A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at SharePoint Fest – Denver, hosted by David Wilhelm and the rest of his team. This post is well overdue so I not only wanted to provide my slidedecks but also some of my experiences.
First, to those that attended my sessions, thank you and I hope that I was able to provide you valuable information that you were able to take back and use on your SharePoint projects. If you did not catch my slideshare links via twitter (@ericoverfield) then now is your chance to grab them.
My first session was an overview of Mobile and SharePoint. I stressed the importance of considering mobile devices in your current or upcoming SharePoint projects. Mobile devices are only going to become more pervasive both in front of and behind the firewall.
My second session was a much more technical talk investigating SharePoint and Responsive Web Design. It is very difficult to truly dive into the workings of Responsive Web Design in 60 minutes but we did our best.
If you want to get started with Responsive Web Design and SharePoint, I highly recommend you review Responsive SharePoint, a CodePlex project that I am proud to be a part of. This project contains both a SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2010 implementation of the Twitter Bootstrap framework.
Also, for those that requested more information on the book I am co-authoring, you can pre-order that from Amazon. We are still aiming for a May 15th publication date. Pro SharePoint 2013 Branding and Responsive Web Development (APress, 2013).
SharePoint Fest Denver
Let me tell you, if you are looking for a good conference to attend, consider SharePoint Fest. I had heard good things about SharePoint Fest Chicago 2012, and I was not disappointed in Denver. I found the event itself was well executed. The session lineup was very impressive with sessions tailored for the end user through to hard core SharePoint Developers. I tried to pop my head in to as many sessions as I could and all of the speakers I saw had excellent information to share.
The attendees make the difference. Different conferences attract different crowds and I really liked the group in Denver. There were people from all over the country including Canada. The conversations were outstanding, the attendees are there not for a vacation or a sales pitch, rather because they have a project that needs to get done and are looking for training and guidance to help them. Although I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience of SharePoint, I also enjoy conversing with others willing to share their projects, insights and observations.
I always prefer conferences where the attendees feel comfortable and are looking to engage with others. I had some really interesting conversations with quite a few people. I may be strange I suppose, but I do enjoy the challenges poised by those demanding a lot out of their SharePoint sites, in particular those challenges that really push the limits. I am always amazed at what organizations have done with SharePoint and the attendees had some great examples. I have to give credit to the organizers as they are doing something right in getting us all together.
I am looking forward to my next SharePoint Fest in Washington DC, August 5-7. For those of you who can’t (or won’t) venture to DC in August, there is another SharePoint Fest in Chicago, October 6-8.
As always it was also fun to hang out with my SharePoint buds. I appreciate the good times. If I don’t catch you at an upcoming SharePoint Saturday (Portland, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley to name a few) then hopefully in DC, Chicago or at SPTechCon in Boston.
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