How did you spend last Saturday?

I spent my Saturday by getting up at 4am to catch a 6am flight to LA. I was on my way to attend the SharePoint Saturday event.  I can tell you from personal experience that SharePoint Saturday is the place to be.

The LA edition of the SharePoint Saturday was great. There are more events occurring around the US and around the world. Check the SharePoint Saturday web site for a city near you.

The event organizers did a fantastic job pulling together a critical mass of SharePoint Enthusiasts … AND I do mean Enthusiasts. Their pride and passion comes thru in their sessions and in their 1:1 interactions. I don’t just mean the speakers --- every attendee I spoke with was happy to share their stories and share their knowledge. Which I think is one of the key benefits of the SharePoint Saturday event.

What is the KEY BENEFIT of a SharePoint Saturday event?

SharePoint Saturday is FREE!!!

Thanks to the generous sponsors the event is able to bring SharePoint to the masses at no charge. If your business is using or thinking about using SharePoint and you don’t make the time the attend a SharePoint Saturday in your area you are doing yourself a disservice.

The other benefit … at least for me being from the LA area was to be able to get a Double Double with Grilled Onions at a true Southern California Experience. See if you can guess where this is based on the pictures below.

Need to Know More?

Check out the agenda --- it’s a mix of mostly technical topics interspersed with a business track. I’m very happy to see the SharePoint Saturday events address the business side of SharePoint. This is a big gap for SharePoint and one that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Several organizations, including Kollabria are working developing a SharePoint Business Professional certification and training programs. You can see and hear more of the core thinking around this effort at the Kollabria and Kodak Essential Business Applications for SharePoint road shows that started today in Denver.

Organizers and Numerous Volunteers

• Karuana Gitamu – SharePoint Expert and Sketchers Advocate
• Christian Buckley – SharePoint Enthusiast and Community Development pro at Echo Communications / Axceler
• Nedra Allmond – Fan and Champion of SharePoint Efforts
• Wahid Saleemi – SharePoint Guy in an Avanade World
• Henry Ong – SharePoint Engineer and Visual Studio Wrangler

Speakers

• Richard Harbridge gave an excellent presentation on The Seven Most Important SharePoint Factors.
• Owen Allen – Did a great session on Why SharePoint is a great business platform. You may know Owen from his 10+ years at Microsoft. He recently went out on his own and started his new company SharePoint Directions.
• Mike Doyle and Christian Buckley did a Social Scorecard session that hit all the right points.

If you want to see their PPT decks they will be posted to the SharePoint Saturday site shortly.

Best Quote: 
“SharePoint is a career enhancement skill” said Karuana Gitamu.

SharePint --- Not a Typo

Thanks to RackSpace for hosting (pun intended) an after party at Melody Bar. The bar had Primo Beer and was conveniently located across the street before the aforementioned In-n-Out Burger.

I hope to see you at one of the upcoming SharePoint Saturday events. The SharePoint market is growing. SharePoint has grown From Plaything to Platform in a short ten years. Get in early to be part of SharePoint’s Next Billion Dollars – attend a SharePoint Saturday event and find out why.

Need More? A few posts about SharePoint as a Platform:

• There is a SharePoint in your Future

• SharePoint and ecm – Is 2010 the year to go BIG?

• Document Capture in SharePoint is up for grabs

• Paper is an Asset

image credits: @pinkpetrol

About The Author:
I have spent the last 20 years working in various aspects of the ECM industry. I am currently with Kodak as a Director of Business Development. In my past I have spent time at Kofax, Microsoft, FileNet, K2, and at Captaris (which was acquired by Open Text). Prior to that I was a Unix VAR running my own company. Follow me on Twitter, check my blog, send email or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.