I am in Berlin this week for the European SharePoint
Conference 2011.  Nice map of the local area for walkers /
joggers provided by the venue – so today I explored the local canal
walks – but it was quiet before 7am!

Waiting for the keynote on Day 2 to start and funny to see the
ipads, tablets, iphones and windows phones in action at a
conference – looking at the conference agenda – as last minute
conference additions / changes are announced. A long way from the
first conference I attended years ago – that did not even have a
website and the conference poster was mailed (not emailed!) a month
or two in advance by regular post!  No email
communications.  And I am not that old!  What will the
next 10 (or 20!) years bring?

Michael Greth (MVP) from Germany introduced Day 2 – started
speaking in German for a minute or so until the audience (from 20
countries!) reminded Michael we were in Europe and not in Germany –
even though we are in Berlin!  It was cute as they say.
Michael is a great host for the conference.  Superb!

Opening keynote – Day 2 – Mirjam van Olst and Spence Harbar –
“Successful Deployments – Lessons Learned from the Field”.
These are two very qualified and very experienced people.
Lots of good advice for deployment.  Advice by role – End
user/Information Workers, IT Pro, Developers, Business Decision
Maker, etc.  These roles mirrored the tracks of the
conference.  I liked the architecture advice – especially
acknowledging that ISV solutions need to be included in the big
picture from day 1.  Would be worth getting these
slides.  It was clear that these two experts have lots of
experience.  I wonder will all the advice be heeded.  I
get it – having seen so many poor deployments of base
SharePoint.  I wonder as a general point do people need to go
through their own experiences.  I guess the wise folks will
pay attention to Mirjam and Spence and take the guidelines to heart
and figure how to implement for them locally.  Not sure if
Mirjam and Spence have written a white paper on this topic – or of
they have produced a plan with this advice / steps – but if they
have not – it would be a good white paper/eBook.  The session
was full of advice – but no stories – would have been great if each
section had an accompanying customer story – but that maybe is a
different / companion presentation.  There were however nice
customer quotes.  And nice ROI data at the end of the
presentation.  They present well as a duo – very professional
(even nicely understated) and composed – and no hype!

I have access to the slides and conference materials (as a
conference delegate) from the conference on the European SharePoint Community
site – and I am guessing that members of the community at large may
have access after the conference – but I am not 100% sure.

I have to say – looking at the conference agenda – that the
program team (Wim Dierickx from Microsoft Europe as the program
chair and Peter Fisher from Microsoft Germany and Michael Greth,
SharePoint MVP in Germany) – did a great job.  I also like the
fact that the various session rooms are close together – so when I
sit in a session and after 20 minutes have enough – have got the
main message – that I can pop into another session and catch the
last 20 minutes – very effective use of time!   Though
maybe Day 2 is better than Day 1 – as I have not done as much
jumping today!

Ian White (Microsoft Western Europe) and Burger Swart (Microsoft
Switzerland ) – “Project 2010 and SharePoint 2010 – Better
Together”.  Some business case materials in these slides –
cost and benefits of PPM.  Good demo and explanation from the
guys.

I visited the expo last evening and this morning at coffee
break.  Lots of really, really cool solutions being built on
SharePoint.  See the Exhibitor
List and perhaps visit their websites. Amazing how
SharePoint is being extended.

The Workflow vendor shoot out – at last!  I have been to
many conferences – but this is my first shoot-out.  Andrej
Doms (the moderator) gave a nice intro to the shoot out.  He
compared workflow to Minecraft (a computer game that my son plays),
where there are 25 block types – and all sorts of amazing stuff can
be built from these simple blocks – like an online
Lego.   .  Andrej as moderator was great – very
energetic – U2 music – more like X-factor / American Idol than a
SharePoint conference!!

• Introduction – Andrej did a small interview with each vendor to
  effect an intro to each person and company – nice job – informative
  and entertaining
• Task 1 – Setup a New Travel Request
  > First up – Mike from Nintex – Mike developed and ran a
  workflow in 4 minutes – with audience participation – with a minute
  to spare (5 minute limit on the first task!) – and used the extra
  minute to show a more advanced pre-built workflow.
  > Andrew from K2 – also built from scratch a new workflow –
  used his wife as the approver of the a trip to Vegas the wife …
  brave guy
  > Pawel from Datapolis – started with a napkin copy / cartoon
  of the workflow – very interesting twist – and showed this in their
  designer – had the workflow pre-built and spent the time extending
  it.
• Task 2 – On board a new employee, give them an AD account, an
  email account, get them an office and have them buy a company car!
  … in 10 minutes only!
• Task 3 – Pricing
  > Nintex – Pricing of a starter pack and for a farm – from
  €2.5K per server (Base edition) through €7K per server (Standard
  Edition) to €14K per server (Enterprise)
  > K2 – starting with Blackpoint (entry level product) at US$10K
  per server – no code type of workflow  or Enterprise Edition
  of Blackpoint for US$15K (unlimited #users)
  > Datapolis – €4.5K for web front server (limited to 25 named
  process users) – Enterprise Server at €14K
• Task 4 – Competitive Analysis
  ◦Nintex
  > Regardless of skill level – easy to deploy, design, evolve,
  manage, extend, use, understand – 15 minutes to install
  > 100% pure SharePoint – no additional infrastructure (one
  extra SQL database) – SharePoint is the workflow engine used by
  Nintex
  > Established and global – 500 partners in 18 countries
  ◦K2
  > A complete application suite with a smart objects layer and
  forms
  > Breadth of offering  – from simple workflow to BPM to
  case management
  > Designers for Power Users, Process Owners and Developers –
  and can move through the designers
  ◦Datapolis
  > 100% SharePoint, etc
  > Have separate business and technical layers
  > Easy access to data stored in SharePoint with look-ups
  (across sites and site collections)
• Task 5 – Answer questions from the delegates
  ◦Questions on versions of SharePoint, mobile support, support for
  external users, localization, etc.
  This would have been a GREAT session for anyone looking to add
  workflow to SharePoint – and it was fun and no
  eye-scratching!!!

Bob Kreha – a New Yorker and a BrightWork partner – on the topic
of “SharePoint Adoption – Bridging the Gulf”.  Lots of people
know stuff – but do not know how to communicate same.  Bob is
a great energy as a speaker.  Very good communicator.
Bob told a nice story about “fire ants” who drown in water – but if
they grab onto each other (collaborate!) – they survive!!  Bob
used Maslow’s hierarchy – and inverted it.  Bob used a
football example to talk about collaboration trust.  Joe
Stalin and transparency!  Anthropomorphism and Disney
characters!  I liked Bob’s thoughts.  Dante (the nine
circles of hell) and Governance – and Bob’s 6 circles of
Governance.  Bob gets it!  I imagine Bob is a very good
management consultant.

Ask the Experts – a session for Decision makers.  Lots of
real experts answering questions for “IT Decision Makers” – it is
like a “SharePoint clinic” – real customers getting real answers to
real problems.  I am surprised there are not more customers at
this session – but I bet the customers here are very
happy!

Lots of food .. every turn we take – more coffee and amazing
cakes, etc!  And healthy lunches – fish salad options,
etc..

SharePoint Lifecycle Management – a session by Microsoft.
Interesting stuff.

Keynote by Rafal Lukawiecki – “BI in the Cloud – Opportunities,
Paths and the Future”.   Wow – this guy can lift a
crowd!  A keynote is intended to be more than information
delivery – it is intended to get people to sit up and think.
Rafal gave his vision for where the cloud is going – in the years
to come.