Preparing to Hit the Road Down Under
After a nine-day stretch off the road, I’ll be departing US shores and flying south of the equator to join my SharePoint compatriots in Melbourne for my second Australian SharePoint Conference next week, followed by the New Zealand SharePoint Conference taking place in Auckland. While I enjoyed my trip to Sydney and Wellington last year, I am excited to experience some new cities in these beautiful countries, and see some friends who I just don’t get to hang out with much.
Of course, there is some actual work happening on this trip. Honest. Actually, I am feeling slammed this week, and have some work still to do to complete my presentations for next week. And while on the road, I have a fairly heavy content schedule, which now will include videos and exclusive articles from the road. For those keeping track, here are the events in front of me this month:
- IAMCP Seattle, March 15
At this month’s meeting, we have guest speaker Tina Hanson, MPN Marketing Manager from the US MPN Team at Microsoft, joining us to present “Microsoft Pinpoint Tips and Tricks – How to make Your Profile Stand Apart.”
If you are a registered Microsoft partner and would like to join us for this event, you can register at http://iamcpseattle.eventbrite.com/
- Puget Sound SharePoint User Group (#PSSPUG), March 15
I will be presenting at Thursday’s user group on the topic “Why Social Should Be at the Center of Your SharePoint Strategy”. Following my presentation, Owen Allen will present “Bringing SharePoint to Life with Metadata”
This will be the first PSSPUG meeting since Axceler signed on as a sponsor, and I’m trying to build my schedule this year around the SPUG activities so that I can be here as much as possible. If you’d like to attend, you can find more info at https://www.psspug.org/Pages/Home.aspx
- Australian SharePoint Conference (#AUSPC), March 20+21
As mentioned above, the conference has moved down to Melbourne this year. I’ll be presenting an updated version of “The Connection Between Metadata, Social Tools, and Personal Productivity” with some fun visuals. Really looking forward to this event. If you’re interested in attending, tickets are still available at http://www.sharepointconference.com.au/2012/SitePages/Home.aspx
- Perth Roundtable, March 23
Following AUSPC, I’m making my way across the continent to Perth for a couple days of meetings with partners, customers, and Microsoft reps, and will be facilitating a roundtable discussion on governance and administration issues in a hybrid SharePoint environment. The event will be hosted by The Birchman Group and Microsoft, and held at the Microsoft facilities in Perth. If you’d like to participate, please contact Vijay Raghvani.
- Perth SPUG (#PerthSPUG), March 23
Directly following the roundtable at noon, I will be presenting at the Perth SharePoint user group on “Law & Order: Content Governance Strategies,” also sponsored by The Birchman Group and Microsoft. If you’d like to attend, you can register at ttp://march2012perthspug.eventbrite.com/
- New Zealand SharePoint Conference (#NZSPC), March 28+29
Over the weekend, I’ll depart Australia and head over to the south island for a couple days of wandering through Christchurch, Queenstown, and Invercargill before heading north to Auckland for a repeat performance of my session in Melbourne. Of course, I’ll have some things customized for the kiwi crowd, so hope to see you there. You can register at http://www.sharepointconference.co.nz/2012/SitePages/Home.aspx
Now, for those who participated in last year’s NZ event, you may be aware of the little video that we recorded at the end of that week (photo above). I’m not sure if Paul Culmsee (@paulculmsee) is once again up for the task of performing, but there has been talk about a live, on stage performance of MOSS World in Melbourne and/or Auckland. Paul has been silent on the topic, so who knows. I’m up for it.
Looking forward to spending time in the region, and participating once again at these well-organized and action-packed events, Thanks once again to Debbie Ireland, Mark Orange, James Milne, Mark Rhodes, Kathy Hughes, and Nick Hadlee for having me again this year. See you soon!
