After an amazing week, the SharePoint 2008 conference has come to a close.  3800+ attendees from all over the world converged on Seattle to hear from experts, network, and explore partner solutions all on top of SharePoint 2007.  For those who are interested in the stats, here is a quick list:

-          3800 attendees registered

-          44 countries represented

-          150+ breakouts ranging from ECM, collaboration, social computing, deployment, scalability, development, implementation, SharePoint Designer, and Business Intelligence.

-          45+ Hands on labs

-          61 Sponsor and exhibit companies

-          Hotels in the surrounding area completely sold out

-          Over 100 XBOX’s for the ultimate Frag fest and Rockband concert

-          Master Chief in attendance!

Thomas Rizzo kicked off the conference with keynotes from Bill Gates and Kurt DelBene and a ton of announcements around SharePoint, with the key release of Search Server Express 2008 and hosted SharePoint via Microsoft Online Services to all companies, no matter their size.  You can find out more about this exciting initiative here.

Every session I attended for Business Intelligence was standing room only.  Microsoft Partners like EMC and Slalom Consulting gave examples of how the SharePoint platform with PerformancePoint is reaching users enabling access to critical information and resources for Performance Management.  Dan Parish, from the Microsoft Excel Services team, presented how you can extend the capabilities of Excel Services to a packed room of over 300 with tremendous feedback.  Not to worry if you missed that sessions as we will be posting the content that was presented in a separate blog to showcase examples of how you can use Excel Services.

I had the privilege of engaging with numerous customers on how they are deploying SharePoint across their organization, from the public sector to private organizations, and how it is making an impact in the way users are collaborating, finding the information they need, and increasing productivity throughout.  And how IT is raising the bar and enabling business users to gain access to the information they need securely and consistently.  One such example was very impressive talking to the VP of a college where he passionately described how his team had embraced SharePoint and in under 3 months, rolled out a game changing experience not only for the faculty and administrative staff, but also for students and how they had access to the information that they could take action on, and thus enhance their overall experience at the college – from finance and payments, to course curriculum and class schedules.  Students could own their education experience and stay on top of the areas that mattered, and professors could view how students were progressing through the term and in various courses.  Business intelligence plays a critical role in displaying the right information, presenting various dashboards for students and staff alike, and creating KPIs to measure performance at multiple levels.  If only I had something like this back in my day instead of that green terminal screen! J

In all, a great conference and huge excitement for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Business Intelligence, from SQL Server to Performance Point.  You can catch the all the news, keynotes and other information from the conference on the website.   See you next year!

Pej.
SharePoint Senior Product Manager, IWPMG