSLover was on the web. I didn’t even buy the domain until last year in April after the first event I attended, STL MOSS Camp. It’s really weird how much I’ve done and how far I’ve come since then. I swear I was ten times more nervous that first time. Who wouldn’t be with there dad in the room? When I was at DC I got up and I spoke and I fumbled ten times less. I can see the pay back for what I’ve been doing. I’m getting better and becoming more social. Yes, I still get nervous around people and say random things I probably should never say. I will probably be sort of socially awkward my whole life, but I’m doing so much better than I was 1 year ago and ten times better than 2 years ago.
Anyway as event reports go the past two weekends were awesome. I spent three entire days coding for two charities (or fumbling a bit and learning a lot about PHP and Joomla that I never wanted to know). The cool part was at least we helped out two charities. I really like Dot Net Nuke, but no I’m not jumping ship from SharePoint. It’s a great free solution if you want to build a quick site on ASP .Net. I might play around with some module ideas in the future if I ever have a spare moment (which I never do anymore). We played a couple games of Rockband with Lee, Jeff, and Doug on the mic at one point in time and me on the drums. Tim was our guitar/bassist with an extra addition. Doug and Lee did an excellent job this year. I was a little sad at the end realizing this could be my last Coders in KC. I am looking around for some east coast events and it looks like Richmond might be doing one. I might try and help out with a Philly/Jersey event if anyone is interested when I move. It is such a great event for people who want to devote some time to a charity, but don’t have the time to make a major commitment. It’s really intensive, but it’s a lot of fun. If you love to code, then why not do something that you will end up doing on the weekend for the same amount of time?
Now that brings me to SharePoint Saturday DC. I had a lot of fun at the event. I met so many people that my head is yet again filled with too many faces and names. I stopped posting who I hang out with and meet because there are just too many good people. If you are like anyone else wouldn’t you hate that someone forgot you? I don’t want anyone to feel left out at all. DC is a place I visit almost yearly. My dad used to lobby for his union and we would go almost yearly. This is one of the few times I haven’t been underneath the capitol building sitting in some congressional aides office. It was a little different, because it was more touristy. Kind of like the first time I visited DC when I was a kid. A bunch of us went out last night and started out at the Vietnam Memorial, then ended up at the World War II Memorial. Yet again I was pretty exhausted. It would be great if I could just sleep until noon and go out until about 3 or 5 am. Alas no event will start at noon, so I will just have to learn how to function with little sleep. I need a lot of practice before SPC. Anyway as usual I had a lot of fun and came back to my little meowing crazy neurotic cat. Tonight for one night only I will sleep in my awesome king size pillow top bed. Then I will fly again and miss another KCOG meeting (I’m sorry guys). I’ll catch you all later. Hopefully I will have time to sit down and write the blog posts I promised.