SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

So I am sitting here in the Conference on the 1st day of the event and it has been so busy that this is the first chance I have had to write about my experiences.

Now this is the first conference I have been to where Microsoft Project and Project Server is the primary subject matter and of course I am here on behalf of my company (CPS).

You may be wondering what I mean by: Day Zero.

Well as part of being a Microsoft Partner with a Gold Competency in Project and Portfolio Management and one of the leading PPM partners in the UK we get involved in the various Microsoft meetings etc…  One of which is a partner appreciation pre-day to get everyone deep into Project Server together to discuss key ideas and network.

Community Recognition

Now I have been running this blog for a while now (October 2010 if I recall), but I am also a consultant by trade, so I am busy all the time and never quite know the impact of what I am putting out into the world.

Sure there are comments and I help a few peeps.  I can see daily stats which look fairly healthy, but to truly know whether you are connecting to the community; coming to an event like the Microsoft Project Conference 2012 has really hit it home that I am reaching my intended audience.

Face to face:

I walk into the partner pre-day and grab a coffee before the session starts and Andrew Lewinsky (UMT) comes up to me and says “Giles, nice to meet you, I’m …”.

Now I have never met or spoken to him in my life, but I of course know who he is.  Project MVP, works for UMT and most importantly the author of the white paper Reporting with Project Server 2010.

Not only am I recognised, but so is my company and other fellow blogger colleagues also: “Is Paul Mather here also, he keeps beating me to the punch on the MSDN forums, but his responses are sooooo good…”

Another highlight is being recognised by Christophe Fiessinger, including being mentioned in his presentation:

Christophe on stage discussing the importance of community

Focusing on the importance of PowerShell (post by Paul Mather)

Now I won’t go into the details of the Partner Appreciation Day but I would like to thank the Microsoft Project team including Jan Kalis and Christophe Fiessinger for all the arrangements, it was a useful day which I took a lot from.

I will create further posts with my further experiences of the conference with myself, Sacha Cohn (@sachacohn), Chris Pond (@ccpond) and my client Philip Stanbury-Jones including an update on how Phil and my presentations go today.

Presentations start at 15:15:

• Philip Stanbury-Jones – 8 Billion Reasons Why ARM Chose Project Server 2010 (#PC301)
• Giles Hamson – Integration SharePoint and Project Server 2010 – Deployment Approaches, Integration Options and Making the Most of the Enterprise Features (#PC324)

If you are reading this from the conference and see me, come and introduce yourself

Have fun!