Veronique Palmer

SharePoint Saturday Jhb Goes Green

We are very pleased to announce that SPSJHB on 19 May 2012 is going to be the very first ever ALL GREEN SharePoint event in the world!

Lets Collaborate and Business Connexion are proud to bring you the second SharePoint Saturday for Johannesburg – and we think it’s a great time to give back to our planet.  

The SharePoint Community has proven to be a living, breathing, self-sustaining entity.  So what better community than ours to help our planet remain a living, breathing, self-sustaining home? Combine that with the most generous people on the planet and we can make a big difference with our event.

We will only be using recycled paper, all waste will go into recycle bins, we’re going to challenge every sponsor to pledge money to carefully selected eco-friendly, sustainability charities for every delegate that attends.  We’re going to attempt to measure our carbon footprint and plant however many trees will be required to make our footprint during this event zero.  We will only buy from suppliers that can give us eco-friendly, re-usable, sustainable products.  We’re thinking up everything we can to do better – if you can think of something we absolutely should be doing as a result, please comment accordingly.  We’d love your ideas.

Our mascot is this little dude!  Fred Frog, (so far; we are looking for a new name for Fred.  Any ideas?).  While rhinos are top of everyone’s minds, (and we will sure be supporting that cause too); the humble little frog is critically endangered across the globe, including in South Africa.  And plus he just looks so cool.

We’ll be doing the usual awesome SharePoint Saturday model – great sessions all day, free to delegates.  We’re just helping you feel good about giving up your Saturday.   It will be hosted at Business Connexion in Midrand.  

There will be 4 tracks this year – business, technical, voice of the customer and vendor.  The call for speakers and sponsors will be opening very soon, so get your great ideas flowing so long.

Save the date!! All the news and details will follow very soon.  Think green thoughts! 🙂  

 Join us on Facebook too.  Follow us on Twitter with #SPSJHB.

9 comments

  2. Hi Veronique,
    The neutrality was an issue in the past therefore I have raised it. Your reasoning is sound if it is for space, and I apologise for not knowing the background to the situation. Any help and sponsorship in the community is always appreciated. Here’s to a successful SPSJHB!

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  3. Dear SP Community Member from SMC Enterprises,

    The only reason we didn’t use Microsoft again this year is a lack of space. There are very few venues in Johannesburg that can accommodate our space requirements, and those that can are INSANELY expensive and inflexible on options.

    I have had 10 SharePoint vendors in the space of 3 days – local and international – voluntarily come to me to request sponsorship packages already, so I really don’t believe that anyone has a problem with the venue. I’ve had countless people ask me when registration will open, so delegates don’t have a problem with it either. I’ve had countless more people request speaking slots, so no problem there.

    Business Connexion has a Huge sustainability and green focus. When I put out a notice asking for someone to adopt SPSJHB, they were the only ones who stepped up. They are sponsoring the venue AND want to take up a sponsorship package – they are going above and beyond the call of duty to help our community make this the best event ever. They also use SharePoint, offer SharePoint services to clients; and religiously attend our community events, so I believe they are a great partner for our event because they get it. Business Connexion have been incredibly helpful to date and 100% support the green focus we have this year. They are rearranging the entire area just for us, I couldn’t ask for a better partner in this if I tried.

    I am sorry if you feel this doesn’t work for you, but the venue will not be changed. I don’t agree with you at all that there is a conflict of interest. Companies of all kinds will be at the event, even competing companies; just like last year.

    It’s not about a conflict of interest, it’s about knowing where you add value regardless of your competitors; it’s about building and growing the local SharePoint community; and it’s about offering free, brilliant information to that community from speakers and vendors from all corners of the country and world.

    Kind Regards,
    ..V..

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  4. Isnt it a conflict of interest hosting the event at BCX. Can you not have it at a neutral venue like Microsoft. There are many other vendors that would feel akward to goto BCX premises since they also provide SharePoint services.

    Veronique you need to fix this!

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  6. Athena, yes it is! And I am delighted to be working with you and your awesome team!

    Claudia, that’s great news. I’ll add you to my list and send you the details soon as we have them. Just waiting for a final quote.

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