Baltimore SharePoint August Meeting Recap
Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group August Meeting Recap
Written by: Shadeed Eleazer
Fresh off the overwhelming success of hosting the first SharePoint Saturday event to be held in the greater Baltimore region, the little engine that could aka Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group would resume our normal meetings on Thursday, August 20th, 2009.
There were a few burning questions that the organizational staff had for this meeting, one of which being:
What would be the meeting turnout due to at least 100 of the attendees of #spsbmore discovering BSPUG for the very first time?
For this meeting, SharePoint Author/Developer Jeff Webb was scheduled to deliver his presentation on Configuring Complex SharePoint Security.
Jeff is excellent with the dynamic nature of the SharePoint demo. He fielded each question successfully and stayed behind after the close of the meeting to field discussions in greater detail.
There were several new faces in the crowd, and after it was mentioned that they left with a good impression of the group. Most interesting new member is a Sous Chef, who is “curious to learn about technology”. During our audience introductions, there was sort of a stigma being attached to “not knowing a lot about SharePoint”. I felt it was necessary to re-inforce the concept that we ALL start somewhere. The best approach is to develop a lifetime learning approach to SharePoint in order to increase proficiency.
In addition to that, Columbia, MD based consulting firm Intellisae joined us for the meeting. Their top developers were in attendance alongside their Principal Lead so they were definitely well-represented by the group. They also are looking for top-notch .Net talent, so if interested in opportunities with the firm, please contact me.
This meeting couldn’t have gone on successfully without the aid of volunteers from our member community including hauling food and beverages to the 3rd floor and hanging up signs. Eric joined us for the intro of the meeting before hopping on a flight to London. He set up the livestream of the meeting which was very, very helpful.
Join the Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group for September’s meeting where we will welcome Linc Williams to deliver a great presentation.
Pics and footage of Jeff’s presentation are on the way.
Overall, I left with a good feeling on how this meeting turned out. This is what the SharePoint community is all about, a mix of seasoned professionals interacting with people totally new but curious about the platform. It is our goal as a User Group to provide an experience that is relevant to all skill levels that attend our meetings.
Special Thanks
Surfray and the UMBC Tech Center for sponsorship of food and location.
About Baltimore SharePoint User’s Group:
When: Every third Thursday of the month, doors open at 6pm
Where:UMBC Tech Center 1450 South Rolling Road, Halethorpe, MD 21223
Cost: Membership and meeting attendance is FREE
Info: www.baltimoresug.org
Updates: www.twitter.com/baltsharepoint