Q1 is Ramping Up

After a massive 2011 Q4 travel schedule followed by two weeks of vacation (I don’t think I’ve taken that long of a vacation in 10+ years), the year has been relatively quiet. After a great SharePoint Saturday event in Virginia Beach, I spent a week in Boston with the entire Axceler North American and Asia Pacific sales organizations, sharing with them a snapshot of evangelism activities in 2011 and our strategy for 2012. It was a great event, and I left feeling extremely energized, and ready for SharePoint Saturday Austin.

And then Seattle experienced “Snowpocalypse 2012” and I found myself working from home for a week while Puget Sound authorities debated the evils of throwing salt on the roads (it kills salmon, you know) or maybe investing in some snow removal equipment (just not a priority). That debate will rage on, and in the meantime Seattle residents will need to fend for themselves if snow reappears.

It seems strange to go from seventeen SharePoint Saturdays in 2011 to only two in Q1….and I couldn’t even get to the Austin event due to SeaTac’s inability to deal with a couple inches of snow. But I’ve been keeping busy. I have some big writing projects coming up over the next couple months, and some large events. Here’s where I’ll be in the remaining weeks of Q1:

• San Fernando Valley SharePoint User Group (#SFVSPUG) was last night (2/8). I presented “The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity.” A version of my slides are here, and you can register to attend future SFVSPUG meetings here.
• IAMCP Seattle chapter meeting on Thursday, Feb 16th. This month we’ll be doing a speed networking event as a way to better get to know each other, and introduce the board members to the community. Event registration is here. I’m planning to stick around the Civica Building in Bellevue to join the Puget Sound SharePoint User Group later that evening.
• Office365 Saturday Redmond (#o365redmond), Saturday Feb 25th. Chris Beckett and I are organizing this event, with Steven Fowler, Owen Allen, Erica Toelle, Carsten Winsnes, and Leroy Collinwood rounding out the committee. We’re taking a page from the SharePoint Saturday playbook with a day of Office365 content around SharePoint, Lync and Exchange. I am also participating in an “Ask the Experts” panel on planning, strategy, and governance which should be very insightful. The event website is here, and registration is here.
• SPTechCon San Francisco. I’m flying down to SFO Sunday afternoon, attending an O’Reilly party that night, and then flying out late Monday night. I have two main sessions during the day, and am doing a “lightning talk” Monday night which should not be missed. My regular sessions include “Mastering SharePoint Migration Planning” and the popular “Looking Under the Hood: How Your Metadata Strategy Impacts Everything You Do.” Axceler is also hosting “the” party at SPTechCon, called SharePoint Nomikai. Register for SPTechCon here, and for the Nomikai party here
• MVP Summit runs all week, which is why I am leaving SPTechCon so early. It’s unfortunate that these two events overlap, as SPTechCon is one of the best conference out there. As this is my first summit as a newly minted SharePoint MVP, I am looking forward to spending some quality time with the product team and with my fellow MVPs from around the world.
• Australia SharePoint Conference (#AUSPC).takes place March 20th and 21st in Melbourne, Australia. I am heading down under that weekend, arriving Monday the 19th in time to participate in some customer meetings followed by the speaker dinner. Axceler is sponsoring the event, and we’ll have a booth, so please come say hello. My session will be a new version of “The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity.”  You can register for the event here.
• Following AUSPC, I am heading to Perth for a couple days of Microsoft, customer and partner meetings, and plan to organize a SharePint  on Friday, March 23rd. I’ll be tweeting details from the road.
• New Zealand SharePoint Conference (#NZSPC) takes place March 28th and 29th in Auckland. I’ll be repeating my session from Australia, but I’ll be adding a few unique items. Register for the event here.

While this may seem like a lot of activity to some, to me it feels like a calm before the storm. Q2 will once again be insane. The extra time at home is allowing me to work on several key pieces of content coming out before the end of the quarter, as well as more time working with the extended Axceler team to better connect with the SharePoint community and our customers and partners.Add to all that my regular posts to the Axceler blog, AIIM.org, CMSWire, and other portals, it’s a full docket. We had an amazing 2011, but we’re looking forward to an even better 2012.