Learning SharePoint: A SharePoint Conference You Shouldn't Miss

Now you might be going to the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2011, and I wouldn’t fault you for wanting to go, especially when you’re a SharePoint admin or dev. But for a lot of SharePoint admins and devs, SharePoint isn’t all you do. Which is why I love the Dev Connections conferences.

These are co-located conferences on Windows, SharePoint, and other Microsoft-oriented technologies, held in Las Vegas starting November 1. You can go do your SharePoint learning at the SharePoint Connections conference within Dev Connections, AND you can also brush up on  Exchange or Windows Server or ASP.Net programming or Visual Studio or even SQL Server learning you might need just by walking down the hall.

One of last year’s full-to-bursting sessions was on SharePoint development and how to get into it (obviously admins curious about The Other Side). And another popular one was all about BCS (obviously devs NOT curious about The Other Side).

I’m predicting one of this year’s must-attend session will be Dan Holme’s session, number HAD09: “Wish I’d Have Known That Sooner! SharePoint Insanity Demystified.” Why? Because this topic appeals not just to newbies but to those who’ve been-there-done-that in the trenches.

Here’s what it’s about (and note the nod to the reality of working with a Microsoft product, something you’re less likely to get in the Disneyland-style “everything’s just fine, folks” world of a Microsoft conference):

After years of helping organizations around the world to deploy and implement SharePoint, Dan Holme has found that there are certain pain points that almost everyone encounters. Some are confusing concepts. Some are bad decisions driven by Microsoft’s UI and documentation. Some are due to unnecessarily complex terminology.

And some because there are things that SharePoint should do, but can’t. In this session, Dan will share the most common and problematic scenarios, and their solutions, with the goal of saving you pain, time, and money. Think of this session as “Lessons Learned,” “Best Practices,” or “From the Field” on steroids.

He’s planning to cover Remote BLOB Store, managed accounts, claims-based authentication, alternate access mappings, and application pools, to name a few.

“From the Field on steroids” indeed.