“SharePoint Saturday - The Conference” is coming up next week in the DC area and I’ll be there presenting a few sessions and we’re also hosting an amazing workshop that you don’t want to miss. First off here are some details about the conference

When: Thursday, August 11 – Saturday, August 13, 2011 8 am – 6 pm
Where: Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus, Annandale, VA
Website: http://www.spstc.org

SharePoint & Windows Azure Workshop

As part of the conference, we’ll be holding a one-day workshop on August 11th covering one of my favorite topic - SharePoint & Windows Azure Integration. You can register for the workshop here: http://calendar.activedatax.com/spsdc/EventRegistration.aspx?Rid=2778&Iid=9535&Frm and there is no additional cost for the workshop.

This action packed workshop will include presentations, demos and hands-on lab content walking through various aspects of integrating SharePoint 2010 and Windows Azure together. Please bring your laptop for this workshop to run through various hands-on lab materials. We’ll provide you credentials for a remote virtual machine to run thru the labs. You’ll also receive a free Windows Azure account (no credit card required) to help you develop Windows Azure applications while at the workshop.

Plus few of the early birds attending the workshop will receive a free copy of the book Developing Microsoft SharePoint Applications Using Windows Azure by Steve Fox. Steve himself will be kicking off the workshop, so make sure you get a copy of the book signed by him if you can!

Sessions

My team will be delivering three sessions at the conference besides the workshop.

1. Keynote: SharePoint and the Cloud
   Steve Fox will be delivering this keynote on Friday morning and below is an abstract for his keynote speech.
   Everywhere you turn, you hear about the cloud. But what is the cloud? And why should we as SharePoint professionals care? Collaboration in the cloud is a growing area, and if you don’t take notice then you may be left behind. From foundational capabilities to custom solution, across SharePoint and SharePoint Online, this keynote session will show you how the cloud is changing the game for you and the SharePoint industry as a whole.
2. Session: “Going Hybrid” with Windows Azure and on-premises SharePoint 2010
   Windows Azure along with SharePoint is redefining business applications moving them to the cloud, however the transition as we all know cannot happen overnight. With so many options in the Windows Azure Platform such as AppFabric Service, Azure Connect and Virtual Machine roles, many developers are trying to figure out the best strategy to bridge both worlds. In this session we provide an overview of these technologies and show demos on how developers can use these Azure technologies in conjunction with SharePoint 2010 to enable the transition to the cloud.
3. Session: Extending SharePoint 2010 with HTML5 and JavaScript
   We have all heard the facts and speculations about HTML5 being the development platform of the future. As modern browsers evolve at a rapidly increasing pace, standards based web development is becoming more common and easier than ever. Of course it is not an overnight change but it doesn’t hurt to brush up on your long forgotten JavaScript skills! In this primer session, we take a look at some of the basics of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript that SharePoint developers need to know. We’ll discuss how SharePoint can take advantage of HTML5, JavaScript and show how you can use some key libraries such as jQuery to enhance SharePoint 2010 applications.

The conference is a community event with over 280 sessions from over 190 speakers that are world renowned SharePoint experts and executives covering a wide range of technical and business topics.

Don’t miss this great learning opportunity and make sure you register now. I look forward to seeing you in DC!