SharePoint Connections 2007 Final Thoughts

The SharePoint Connections 2007 Conference wrapped up on Thursday and I have to give it mixed reviews at best. The sessions were good – the one overall positive of the event – but the event organization and planning were quite poor. As mentioned previously, there was little if any wifi access to be found and the abbreviated exhibitor hall hours were simply inexcusable. In case the people at DevConnections haven’t quite gotten the message yet, let me repeat it loud and clear – not everyone comes to these events just to sit in on sessions. They want to talk to the vendors and, from what I could see, they really want to talk to Microsoft personnel and MVP’s. And they don’t want to wait for a specified period of a few hours a day to do it. Not to mention that the vendors just plain got ripped off IMHO – all that money in terms of logistics, sponsorship costs and personnel for what amounted to less than a dozen hours of display time? That’s just criminal. Odds are long that I won’t do this event again next year unless they improve the organization and presentation.

On the plus side, there were 19 SharePoint MVP’s in attendance and we had a great time sharing war stories and socializing. It’s always great to meet people in person whom I’ve known virtually for years. In the sum of things, I believe Andrew Connell had the best week – I don’t know what his total winnings were but I have it on good authority that he was well in the black. Not being a gambling man, I only contributed about $40 to the casino’s coffers but they made up their profits in food and drink (BTW, just as a general rule of thumb, try to avoid drinking eight Whiskey Girls at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill in one sitting – just take my word for it).