Scaling Mt. Trashmore
Back in the office after a very productive and energizing week on the road, I thought I’d take a moment to quickly recap my travels from this past week. I was able to spend a couple days at Axceler headquarters in the thriving megalopolis that is Woburn, MA and connect with the team.
On Wednesday, I had dinner with my good friend and Axceler partner Geoff Varosky, from Grace-Hunt, at the Capital Grille in Burlington. And I must say…. Best. Steak. Ever. While we ate, we wondered out loud why it is that we had not yet presented together? So we came up with a fantastic abstract right there on the spot, submitted it to SPTechCon Boston (being held June 1-3), and as of this afternoon – we’ve been accepted!
On Thursday, I made my way down into Boston proper and the Liberty Hotel on Beacon Hill where I participated in the Axceler End Of Year Party, meeting with folks from our London, Los Angeles, Seattle and Woburn offices. I work with an energetic and fun team, and was able to participate in a few antics as the evening wore on.
The following morning, I took about an hour to present to the entire company on the role of evangelism in the SharePoint company, and how it complements the sales process. Following my session, I was out the door and on my way to Virginia Beach, VA and the SharePoint Saturday VB speaker’s dinner, trying to avoid getting stuck by a snowstorm in either La Guardia or Reagan National airport. I made it with only a 90-min delay, joining the celebration of SharePoint Saturday’s 3rd birthday.
Saturday’s event kicked off with Mark Miller and I giving a keynote address on how to get the most out of SharePoint Saturday and the broader SharePoint community, handing out printed copies of my free community development eBook.
My first presentation on the differences between centralized and decentralized SharePoint environments, and how to move between them, can be found here:
My second presentation focused on the many different technical and non-technical planning considerations for SharePoint migrations, and can be found here:
Between presentations, I tried to make myself available at the Axceler table to answer product questions and give some quick demos of our Davinci Migrator product, while also connecting with my fellow speakers and recording footage for several new entries in The One Thing You Need to Know About SharePoint 2010 video series. It was a full day.
Following the event, many of us made our way over to SharePint to socialize. Fellow Seattleite Erica Toelle joined me in front of the big screen to watch the closing moments of the Seahawks win over the defending NFL Champion Saints in their bid to become the worst regular-season team to make the playoffs. Go Seahawks! A few of us then broke off for sushi and conversation around the corner, before making our way over to Virginia Beach’s highest hill….which happens to be an old landfill that sits above the water table (lovingly referred to as Mt. Trashmore by the locals). After a brief hike in the freezing temperature, we made our way to Tasha Scott’s mom’s house (thanks Debbie!) for some late night Rock Band 3 and root beer. (If an embarrassing video pops up on YouTube of people attempting to dance to a Kinect game, its only because they failed to pay my extortion fees)
We made our way back to our hotel rooms around 2:30am, and I made the decision to get some work done rather than nap for an hour, due to my 6am Sunday flight out of Norfolk.
Overall, I had a great time, and hope to make it back to Virginia Beach to help celebrate the 4th anniversary of SharePoint Saturday!
