Geekette's Blogette

During the closing session of Virginia Beach SharePoint Saturday, I guy came in alone and sat next to me.  I started chatting with him and found he was very impressed with the event.  He had never heard of User Groups, Code Camps and had found out about SharePoint Saturday by chance.  He wanted to know how to find out more.  My initial reaction was to collect his email address, promise to send him information and then maybe send it to him in a few weeks. 

Then I remembered and gave him the link to CommunityMegaphone.  He had his laptop, immediately checked out the site and bookmarked it.  I have shared that site so many times as an easy to remember way to keep up with events. 

Then he asked what user groups there were in his area.  Turns out he was from the DC area so I started listing them.  He mentioned he was from the same town as the mid-Atlantic DE, Andrew Duthie.  I remembered the user group map on Andrew's blog of all the mid-Atlantic user groups.  I shared the link, he clicked the map and said "Wow!  This is great.  I can find out anything I want to know between these two sites."

Thanks Andrew, for making it easy to share with the developer community.

The first, ever (but not last) SharePoint Saturday was held January 10th in Virginia Beach.  Congratulations to the organizers of this very successful event.  The primary organizers were

• Susan Lennon - Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads UG leader
• Michael Lotter - SharePoint architect, author and evangalist
• Kevin Israel - Richmond UG leader

There was an awesome lineup of presenters including many SharePoint MVPs and authors.  Each of them volunteered not only their time but many paid their own expenses.  I saw sessions from the following and all were excellent.  There were at least five more sessions I would have liked to attend but I have yet to figure out how to attend two sessions at once.  The organizers have promised to post slide content soon. 

• Todd Bleeker
• Joel Oleson
• Josh Carlisle
• Becky Isserman

As always, I spent time talking to old friends and making new ones. 

There will be more SharePoint Saturdays.  Kansas City and New York have been scheduled and there are more in planning stages including DC.  Watch for news on their site and register early.  The inaugural event sold out!