February 20, 2013

Presenting at SPS Philly 2013

Last February, I attended my first SharePoint Saturday event in Philadelphia. I was just getting back into SharePoint after a stint in the Java development world, and attending SPS was a helpful way to refresh some of my memory. It also happens that my new boss was presenting, so it didn't hurt for myself and a couple colleagues to show our support.

SPS Philly was my first real exposure to the SharePoint community, and I was blown away by the knowledge, passion, and willingness to help others shared by so many of you! After the event I started regularly attending a few NYC user groups, and am continuously impressed by everyone I meet. In July I finally tried my hand with speaking at SPS NYC, doing a "lightning talk" in which I failed to fit all of my presentation. I figured the planning/timing issues will iron themselves out with experience, and it was humbling to see so many people in the room interested in what I was there to talk about.

I'll finally be giving my first full-length SPS presentation in Philly (technically in Malvern but whatever) this Saturday and I couldn't be more excited. Or more nervous at the moment because I haven't finished putting my presentation together and have a lot going on the next few days. But I digress. I will be presenting on "User Experience Design with SharePoint" which will provide an overview of what UXD is (i.e. NOT JUST BRANDING!) as well as some of the simple but important UX shortcomings of both SharePoint 2010 and 2013. There are many things which, as SharePoint professionals, we take for granted and seem so obvious to us but are actually very difficult and unintuitive to end-users. We'll look at some of these issues and how to address them to provide a better user experience.

I'll also be helping out my friend and colleague Vijay Rajagopalan, who will be making his first full-length presentation as well. He'll be discussing the benefits of internal social collaboration and run through the social capabilities of both SharePoint 2010 and 2013. Much of the presentation and demo will be based on a client project we recently worked on together, so I'll be jumping in every now and then to discuss our solution.

My talk will be after lunch, from 12:30 - 1:45 in the 30th Street room on the first floor. Please tweet me some love, ask questions, and provide feedback using the hashtag #SPSPhilly101!

Vijay's presentation will be at 3:45 in the first floor Merion room, and will use the hash tag #SPSPhilly95. Three of my other Slalom colleagues - Anil Ferris, Hunter Pankey, and Paul Galvin - will also be presenting on various topics. It's going to be a great event and I look forward to meeting and learning from some great people!

P.S. - The final agenda for the event is posted here.

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