What SharePoint Conferences are on your wish list for 2011?

I would love to go to SharePoint Connections in Germany. But somehow I don't think the budget will allow it. Thank goodness Florida isn't as far away--I'll probably be there in March, attending SharePoint Connections in Orlando. I love the idea of SharePoint Saturday, but with a family, it doesn't work for me. There's always in-office training or self-training, but the big advantage of a conference out of town is that I can actually turn off my phone, for a little while, and focus on learning the technology in front of me. Plus you can't beat the lunchtime conversations in the expo hall--you hear what everyone's doing in SharePoint and the struggles they're going through--it's like an in-person Twitter session (with a lot of chewing).

What conferences are you hoping to go to in 2011?

Here's the top 4 on my wish list:

1. SharePoint Connections
March 27-30, 2011, Orlando, Florida

Advantages: You get all levels of SharePoint instruction in the workshops and the presenters are the cream of the crop in the SharePoint world. Plus, if you need to catch a Visual Studio, Silverlight, or even Active Directory presentation, the other Connections conferences are co-located at the same time and include Windows Connections, VS and Silverlight Connections, Exchange Connections, and more.

2. Connections Europe
8-10 June, 2011, Germany
13-15 June, 2011, United Kingdom.

Advantages: You get the most popular sessions from the earlier US event in ASP.NET, Silverlight, SharePoint and Visual Studio. (Plus, if you're not in the US, there's no having to go through the bizarre Transportation Security Administration (TSA) body searches for American airport security.)

3. Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2011
Oct. 3-6, Anaheim, California

Advantages: You're getting SharePoint content straight from the mother ship. Disadvantages: You're getting SharePoint content straight from the mother ship.

4. Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta
March 5, 2011, Denver, Colorado

Advantages: It's a quick hop by jet for SharePoint folks in the western USA, and it's free. AND it covers SharePoint plus overlapping-in-importance technology areas of NET, SQL Server, and Windows.


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