Among Friends in Stockholm

I’m not sure how many countries I’ve visited – its not something I’m tracking too closely. The only reason I know I’m over 250,000 miles traveled this year (to date) is that I use a couple online tools to track my travel planning. But even then, I’ve got blinders on for the trip in front of me, and rarely go back to recount the details once I’m home. But this week was a real treat when I visited Sweden for the first time.

My expectations were high: coming from a week in United Arab Emirates followed by Israel, I wanted cooler weather, some cloud cover, and maybe a little rain. I got it all. I flew into Stockholm just after a light rain, and found myself very comfortable in the Seattle-like weather. I was in country with Jamie Box, Julian Kelly, and Cat Morgan from my London team to attend the SharePoint and Exchange Forum (#SEF12).

An interesting twist was that 80% or more of the companies represented are already Axceler customers, so many of the booth visits were from happy customers who wanted to stop by and say hello. Of course, there were new business opportunities, to be sure, but the entire event just had a casual vibe because my team knew most of the folks who stopped by.

As for the speakers at the event (I was not presenting), there were many familiar faces: Andrew Connell, Penny Coventry, Dan Holme, Christina Wheeler, Paul Swider, Eric Shupps, Marc Anderson, Marcy Kellar, Wictor Wilen, Todd Klindt, Mirjam van Olst, and Spence Harbar among others. Leading the event was Goran Husman from Humandata, who is also an Office365 MVP. Goran did a great job of keeping things moving smoothly, and injecting his sense of humor into everything. The event was an excellent opportunity for participants to get a view of SharePoint 2013, as well as some of the best expert guidance on 2010 – a perfect event for those who cannot make it over to Las Vegas next month for the Microsoft-sponsored SharePoint Conference (which is why the theme of SEF was ‘Las Vegas,’ complete with a Vegas-style casino night and dinner).

It was a quick trip, but I was able to get a view of the city on our walks back and forth between the hotel and the venue. Did you know that Stockholm is built across several islands? I didn’t realize that until I found myself crossing bridge after bridge. An incredibly beautiful city with very friendly people. I’m hoping to make it back early next year, possibly while in the Nordics region for the European SharePoint Conference in Copenhagen. I’d love to go back and present to the local SharePoint SPUG. I’ll definitely be submitting for SEF next year.