Whether it’s technology, a life skill, an art form or sport; it all starts the same way: You discover something that piques your interest, a spark is lit and you investigate some more.  You get excited then research as much as you can. You’ll pluck up the courage to ask questions and start testing out your new skills.  Your confidence will slowly grow and you gain more experience and try spreading your wings.  You’ll get excited by it and want to share it with everyone.

It’s the most beautiful thing to witness.

The quickest way to extinguish this amazing process by brave people, is by shooting them down while they are still learning. It just amazes me how so called “experts”, who in some cases are just know-it-alls, are so quick to knock down someone who has an interest in their field just because they don’t get it exactly right.

So what if people don’t get it exactly right; they are still learning!  Instead of being cruel and angry about it, why not gently guide them in the right direction and explain what was wrong?  Would that kill anybody?

If you are a learner in a new field and come across someone who shouts you down, get away from those people as soon as possible and don’t listen to them. Those are not the type of people you want to be getting advice from in future if that’s the way they operate.  There’s a saying something about not letting one angry voice drown out the sounds of hundreds of supportive voices. It’s sometimes easier said than done because their harsh words can totally knock the wind out of your sails.  Get up, forget them, and move on.  Follow your dream.

If you are the “expert”, please be patient with people and remember where you came from.  There was a time when you knew nothing too.  Becoming an arrogant, egotistical bully doesn’t serve anyone.  Rather keep your opinions to yourself if you can’t offer constructive and gentle criticism.

Just be love.

Johannesburg - Lizl Snyman will be sharing her thoughts on driving adoption through standards and governance in a project environment.  Register online.

Cape Town - Paul Spagnoletti will be sharing ideas on using SharePoint for contracts management and the benefits to be derived from doing so. Register online.

It’s all free so see you there.  Don’t forget to bring business cards and come network over drinks and snacks after the sessions.  Why not bring a friend and help grow the SharePoint community.

If you know any technical people in the SharePoint space, don’t forget to refer them to Information Worker.  Their events also take place on Community Night in the same time slots.

Having a small geographically dispersed, virtual team means we have to have an online environment where we can collaborate on and share information.  It may not look gorgeous, but it works!  For us that’s more important right now, along with lots of storage space.

Our team consists of 3 permanents, 2 part timers and an accountant who need access to our intranet.  We’re scattered between Sharonlea, Bryanston, Sandton, Hartbeesport Dam and Centurion.  We don’t need offices because all our work is done at our clients and we share everything on our intranet.  We use restaurants to meet when required and as an excuse to have a lunch and a get-together over a glass of wine or a beer.  Then watch our creative juices flow! We’ve had amazing ideas flourish like this.

You may notice our very scientific name.  You’d think considering what we do we could come up with a better one!  Not yet.  So in the meantime our credo is – if it’s not on SharePoint it doesn’t exist.

We use Office 365 for the following :

• Home Page : Company News to share happenings.  An RSS feed to the Information Worker blogroll.  A to-do list  for any special projects to be done over and above the day to day stuff.  About Us Section to explain what to do as a new employee, what we do as a business and the long term vision, all our details like registration numbers, addresses, switchboard number etc. A list for contacts details of all staff and suppliers; a database of our clients and partners, along with statuses which feeds the invoicing, timesheet and projects areas.  How We Work – the day to day operations and just the way we do things here.  
• Admin Page : a database of all delegates that have come on training so we can extract reports for clients on demand, manage the waitlist, manage all the invoices and track what’s been sent, to whom, for how much; what got paid and when – we extract reports from this to pick up trends.  We’re trying to keep all the expenses and statements and things in there too, but it is proving to be too overwhelming with the amount of documentation that gets emailed in so many different formats to different people. All the payslips get stored here, Office 365 news, templates for all the docs, company logos. 
• Training Portal Page : The PDF versions of all training material to send to clients on demand.  Training packs to print for each course, registers for all courses with information of who’s training, how many people registered. Registers are scanned in and uploaded by the trainers which we can send to clients on demand.  The calendar to keep track of who’s training where and when.  Timesheets list for all staff to capture hours so we can extract reports on demand and issue invoices on the time spent.  The Internal Training subsite has all the editable training material.  Cool Tools is awesome software we’ve found to make our lives easier or fun.  Course material is any material we obtained from attending courses. SharePoint 2013 is our self study library for this version. All the editable versions of our training material is stored here. We discuss new training course ideas here too.
• Projects Page : Any documentation we receive or share with clients is kept here.  A register of all projects underway is updated twice a month.  A wiki of our clients’ intranets listed so everyone knows what they’re called and how they work. Client logos also here to use in documents or on our website. The Pipeline lists all future work to be planned for.
• Events Page : We manage our company birthday, the Share Conference, SharePoint Saturday Jhb from this page. We store and compare quotes and do budgets for the events, and share fun ideas.
• Lets Empower : Is a collaboration between us on a forthcoming SharePoint book.  We capture chapters using a list instead of Word which makes it so much easier to work with.
• Our Internet Presence : A list of all our public facing websites in case someone needs to refer a client to them.
• MVP Page : Where I store all my annual submission documentation as well as awarded docs and logos.
• Sandbox : Links to a separate site collection where everyone has Site Collection Admin access to go play.

There are weekly summary alerts set up to everyone for the Company News on the home page where anyone can add news.  I’ve got random alerts on other places just to keep an eye on the most important things, but I must be honest, now that it’s months later; I don’t need to have them.  Everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to be.

We believe in total transparency in LC, so everyone gets to see everything.  For us it helps to keep everyone on the same page, and also we’re a backup for each other when one of us needs some time off.  We have documented how to do everything in case of illness and someone needs to step in.

We’re keeping it simple and something we use, and when there’s time, we evaluate it to see what can be streamlined or made sexier.  Anyone is allowed to innovate and make changes to the system long as they do it themselves, communicate and see it through to the end.

As a business owner, it’s freed up my time considerably after the initial work to get it set up (months that took I might add!).  Having an intranet in a small business can change your life forever! Bottlenecks are removed and information starts flowing and that’s vital for growth.  We all work weird and wonderful hours, so we don’t need to wait for stuff to be emailed to us the next day because it’s all online.  We never email attachments internally – heads will roll – we only send links.

We don’t need to worry about servers and backups, it’s all taken care of.  Not only that, but because email is included in Office 365, it’s all also backed up and available from any device any time.

We’ll be doing the visual upgrade to our intranet to SharePoint 2013 this month and the fun and games will begin all over again.

Today, many will open their eyes to the beauty that surrounds them. Why not you?

Today, many will choose to leave the ghost of yesterday behind and seize the immeasurable power of today. Why not you?

Today, many will break through the barriers of the past by looking at the blessings of the present. Why not you?

Today, for many the burden of self doubt and insecurity will be lifted by the security and confidence of empowerment. Why not you?

Today, many will rise above their believed limitations and make contact with their powerful innate strength. Why not you?

Today, many will choose to live in such a manner that they will be a positive role model for their children. Why not you?

Today, many will choose to free themselves from the personal imprisonment of their bad habits. Why not you?

Today, many will choose to live free of conditions and rules governing their own happiness. Why not you?

Today, many will find abundance in simplicity. Why not you?

Today, many will be confronted by difficult moral choices and they will choose to do what is right instead of what is beneficial. Why not you?

Today, many will decide to no longer sit back with a victim mentality, but to take charge of their lives and make positive changes. Why not you?

Today, many will take the action necessary to make a difference. Why not you?

Today, many will make the commitment to be a better mother, father, son, daughter, student, teacher, worker, boss, brother, sister, & so much more. Why not you?

Today is a new day!

Many will seize this day.

Many will live it to the fullest.

Why not you?”

Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Available on Amazon in Kindle format

• “60% of supermarket purchases are unplanned.  Anything that enables the shopper to make a faster, easier, better decision will help spur these unplanned purchases.”
• “The new energy drinks have the best chance with the urban upscale shopper; while the rural ethic and urban shoppers remain slightly more loyal to soda.  Depending on it’s clientele, each store has a unique DNA.”
• “But the real genius of their marketing plan was found in a contrivance that would appeal to both kids and moms.  The drinks were made mostly with sugar, artificial flavours and preservatives.  In each plastic bottle however, the company would add a splash of real fruit juice.  It was barely half a tablespoon, a mere 5% of the total formula; but the Kool-Aid managers already new that even a hint of fruit was worth a zillion times its weight in marketing gold.”
• “The government was buying more cheese than it could ever give away.  It accumulated into a stack that weighed 1.9 billion pounds that cost taxpayers $4 billion a year.  The mountain grew so large in fact, the government began secreting it away in caverns and a vast, abandoned limestone mine near Kansas City; deep beneath the ground in more bags, barrels and boxes than the mind can imagine.”
• “Indeed, when it comes to the greatest source of fat – meat and cheese – the Department of Agriculture has joined industry as a full partner in the most urgent mission of all : cajoling the people to eat more.”
• “Anyone who designs a product or an advertising appeal based on what people say they want, is an utter fool!”
• “Worried that they were losing their touch, they brought in a budding expert on the cravings that snacks like these were supposed to generate.”
• “I could move that bliss point up or down depending on what other foods or beverages I put in the frame of reference.”
• “Cheetos is one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet in terms of pure pleasure, ticking off a dozen attributes that make the brain say more. It’s called vanishing caloric density.  If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks there’s no calories in it, and, like popcorn, you can just keep eating it forever.”
• “Doritos 3D, a puffy spherical version of the flat chip whose added dimension increases the surprise factor when you take a bite.  And surprise is a very good thing for increasing consumption.”
• “Thus the strategy for strategy for millennials became snackable entertainment. The company’s chips would be promoted through sporting events like the Super Bowl and games like XBox. Already these efforts had brought in double-digit gains in sales.”
• “Many of the executives I spoke to go out of their way to avoid eating their own products.”

It just goes on and on and on ….  A damning, name-and-shame, year-by-year account of how a few food giants have purposefully orchestrated the most broken food system we have ever had on this planet. One cannot help but say “you bastards” on just about every page of this book as it explains how sneaky food science and inescapable marketing funded by billions of Dollars makes for one hooked, obese, ill consumer base.  You and me.  And all for money.

If you cannot lose weight, if you are plagued by allergies, digestive tract problems, cravings, headaches, cholesterol, depression, cannot stop eating, got kids that are out of control or sickly … you need to look no further than this book to understand where it all came from and how completely innocent you are.  Tests done with 6 year olds!  Marketing plans targeted at kids that young!  Get them early and you’ll have them for life type of thing.  So called healthy low fat, bran options all pure lies! There is nothing healthy about any of them.  They bring down the salt, but then up the fat and sugar.  Do you realise you are eating on average 22 spoons of sugar a day if you’re eating processed foods?  You need to research the term ‘bliss point‘.

The guilt you have been feeling every time you eat something, every time you feed your kids junk food because you’re just too tired and it’s all they will eat … it’s all been carefully orchestrated by an elite few food, beverage and tobacco companies.  Then they’ve got the cheek to say that us as consumers need to eat less and more healthy when their products have been chemically engineered to make us completely addicted to them and completely incapable of stopping eating!  Plus bringing out fake healthy alternatives for us that merely drive up their sales. And then topping it all off with misleading and confusing labeling to pull the wool over your eyes about what you’re eating.  It’s nothing short of criminal.

It makes me sick! No pun intended!  And very very angry.  And very very sad.

There are about 60 000 products on our shelves designed like this and owned by 10 companies – you still think you have freedom of choice?

What you may not realise from reading this book, is the double whammy its content exposes to those who do know this part – the genetically modified food industry that supplies all these companies with the base ingredients that go into their convenience foods, “convenience with a capital C!”. Apart from the extremely high levels of salt, sugar and fat that are already killers, the base GM ingredients are affecting our DNA and causing every dreaded disease known to mankind, and then being passed on from mother to child whilst in the womb. Join the global March Against Monsanto on 25 May 2013!  (Jhb event, Cpt event).

There is no escaping this perfect storm, apart from one : Go cold turkey and stop buying every single one of those products right now.  It’s how all addicts have to stop, and do not be under any illusions here, you are a food addict. They’ve turned us into them.

Stopping is the only power we have.

I know you’re tired; I know you don’t have the time.  But staying in the middle of this perfect storm is nothing short of catastrophic for you and your family. The irony is, if you took the time to change to locally produced, organic, chemical free alternatives, you will have more energy you ever had before and thus more time on your hands.  The government is not going to take care of you.  These corporations do not care about you.  You need to learn to take care of yourself!

“Are health foods really expensive?  It depends on how you measure the price”.

Here’s a list of organic suppliers in the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas, as well as a long list of resources on genetically modified foods.  It gets added to all the time.

Please, read this book.  It will change your life.

It is safe to say that not all SharePoint trainers are created equally, but the good ones care deeply about their craft and take their impact on your life and productivity very seriously.  The good ones are packed full of energy and know how to keep you riveted right to the end of the day.  The good ones spend years fine-tuning their approach to make sure you get the best experience for the day and leave there feeling energised and wanting more. The good ones know that it’s not about the technology, it’s about the people and the bigger picture.  The good ones pride themselves on getting the very best feedback for doing an outstanding job.  The good ones leave no man behind and make sure that everyone in the room gains knowledge and value.  The good ones are delighted to see everyone leave smiling and feeling positive.  Well that’s what we do at Lets Collaborate anyway…

We take this very seriously; so nothing can ruin our day more than having a student sleeping in our training.  It absolutely astounds me.  Our team is not a quiet one by any stretch of the imagination and our energy levels can light up the sun most days, so it baffles me completely when someone quite promptly closes their eyes and has a nap – and has no qualms about doing it either.  We then address questions to them, try and engage them directly so they can regain some energy – but once in a while, a person just sleeps.

I don’t pretend to understand the psychology or deeper reasons for business professionals behaving this way, suffice to say that maybe you are working your staff too hard if they have to come to a training session to get some sleep. I worked with someone years ago who also just slept in the middle of the office in the middle of the day.  Who does that? I just don’t understand it.  If you’re that tired, go home because you’re not getting anything done anyway and you’re affecting the people around you. It is soul-destroying for a person who lives to do SharePoint training to be faced with this.

So again we say : make sure the right people are being sent to SharePoint training and that those people want to come to training.  Otherwise you are just wasting your money.

If that happens, I hope this blog post will help you justify that.  I’ve been redesigning the Lets Collaborate website yet again – I get bored with it so easily.  Five site pages took me nearly 8 hours to do, 5 site pages!  And I’ve been doing SharePoint full-time for 7 years this year! And this is just done using PowerPoint, not even code anywhere. And I’m not finished.  So don’t be disheartened if things are taking you a while, that’s just how it goes. Especially when you need to do the pretty stuff.  Just remember, before you get to the pretty stuff, you have to build the backbone first, your lists and libraries.

Go figure.

There are two completely different user groups : SBW and IW.

SharePoint Business Workshops (SBW) - #SBWJHB, #SBWCPT, Facebook : This is the non technical, business user community. We discuss all SharePoint front-end, business specific related topics like governance, taxonomy, records management, training, adoption, ownership, information architecture, etc.  It is run by myself, Kate Elphick and Paul Spagnoletti.  It takes place monthly in Joburg and Cape Town.  Contact SBW.

Information Worke (IW) - #IWSA : This is the technical community of IT Pros, Architects, Designers and Developers.  They discuss all back-end, code and integration related SharePoint issues like backups, mobility, branding, farm architecture, database management, etc.  It is run by Marlon Green, Kevin Coetzee, Marc Lenferna, Bradley Geldenhuys, Alistair Pugin and Lynda Hunter.  It takes place monthly in Joburg, Cape Town and Durban.  Contact  IW.

They both take place on the second Tuesday of every month.  They both have their own mailing lists and registration forms.  In Joburg they take place on Community Night.

Community Night consists of various technology user groups hosting their events at Microsoft’s office in Bryanston.  There are two different timeslots, the first one starting at 4pm, the second one at 6:30pm.  The Developer, SQL, Gaming and BI communities are all represented at Community Night.

There is no IW taking place tonight as they are all at Teched, but SBW will go ahead as per normal.  See you at 4pm.  Hope this helped.

Last year we did a lot for the environment.  This year it’s all about people.  We’re doing a blanket and warm clothes drive!  Please bring any extra stuff you may have so it can be donated to charity.  The Joburg Harley Davidson Club, Hogs, is going to descend upon us to come collect our donations.

8 June is the date – be there or be square!

It’s going to be great to support the Cape Town audience again, and I’m sure Paul will come up with all kinds of ingenious sessions for you to attend.  Paul is going to be looking for speakers, so if you’re keen to try your hand, please contact him.

SBW April is next week, so register online if you can make it.  There is no charge for these monthly events and Microsoft provides drinks and snacks for you too. Bring those business cards and come network.

The New World Order and depopulation plan is a very real threat that is well and truly underway right under our very noses.  We have all been reduced to expendable slaves and these people’s plans are pretty much complete.  It just has to play out until enough of us are dead.  Every system on earth has been carefully orchestrated and manipulated, and each and every one of us has been willing pawns.  The storm is not coming, it is here now. Food manipulation, air and water pollution, decimation of eco-systems, politics, the global financial model, religion, sport, government, mainstream media, women’s rights, healthcare systems, vaccinations, education, war, commerce, energy – it’s all been designed since 1776 to keep a few very wealthy sociopaths at the top of the food chain and you and me at the very bottom in debt, taxed to death, powerless, tired, scared and all but guaranteed to get very very sick one day from man-made diseases.

You may be thinking right now “oh no, she’s a conspiracy theorist, I’m outta here”.  But I urge to think about this for a moment.  Have you ever known me to speak about something publicly unless I am 100% sure about my facts?  Have I not shared all my knowledge with you to the very best of my ability since I started in the SharePoint world?  Have I not spoken up for those that can’t at every opportunity, against injustices?  Have I not spoken at conferences all over the world despite the odds of where I started?  Did I not spend years building a global reputation so I could be taken seriously in our industry?

Would I really risk throwing it all away if I wasn’t absolutely sure of what I was saying now?

A large part of my journey was started when someone I really respected in this industry posted a video to his Facebook wall.  I would normally have totally ignored it but because it was him; someone who’s opinion and ethics I admire, I clicked it.  Likewise now – if you believe I am someone who has spoken common sense in the past, please don’t just ignore what I am trying to tell you. Please do some research.  Even the most cursory research exposes some very uncomfortable facts.

The months of research led me to the book The New World Order Facts and Fiction by Mark Dice which I completed last week.  I think it’s a good starting point if you want to know more because it covers a bit of information on all the systems in place and it has tons of resources at the end.  You can then choose the subjects that pique your interest the most and take it from there.  It can be a very distressing journey, so please email me if you ever need to talk about it.  

You can write me off as a cook now if you want to, you have every freedom to do that.  I’d just like to leave you with one parting thought : What if I’m right?

Question everything.

Make a Diffs Monday has been initiated very recently by a new friend of mine, Liesel Waterson Kilian.  She started it on Twitter and it advanced immediately to Facebook.

The idea is simple – every Monday you do one unpaid act that positively impacts humanity, report back on what you did on Tuesday, and recruit at least one person to do the same.

When you recruit someone on Twitter, you inform the person who recruited you, like this :

On Facebook, it’s like this :

So go on, join us.  Every bit helps.  Get your creative juices flowing and extend a hand of kindness.  Your whole world could change.

It doesn’t have to stop on Mondays of course.  There’s a whole week to fill with goodness!

How can you expect someone to grasp and embrace a complex technology when they don’t even know the difference between Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer; when they can barely type, or save a document, or switch between windows, or open a new browser tab?  Not a week goes by where we don’t see this happening.  You simply can’t expect your staff to get SharePoint right when they don’t have the basics under the belt.

An introduction to how the PC works and basic Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook skills are really critical if you want your staff to be empowered to do their jobs with any efficiency. SharePoint training is always a high expense in a company.  Instead of throwing that money down the drain by having to retrain people over and over; make sure the people that are being sent to training have the basic skills covered.  They will then be better prepared to take on a more complex technology because they won’t have the fear of computers hanging over their heads.  Empower your people.

The biggest joke of all is the mining companies’ claim that it won’t affect the water in the area. Yeah right. And that they will rehabilitate the area. Yeah right. That they are uplifting local communities.  Yeah right. We all know how that’s going to turn out. See how one of the mining houses paints mining as such a happy story – it’s only happy for the big bosses of the mining houses isn’t it.  The destruction they leave behind is never mentioned. It all just reminds me of the movie Avatar.

I just feel so completely sick to my stomach. So completely helpless. Why, why, why, why, why do people do this? Why do we let them? Why? Does nobody care anymore?? Please, I BEG you, I beg each and every one of you, please care, please! Do you not feel it? Does it not rip at your insides to watch this happening?  Really? Are you that out of touch with your connection to the Universe, are you that numb? I don’t understand how it doesn’t cause you physical pain to bear witness to the destruction of our environment and all its creatures.  Don’t you know that you - you sitting in that chair feeling powerless and just too tired to care – has the power to change everything? No don’t look behind you, look in the mirror!

Do you really think it’s ok to destroy every inch of nature around us for money? That it’s ok to maim and torture animals under the most terrible conditions just to feed us?  That it’s ok to rape and murder children in the name of religion and war? That it’s ok to spend trillions on stupid war games when millions of people starve every day?  To purposefully mess with the food system so people are guaranteed to get sick so the pharmaceutical companies can make even more profit?  Do you really not understand that we are intricately connected to water, air, soils, plants and animals around us?  That when we’re finished destroying our environment we will have no quality of life left to us; does no-one get this??

The sooner we blow ourselves up the better. We don’t deserve to be here. We have taken everything that is beautiful and just destroyed it – the environment, the goodness in people, love. It’s all gone.  I completely get why people get so absolutely infuriated with the state of the world, I really do, because I get just as furious. It’s from sheer frustration of the magnitude of wrong that has been done over the past 150 years and continues unabated.  And it infuriates me even more when people of means, great influence and highly intelligent brains waste their considerable talents on frivolous nonsense that is only part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Well this is me coming out of the closet.  I will stand for this no more.  I am going to do everything in my power to make people wake up, see what’s going on, and demand the right to live a humane life that is respectful to all life.  To not settle for an existence that supports only the super-rich megalomaniacs running the system who see us as expendable slaves! I refuse to play this game of destruction for another minute and am going to change my entire journey to get out of the city, off the grid, self sustaining, and living in harmony with nature.  My every waking moment will be in pursuit of the truth and a better life.  My journey is being documented on Sustain Me.  If you’re not up to hearing some very uncomfortable truths, and are happy to be a slave to the system, then this would be a good time to unsubscribe from me, because I’m not going to let up.  I’m going to shake the tree until everybody just wakes up!  I’m angry!  I’m really angry!

Staying positive today has been extremely challenging as the weight of all that’s wrong on this planet is laid out before me.  Watching that episode was the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back.  It’s hard to believe that all there is, is love; when all you see around you is hate, destruction and despair.  I need some time to get my head around everything, to figure out how I can be part of the solution!

So to my ever faithful SharePoint followers, my apologies to you, but this blog will no longer only be about SharePoint.  It’s going to be about awareness and education on what’s going on out there.  I get on average 10 000 visits a month, I have a responsibility to use this audience wisely.  You are all humans, living here on this amazing planet.  These issues affect each and every one of you.  If we carry on the way we are, we won’t be around in 100 years.  That means your grandchildren will bear the brunt of total destruction of nature.  Sure you want to leave that legacy for them? I don’t have children and not planning on having any, and I’m starting with the man in the mirror!

It takes place this Saturday, 16 March 2013 at 10am in Golden Harvest Park near Northgate.  This is the first event of its kind for Joburg and everyone is welcome. We have over 100 people registered to attend already.  You can also join the conversation on Facebook.

It is a 100% non-profit, non-sponsored event, arranged by the people for the people.  Come and discuss topics of genetically modified foods, the financial system, money-free economies, new societies, arts, sustainability, new business methods and many more.

Like all SharePoint conferences, it’s going to be another big reunion party and looking forward to seeing our international guests again.  The lovely Sarah Haase is doing the pre-conference jump start session which I definitely plan on seeing.

Don’t forget to come visit the Lets Collaborate stand and get your Little Collaborator badge and 2013 calendar.  My session on Tuesday will be on SharePoint Permissions on Team Sites. See you all there!!

You should try it today.  If someone opens a door for you, or says something nice about you, or does you a favour – just say “thank you” with all the meaning of your beautiful heart.  Not ‘thanx’, not, ‘ta’, not ‘shot’.   It will make your whole day if you let it.

Lists

Think of your Excel spreadsheet.  You have column headings and rows of data that are captured under those headings, like this :

SharePoint Lists are like an online version of Excel spreadsheets, but with better benefits.  Lists are things that you capture rows of information into instead of uploading something. Using Lists instead of Excel spreadsheets allows multiple people to edit the information at once, maintain versions for each item (row) in the list, and create endless views of the information to extract reports on that information. (See working example).

It is possible to have attachments on your list items as well.

Libraries

Think of your folders on your share drives.  You click on a subfolder and drag documents into it.

Libraries on SharePoint allow you to upload content into them.  This is where you store your documents – but minus the subfolders.  SharePoint has smarter options available to you. (See working example).

You can see in both Lists and Libraries above that there are columns of information contained in them.  That is how you are classifying and gathering the information about that row item or document.  This all counts towards good search results on your content.

Lists and libraries are almost interchangeable.  Both can have documents, both have columns, both have versioning, both have views.  (Views slice up the information, think pivot tables in Excel; this is the online version).

It just depends on the type of information you’re working with.  Is the document more important, or is the information about the document more important? So for example, if you need to keep track of registrations for an event; it would be more efficient to have them in a Custom List as you can create views to see how many people have accepted or declined, all their contact details, dietary preferences, bringing partners, etc.

But if you were working with contracts and you have multiple people working on the clauses, a Document Library would be more efficient with a few columns to quickly categorise what type of contract it is, who owns it, what version it’s on etc.  There are various built in List and Library templates to use depending on the content you have and all of them are customisable to your needs.  If you’re not sure which one to use, create one of each and see which one works better for you.

Pages

Think of Wikipedia.  You get the puzzle page (home page) first with a search block.  You type something in to the search box and enter.

Text is presented to you that you read on screen.  You aren’t physically downloading anything or opening other websites.  Some words are blue hyperlinks which takes you to explanations of what they mean.  (Wikipedia is a giant online encyclopedia made by the people for the people). Every page under the puzzle page is an embedded page.  There are over 2 million of them on Wikipedia.

It’s the same thing on your SharePoint team site.  A standard welcome Site Page (landing page) is embedded into your team site with the ability to create as many more of them as you like with links anywhere you like. (See working example). The welcome page on a brand new Team Site is the same as the puzzle page on Wikipedia.  It’s your landing page and you can make many embedded pages. (Download tutorial).  You can link the views from your Lists and Libraries into your Site Pages.  (Click here for a sample then click on the Tips, Tricks and Best Practices link).

So instead of having different subsites to slice and dice information, you also have the ability to create a site page instead and build navigation in to that page.  If you have a flat permission structure and everyone has to see everything with only one or two Site Owners, there’s no reason why you couldn’t have one subsite only with multiple Site Pages linked to the Quick Launch or Top Link Bar as required.  The Lets Collaborate website is built like this.  No subsites, only pages.

It also means you don’t necessarily have to have so many Word documents.  If there is static information you’d like to share, why not put it into a Site Page instead of a Word document.  That way you have multiple links coming into the information because people can’t download it.  This prevents duplication of files being stored all over the platform.  There’s the added benefit that if the information is changed, it is instantly changed for everyone as there are just links to it from other sites.

Lists, Libraries and Pages are all built on Content Types, but that’s a subject for another day.

Need another analogy?  Read Ellen’s blog.

The overwhelming argument I hear as to why they can’t change jobs, is fear.  It is drummed into them that if they leave, they will never get another job, that they aren’t that good anyway, that they are lucky to have a job at all, and that they should be grateful for being forced to work under completely unreasonable circumstances in the first place.

My answer to that : UTTER NONSENSE!

You have to remember that the owners of these mega corporations can only thrive if we as humans stay dumb, numb, uneducated, scared and intimidated. They use endless strategies to ensure us mere humans tow the line and do what we’re told to ensure that we never figure out that there are alot more of us than there are of them.

You are an amazing, omnipotent human being with endless potential and options.  Remember who you are!  You have the power to change your stars at any stage of your life.  Don’t be afraid, be brave.  There is another life for you out there, don’t listen to the doomsayers.  You are not trapped, you are not worthless, you are not stupid.  Remember who you are and reinvent your world.

What would you like to do if money were no object?

Instead of investigating how to do something on SharePoint, why not do internet research on the business problem at hand?  Looking at the bigger picture will eventually lead to technology agnostic solutions that really solve the problem.   It’s not the technology after all, it’s the people.

If there is a leak of critical company information resulting in losing a merger deal, and the Chairman of the Board wants to know who read or downloaded the strategic document from SharePoint; what are you going to say?  Sorry, we didn’t activate the audit settings because it makes too many log files and we don’t have the space to store them?  What do you think the Chairman will say to that?

Don’t wait until there is a major incident before catering for this.  Audit settings must be manually activated on a site collection level to track activity in that site collection.

IT usually discourages the activation of these settings due to the large log files it can result in.  However, this should have been part of the SharePoint server architecture planning in the first place.  It is a valid business requirement to be able to track activity of company content and users.

Be selective on what you activate on which site collection.  You don’t need the settings on at all if it’s just a playpen / sandbox type collection; but on executive level site collections, it may be critical. Add rules around the use of the audit settings to your end user governance plan.

You need to be a Site Collection Administrator to see these settings.

1. Why do you have SharePoint?

Because everyone else has it?  Because you got free licenses?  Or do you have a proper business driver for requiring this type of platform?  Can you answer this question?  If not, it’s the first thing you need to do or the whole implementation will be an uphill battle.

2. What part of SharePoint have you got?

Is SharePoint installed on your servers at your premises?  If not, do you have servers and storage capacity to install it?  Do you have the necessary server licensing,  did you even know there was some?  Have you been given free licenses for your users? What type of licenses do you have?  SharePoint 2013, 2010 or 2007? Foundation, Standard or Enterprise? Or Office 365? (The current version is SharePoint 2013).  Ask Microsoft if you aren’t sure.  Do your research and make sure you have the right licenses for your needs.  Contact Microsoft when in doubt.

3. Do you have the right technical competency inhouse? 

SharePoint is not like other software, don’t treat it as such. You need to set up and maintain servers, do SharePoint business analysis, compile training, governance and communication plans; carry out training and configure team sites for users, automate business processes. If you don’t have the skills, outsource all of this until you can learn it.  It sounds expensive when you get the quotes, but long term it will save you money because it’s getting done right the first time.  It’s much easier to build something from scratch than it is to troubleshoot and rebuild a total mess.

4. Will it be used for the intranet, extranet or internet?

All these have long term technical and financial implications.  Your planning has to be robust.  Do you know the difference between Team Sites, Intranet Sites, My Sites and Publishing Sites?  You need to know this before you start adding any content and giving people access.

5. Do you have Exco support for the project?

SharePoint is a huge change in culture – the way people work and think will be completely changed.  It can as such be considered a disruptive technology in most organisations.  It is also expensive, someone high up has to ok these issues.

6. Do you have budget for training, consulting, servers, storage, licenses, upgrades, custom development, etc etc etc?

If not, go back to your planning phase and sort this out.  Here is a great blog on budgeting for SharePoint.  This platform has far reaching financial implications. Have you decided who’s paying for what?  This alone can cause endless internal wars.

7. Do you have at least one dedicated SharePoint person?

Do not make the mistake of thinking that SharePoint is a part time job.  If there is no-one to consistently drive the platform into business and keep an eye on things, it will simply not happen. The size of the company and type of SharePoint you have will determine how many people you need, but minimum one full time is crucial.

8. Have you identified content owners in the business?

You can’t do it all yourself.  You need to build an internal competency of super users.  Do they know they will be getting this extra work?  Are you giving them the time to go on training and time to implement what they’ve learnt?

9. Do you understand how SharePoint permissions work?

Do you know the difference between Site Members, Site Owners, Site Visitors, Site Collection Administrators and Server Admininstrators?  Who is going to be in each of those categories and what are the rules for jumping around them?  You also need to understand how access is granted on different levels on a site.

10. Have you done your homework on SharePoint vendors?

Few companies have the inhouse skills to get SharePoint right the first time, so consultants are usually called in.  Make sure you Google everything before you sign on the bottom line, and get traceable references. Word of mouth is a great tool here, phone around and see what people are saying first.

This is a good start. Answering these will take you on the journey to answering the countless others that will come up.  And remember, SharePoint is not just a document management system, it can do so much more than that.  But starting there is a good a place as any.

The next Joburg event will be on 12 February. We are always looking for speakers business users, so if you’d like to test the waters speaking; this is the perfect forum to do that.  The only way to get better at something is to keep practicing at it.  Present with a friend if you’re too nervous on your own.  Click here to be added to the mailing list of future SBW Cpt and Jhb events or request a speaking slot.

Before :

After :

May you also be ready to make a real difference to the world around you and examine all the things that don’t work anymore.  It’s time for real change in all of us.  Surround yourself with people that add great value to your life.  Get a hobby that brings you joy – mine is going to be all things eco, sustainable and outdoor this year.  Read inspiring books. Feel the sun on your face. Be kind to yourself.

Nothing SharePoint related to report yet, so I’ll leave you with a blogging tip of the day :

Always include an image in your blog so they can be pinned to Pinterest.  Articles can only be pinned when it can pick up an image.

It’s the dawn of a new age; do you know who you are yet?  If not, maybe take some time to ask yourself that.  Don’t worry if you don’t have the answer yet, hardly anyone does and there are no right or wrong answers.

Promote good behaviour – the bullying and viciousness in the industry has to stop.  If you have been a been a long time victim of bullying, resolve to make a stand and deserve better.  If all else fails, know when to get out.  Everyone deserves to be treated with respect even if you don’t agree with their point of view.

There is more than enough business for everybody, let’s work better together and maintain exceptional standards of ethics in all our dealings to better serve our customers.  We can’t be all things to all people, so find partners who can address the things you aren’t so strong in.  Make sure they have the same work ethic as you do, your reputation is at stake.

Take pride in yourselves and your work.  If you’re charging R500 – R1300 ($56 – $146) an hour or more for your services, you are expected to deliver high quality work, meet your deliverables, be a team player, manage your time properly and produce content on demand. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be charging so much. No-one is irreplaceable.

New people need to step up to community leadership.  The way has been paved in every country in the community space but the leaders of those communities can only do so much and maintain that momentum so long.  We need people with fresh ideas and long term goals to step up to the plate.  There is still much we can improve on.

Share your knowledge freely.  Don’t be afraid to write a blog or post a question or answer on a forum.  You have so much to share and there are going to be people out there who need to hear what you have to say.  Learn how to sign up for a blog then take a deep breath and just do it.  Post your blogs to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so people can find them.

Be kind to each other.  We work in a highly stressful industry and tempers and passion flair regularly.  Have compassion for yourself and your colleagues and co-workers.  Everyone has a break point and needs to vent sometimes.  Don’t hold it against them indefinitely because one day you will be in the same situation and will need some understanding.

Say thank you.  If someone does you a kindness in any way, have the grace to say thank you, and mean it.  The givers in the world usually except nothing in return for their generosity, but a well-meant thank you can make all the difference in the world. If you’re a taker and have been abusing givers your whole life, just remember that one day those givers will simply stop because of you.  What will the plan be then?  How about being a little generous yourself if that hasn’t ever been your thing; it could change your life.

That’s it really, and my last post for 2012.

This will be my home for the next week, enjoy whatever you’re doing for your well-earned break.  See you in 2013.

This is no easy task, even when your content is migrated by IT.  The new look and feel can be extremely confusing plus you need to unlearn and relearn a ton of new functionality and ways in thinking and working.  If your content has not yet been migrated and you can get access to a new version, start by trying to replicate a team site and content you currently have.  You could ask your IT department for a test site.  Most big companies have access to new versions.

One of these days I’m going to be forced to use our intranet on SharePoint 2013 because it’s hosted and will be upgraded whether I like it or not.  It will go from this :

On to this :

I’m not finding it easy.  There is very little content available to business users on using the new version as yet. (SharePoint 2010 new users are lucky, it is very well documented now). Google searches are not helping much.  It’s going to be a couple of years before there’s enough online business and community help, but it will come.  In the meantime, I’m glad I’m going on leave! Future blogs will cover the (slow) journey to a new version.

Kathy Sierra has written a wonderful blog on building communities!  It’s chock full of fresh ideas for the SharePoint world.  In it is a link to Building User Communities Part 1 that is well worth the read.  She highlights the gaps in the community building process and how to resolve them.  What I really loved is the “there are no dumb answers” angle she has.

Before the self-professed experts have a fit at the “no dumb answers” thing, read the entire article.  There are many levels of expertise in SharePoint and many of the long term specialists are not are suited to community work.  So that leaves a gap in expertise.  Her approach is very empowering.

There are plenty of strong SharePoint community people around the world that can benefit from her thoughts and share them with their communities. And if you’re new to the SharePoint world and looking for ideas, it’s a great place to start. It’s something we’re going to leverage in SBW for sure.

- This image belongs to Kathy Sierra -

1. Go to All Site Content and check what’s dormant.  If something hasn’t been touched in months or years, delete it.  At the same time, check if all the descriptions are in the lists and libraries that are left, and if not, put them in.

2. Check all the Announcements on each site; add a thoughtful Christmas message and your leave dates if you’re the primary site administrator.  Make sure old announcements have expiry dates on them.

3. Check all your how-to’s and user manuals, are they up to date?  Make a list of what to update in January, or do it now if you have the time.

4. Add “last updated” date to the top of each Site Page (for SharePoint 2010 users).  It’s a very handy way to see instantly when content is getting old and needs a review.

5. Check your permissions – are the people that should have access still there, or have a bunch of passer-by’s crept in.

6. Evaluate the navigation – is everything still structured for optimal navigation?  Or could your site do with some streamlining?  Consolidate links and don’t duplicate them.

7. Check that you don’t have any documents checked out to you.  Check them back in unless you’re planning on working on them over the holidays.  Let people know if you are going to do that.

8. Update your My Site profile.  Are all the details still correct?  Add any new skills you acquired.  While you’re at it, go update all your social profiles.

9. Check the List Templates under Site Settings.  If you’ve got a ton of custom lists and libraries that have been saved throughout the year, delete the ones no longer needed.

10. Do a final site stats – extract annual stats to see what the activity has been like.  If the uptake it really good, tell someone.  Well done you.  Make a note of trends and do more of that next year

I have been on the receiving end of the most despicable behaviour over the past 6 and a bit years in SharePoint by these so called SharePoint specialists – and I’m by far not alone in the way I was treated.  Well I’m sick of it!

You know exactly who you are – there’s a couple of you in particular, cozy little friends that you are.  If I wasn’t afraid of being sued because that’s just how screwed up you are, I would splatter your names across every billboard on every highway!

And I know you read my blog, so this is just for you.

Tell you what – why don’t you grow a set of balls, go to a finishing school and learn how to treat people with respect!  This job is hard enough without you undermining any effort made to to make a difference and contribute positively. Karma is a bitch, just remember that.

I mean really, what is it?  Is your manhood so threatened by a girl with brains that you feel it’s necessary to run them down for no reason whatsoever.   You are giving the whole industry a bad name with your behaviour!  Why don’t you learn from some of the true gentlemen out there, cos there’s plenty to choose from in our industry.  In the words of Twisted Sister, “If that’s your best, your best won’t do!”.

Get over yourselves!  Please!

Pathetic…

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result right?  How about we do something different this year?

If you don’t need to entertain young children this Christmas, what about pledging money to your favourite charity on behalf of the adults around you instead?  And then making them a certificate to give them.  Your pledge can make a real difference to someone and your handmade certificate is the personal touch we need to get back.

In South Africa, the plight of rhinos is very serious and urgent, so this is my charity of choice this festive season.

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather get a handmade certificate than a soap-on-a-rope.

Michael and I were there right in the beginning when there were just 6 people sitting around a table in one region.  Information Worker has grown to 3 regions with an average of 30 – 40 people attending in Joburg and Cape Town every month, and Durban a little less because they’ve just started.

We leave the technical SharePoint user group in the very capable hands of the following :

Johannesburg - Marlon Green, Kevin Coetzee

Cape Town : Marc Lenferna, Bradley Geldenhuys, Alistair Pugin

Durban : Andre Chapman, Lynda Hunter

I will still be attending the events every single month religiously like I always do, and will still be running the monthly SharePoint Business Workshops (SBW), and annual SharePoint Saturday Jhb (SPSJHB); plus I’m a co-manager of SharePoint Experts on LinkedIn, so I’ll see you there.

*** I am not leaving the community, just the one team lead position. ***

The last IW for the year in Jhb is on 11 December and it starts up again in February.

Bradley wrote a very touching farewell to us, but he is so right that the show must go on.  It will do with gusto!  It’s time we made space for new blood to enter into the community and shake things up.  The way has been paved.  Good luck IW!!  May you go from strength to strength.  I’ll be on the sidelines cheering you on and evangelising you to everybody as usual.  Thank you for your amazing letter Bradley.

This does mean that there are now two spots open, and while I’m sure there will be a strict entry process, read this to find out what team leads do.  Do you have what it takes to lead the community?  Of course you do! All you need to do is step up to the plate.  The community is about you.

Many companies send their staff to external training, but just as many clients like to do inhouse training.  If you’re doing a once off curriculum with one department,  then this blog doesn’t apply to you.

However, if you have 1000 people or more in your company and want to do inhouse training, you need to understand that it is a long term, ongoing exercise that takes plenty of co-ordination.

We have found 3 – 5 days of back to back end user training to be ineffective in getting people to absorb that knowledge.  It’s just too much information.  As a result, we recommend doing one day a week over a month to complete the curriculum for best results.

This means however, that you have to co-ordinate dates and people over 2 years or more – and things change.  People cancel, people reschedule, trainers get sick, systems go down, venues are not available, PC’s don’t have the right specs.  Even if you have a dedicated training department, don’t under-estimate how difficult it is to co-ordinate long term SharePoint onsite training.

It is absolutely critical to have a dedicated person doing this, and that person needs to understand the implications of the training plan.  Just giving this job to a co-ordinator on top of their current job is a big ask.  If they are not as organised as is required for this, it can turn into a very big mess very quickly.  The result will be very unhappy end users that gain the opinion that SharePoint is a mess and not worth pursuing.

If you have a training department, it is important to include them in the initial planning stages of the roll-out and get their buy-in.  There is no way they can just be expected to understand the implications of SharePoint on a company.  Mess up the training and all the work done on the back-end, all the communication you’ve done, all the governance established is going to be for nothing.

If you don’t have a dedicated training department, it means that someone in business is going to end up managing the training schedule.  It will become an all-consuming job, make sure that person is 100% dedicated to the SharePoint project.

It takes someone extremely organised and friendly to co-ordinate thousands of people attending multiple training days and maintain this over a couple of years.  Get the right person for the right job.

Lets Collaborate is looking for a SharePoint Business Specialist / End User Trainer as soon as possible.  This is a 1 year contract position.

If you have a minimum of 2 years full time SharePoint 2010 experience, your own transport, own laptop and printer, internet access at home, live in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg (or Pretoria if you don’t mind travelling, most of our clients are in Sandton and all our company meetings are in Fourways) – I’d like to hear from you.  Tell me why you’d be a good fit for our team.

More details about the position will be supplied to candidates who meet this criteria first.

Shortlisted candidates will be required to write an assessment as well as undergo psychometric testing before any decisions are made.

Please, no developers or IT pros to apply.  This is a non-technical, business facing position.

NB : Please note that we are a small company.  Make sure you read and understand the articles in this blog before you submit your CV to us.

Why did I think this way?  This is only my 3rd version of SharePoint, and every single version that comes out looks and works completely different from the previous version.  As a producer of training material and someone who is in the front line of adoption of SharePoint into business, I was completely demoralised by SharePoint 2013.  All the work done in SharePoint 2007 and 2010 had to be redone – yet again.  All the users’ mindsets changed, yet again.

Realising the magnitude of the work ahead; of the titanic struggle it is to get people to use and love SharePoint at all and now expecting them to change everything they have spent years getting used to;  the immense time it would take to rewrite and relearn everything – again; having to break it to clients that all the training would have to be started again, from scratch.  It was just too much to bear.

I am not an early adopter.  My clients and team are not early adopters.  Most of my clients are only just installing SharePoint 2010 right now.  We get to see how things turn out because we’re there together for years slowly figuring out how and if this technology can make a difference and getting people to use it.  And this mad rush to bring out new versions and completely change every version every couple of years doesn’t sit well with us.

There was a demo of SharePoint 2013 at our Microsoft offices a few months ago. A packed room; mixed audience of business decision makers, business users, hard core techies and vendors.  Reaction of the business people I spoke to; mostly terrified – like myself.  The governance issues.  The training issues.  The budget issues. The risk issues. The platform management issues. We knew what this version meant and it wasn’t pretty. My clients had the same sentiment that I did :  ”No thank you”.

And then I went to the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Vegas 2 weeks ago. In the keynote we were shown again what SharePoint 2013 can do.  To my surprise, I actually started getting a little excited. I sat up, listened and paid attention.  (You can watch the keynote on the link above).  It motivated me to attend more sessions on what it can do after I had decided I could care less and wasn’t going to attend one of them.  I saw some really cool stuff, things users would love!  My esteemed colleague and friend Francois Pienaar even noticed my change in attitude and asked if I was going to stay now.

Despite the complaints I had about the conference, the one thing it achieved was to change my mind about leaving the industry permanently.  The people I met, the conversations I had and the knowledge I gained have bought me the will to continue – and to do a good job in the process.  I’ve gone from a completely negative mindset to one that sees opportunities in all of it, despite the monstrous work it will take.  Not right now, in the future; but I feel like I actually may be able to handle it now.  It’ll take a few more months of thinking about how to do it all.

What makes me sad however is the months I lost because of the bad communication I got about 2013.  I have refused to evangelise it and gave it a vote of no confidence purely because of the mailing lists I was on, the demo’s I attended, the blogs I read.  I listened to all the wrong people and it resulted in a severe identity crisis that nearly made me walk out the door.

So my message here to Microsoft is – get a consistent message out there and make sure the right people are saying the right things to the right audience.  One size does not fit all and it causes untold damage.

My message to business decision makers and business users is be careful what you read and take to heart; choose your sources carefully.  Read things from like-minded people only.  I would hate for you to have the same experience I just did.

My message to the techies out there is use this blog as a case study as to why it’s so hard to get people to adopt SharePoint.  That you can’t just keep throwing new technology out there and expect it to be used.  Just changing the mindset of people to even accept the possibility of wanting to hear more can take months.  I don’t just do SharePoint, I use SharePoint – like my clients.

My message to anyone on SharePoint 2007 or 2010 (majority of the planet!)- it’s ok.  Don’t feel pressure to do anything you don’t want to do.  SharePoint is going to be around for a very long time, and you can catch up to whatever version you want whenever you are good and ready, and not a minute before.  There is no rush and every version has it’s business benefits.  Plus you don’t get to be vendor guinea pigs while they use you to figure out how SharePoint 2013 works.  If you take another 2 years or more to upgrade, the vendors truly will know their story by then and you’ll get solid, real world advice.

The message I have to myself is that things change and there is no stopping that; but you always have a choice about what you want to do. Also it’s natural to resist change, that’s what humans do.  That there are the most amazing people in this community globally that make a difference every day in their users groups and offices that make it all worthwhile.  That it’s ok to not be an early adopter; there is time enough for everything later, I don’t have to beat myself up about it. I’m exactly where I am meant to be.

PS to all business users – you are going to LOVE Community Sites in SharePoint 2013.  And one day when we’re ready, we’ll take the journey together.

Much love and apologies for such a long blog.

It asks 7 questions :

1. How is possible that 6.9 billion people can claim to want the same thing (peace, security, opportunity, prosperity, happiness and love) and be singularly unable to get it?

2. Is it possible that there is something that we do not fully understand about life; the understanding of which could change everything?

3. Is it possible that there is something that we do not fully understand about ourselves; about our own life and its purpose, the understanding of which would shift our reality and alter our experience for the better; forever?

4. Who am I?

5. Where am I?

6. Why am I where I am?

7. What do I intend to do about that?

Read the book.  Answer the questions.  Find your own path.  Start a conversation.

Old Page

 New Page

The Contact Us page has also had a revamp.

Old Page

New Page

I am aware that these are not responsive or mobile phone friendly pages. Too expensive to get some of those now I’m afraid.  This shall have to do.

Big company or start up – which is the best option for you?

Small companies vs large companies: which should you work for?

I would just add to that – please think very very carefully before applying at a small business.  Your skills and contribution will become crucial in a very short period of time, and if you suddenly leave because you’ve made the wrong decision; it can have a very negative effect on that little business.

Hiring people is a very scary thing for small business owners – so much can go wrong.  So if you are chosen to be part of that team, it’s actually a massive compliment to you.

Know yourself and understand your financial habits and requirements.  It takes a special type of person to work in small businesses and not everyone can cut it.

While there are pros and cons to both big and small companies; as someone who’s worked in huge corporates her whole life and now running a small business – I can tell you that there is nothing quite like it in the world.  If you have what it takes, it will be the most rewarding experience you can imagine.

Happy hunting.

Organisation

A much easier registration process than past year, cool bag, water canteen and stickers to swag up your bag.

The wifi was an utter disaster area.  I don’t understand why they try and force 10000 people onto 2 wifi accounts when just about every single vendor had their own wifi account.  Surely if everyone shared the load it would have worked better?  I know it costs money to do that, but just build it into the sponsorship packages.  The wifi did come right the last 2 days, but by then Microsoft was crucified for the lack of connectivity at a major technology conference where the key focus was services in the cloud!  It was the same story last year. When will this be sorted out?

A nice addition was a Microsoft shop – although it was hidden away right in the back of the exhibit hall where people seldom walked, and the opening hours were really dumb.  That shop should have been right at the entrance with long opening hours and they would have sold out everything.  My favourite new toy is the laughing man stress ball.  Plus I got the old arc mouse that’s been discontinued, which is great seeing as the new arc mouse is horrible!

The staff at the event were just incredible!  Such a pleasure to meet such friendly and accommodating people.  We just wanted to pack them all up and take them home.  Well done on finding the very best staff to man this event.  These two guys in particular, absolute rockstars!

Sessions

Nothing to write home about, just like last year.  It never ceases to amaze me how bad the standard of presenting is at this conference.  This is supposed to be the best of the best, top of the food chain content and presenters, but again I walked out of sessions.  Not as many as last year, but it still wasn’t great.  Barring a couple of presenting legends, the rest should not have been on that stage. There was also a ton of duplicated content – is there no moderation of content going on behind the scenes?  I expect better at this level I must say.  Someone said that we don’t go to these things for the sessions – but last year I sure did and was bitterly disappointed.  What about all the people that don’t drink and socialise or know anyone?  They are there for the sessions and this is the standard they are receiving?  It’s not on.  I heard that speakers are chosen by politics; seriously Microsoft, that has to stop, it’s embarrassing.

Community

The huge community wall mural was just spectacular!  I also enjoyed the timeline wall.  Meeting a bunch of new community members was a joy and what these events should be about!  The lovely Rebecca from Australia absolutely made my day!

What I didn’t like was the fact that the Community Hub wasn’t allowed to be at the Community Lounge – some or other politics issue.  Really people, we need to get over this politics thing and focus on communities.  There were 10 times the people crowded into a tiny Community Hub stand manned by Bonnie Surma, Mark Miller and Joel Oleson, where this enormous Community Lounge was mostly empty, used by people to rest their feet and not actually engage in a conversation.  I loved the survival bracelet concept in the Community Hub!  What a great way to engage people and get them talking.  SharePoint TV was kinda cool, although I never got to see any of it cos I couldn’t find the channel.  I believe it will be on Youtube soon.

Parties

There are no words to describe THE AvePoint Red Party!  I have never been to an event like that in my life and it was the true Vegas experience I was waiting for. Well done for putting up a very slick, sexy and amazing event that made me smile for a week!

The Jon Bon Jovi concert on the beach was cool, mainly cos we could get in the water and get really close to him.  He totally destroyed Living on a Prayer by turning it into a ballad, but a good time was had by all.  The fireworks display afterwards was totally unexpected and had me teary-eyed at how spectacular it was.  The party ended very quickly though and moved straight back to Eye Candy where we pretty much camped out.

The Axceler party was ok, lovely venue but very crowded.  The appearance of Pamela Anderson caused a huge stir, but unless you were in the front row of the dance floor, you didn’t get to see much.

Venue

Vegas is enormous!  There were countless people hobbling around with sore feet and legs – including us.  If you’re going to attend these events, I cannot stress enough how important it is to book early and get a spot in  the hotel where the event takes place. AND have the most comfortable padded shoes you can get! Yes it’s expensive, but just suck it up and pay, because you will walk 100 miles otherwise and it can ruin the experience.  Even inside of Mandalay Bay we walked kilometres to get from door to door.  Funny though, even though our feet were broken, one night of dancing at the Red Party and we were magically cured!

Behaviour

Seriously people, there are 10 000 delegates from 85 countries at this conference. If you can’t handle your alcohol – don’t drink.  Try to remember that you are representing yourself, your company and your country.  Vomiting in a dustbin, picking fights, picking up chicks when you’re married and getting caught on camera, then insisting that photos and videos be taken down because of your bad behaviour is just not on.  Be a professional at these events, know your limits and stop lying to your spouses about what you do at conferences.  What happens in Vegas is going to stay on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube despite your outcries.

Would I Go Again?

It really is very very expensive for South Africans to go to these types of events, (19 of us went this year, a new record!). It was awesome to have a travel buddy this time which helped in having an amazing experience.  I doubt that I will attend another one.  While it was wonderful to see all our online friends again, there are other conferences where the content is better and adds more value to my life.  I had a really really good time, an unforgettable experience that’s going to be very hard to top.  But been there done that twice now.  Time for something else I think.

SharePoint is a way of life.

10000 attendees from 85 countries.

SharePoint community lounge and TV is being syndicated to all the hotels.

Microsoft sees SharePoint 2013 as a pivotal moment in the product line.

Microsoft’s radical idea was websites for everybody, aimed at end users.

And the predictable SharePoint pie chart, sigh.

SharePoint is a $2billion product.

The name of the game is agility.

Cloud, mobile and social are no longer disruptive technologies, embrace them.

SharePoint 2013 is the bridge of where Microsoft has come from and where they’re going.

Experiences, innovation and ecosystem are the 3 pillars of SharePoint 2013.

Jeff Teper is the father of SharePoint.

There’s a billion office users that Microsoft wants to be able to handle in the cloud at once. #Office365

Office365 will work on any device and any browser – we’ll see…

Folders and subfolders Microsoft? Mmm.

The drag and drop functionality in SharePoint 2013 will make end users very happy.

The external sharing of docs and Skydrive in SharePoint 2013 has a very Dropboxy feel.

Marketing dept’s are going to have let go of forced branding in SharePoint 2013, too easy for end users to do themselves.

Sync’d tasks from every place in SharePoint and Outlook will be popular.

SharePoint iPhone and iPad app from microsoft will be available early next year – yay!!!!!

Do that data centre speed test from South Africa next time Microsoft.

Yammer only 4 years old and bought by Microsoft, well done guys #SPC12 keynote.

Social is going to change the way business works. #Yammer

Social networking can change the way information flows in a company. #Yammer

85% of Fortune 500 companies use Yammer.

61% of companies have an enterprise social network. #Yammer

Social is the catalyst and solution to change. #Yammer

Once people are more informed, it helps them connect better and get more engaged in their company. #Yammer

The integration between Yammer and SharePoint is pretty darn cool!!

Very hard to plan your schedule using MySPC with no wifi.

Yammer will be included in the SharePoint Online and Office365 license – awesome!

Enterprise Collaboration Leader role at Nationwide – love that title!

Yammer is your electronic water cooler!

The search experience in enterprise SharePoint 2013 is very slick.

More important than ever to teach end users to start using search instead of click through to find content.

You can use any design tool you want to create websites in SharePoint 2013, not just SPD.

Access denied during the demo “seriously, it’s Dreamweaver” Lol.

You can divorce content from the page layout and use search to drive the user experience.

Drag and drop docs from emails straight to SharePoint 2013 libraries in Outlook – freakin’ awesome!

40% improvement in bandwidth in Office 365.

#SPC12 was no 1 trending on Twitter.

The best paragraph I’ve ever read in a book that explains pretty much why we’re in the mess we’re in.  It’s a call to action, so please :

However, getting to that point had so many parallels to SharePoint; any of this sound familiar?

1) The person who chooses the applications assumes that they are the best qualified to evaluate application.

2) Managers assume that an application is user friendly enough and that people will figure it out by themselves or that because they themselves know how to work it, everyone else does as well or will be able to figure it out.

3) Managers assume that any training program will do, but not all training programs are equally effective.

4) To solve it – determine where you are today, then compile an action plan and execute it.

It all sounds so completely logical, doesn’t it.  So why is it so hard?

Here’s everybody in the team; from left to right : Tracy van der Schyff (the part-time one), Jade Taylor (the organised one), me (the curly one), Amanda (the new one) and Cathy Kohler (the calm one).

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Post Blog Update 16 Nov 2012 : I regret to inform that Amanda resigned from our little organisation after only one month. Was it something we said?

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