SharePoint Training
I have the priviledge of attending SharePoint Conferences and rubbing shoulders with some of the coolest people in the industry. This last week I was at SharePoint Connections and hung out with Dustin Miller (SharePoint Experts) at MGM. I peeked in on Bill English, at the preconf on Upgrade, later met up with his crew at the booth. One night Lawrence and the gang (a bunch of MVPs) all went to dinner. I sat next to Robert Bogue and we caught up. He filled me in on what he's been up to with workflow and governance. As I walked through the vendor area I stop and chatted with the SharePoint Solutions folk. Shane Young, one of my fans and I a fan of him, writes and teaches for those guys. Had a good chat with Nicola Young of SharePoint911.com, they had a presence at the SharePoint Solutions booth, Shane's wife and hung out with our group at MGM as well. Heather Solomon, SharePoint MVP, and designer extrordinaire was with us as well. ... Fun times with Mickey, Goofey and friends. In addition, I finally met Scott Jamison a Microsoft IW Architect on the east coast. He co-authored a SharePoint Essentials book soon to be available which includes a good couple pages from one of my posts on SharePoint and File Shares. He joked that one penny of ever dollar would be sent to me for my contribution. Maybe he wasn't joking?
I think they'd all agree in the training space there are the big 4. All 4 made up of SharePoint MVPs and top SharePoint people in their space. Each having separate niche's with some overlap all providing excellent training (based on who they have as trainers). When you go to SharePoint events, look for these guys. You'll either see them out on the floor, or on the stage. This post is very U.S. focused. No offense to Patrick (SharePoint MVP) and U2U in Europe. I'm sure he's got great things going on. He does really know SharePoint Dev. His Training could be considered in this group from a global perspective.
I don't include the New Horizons, SQL Soft, or Netcom. Although I'm sure they all teach the SharePoint MOC (Microsoft Official Curriculum), I don't know them on a personal level like I do the folks below. As well, I hope my friends below all realize I'm not favoring one over another. I've been to their sessions, but haven't attended any of their training courses. So that may sound funny. I vouch for them as trainers and experts, but haven't sat through a week of training. Great people though... In fact amazing people. Ironically, I have had 4 weeks of training at SQL Soft on NT 4 and SQL 2000 (resulting in my NT4 MCSE and later my W2K 2000 MCP.) It may be hard to believe that I was turned down for a job back in '97 at New Horizons for a 20K a year job, right after I graduated. Oh well, their loss.
So without further ado... In no particular order...
SharePoint Training by SharePoint Solutions
I'd say their niche is Information Worker and IT Pro. Shane of SharePoint911.com, SharePoint MVP and IT Pro also does some great IT Pro training on upgrade. He does an awesome job of making a complex topic very simple. He can really crack a tough nut.
SharePoint Experts - SharePoint Training - Training, Consulting ...
Dustin Miller and Todd Baginsky, good friends, both MVPs. Their bootcamp will really get you in *shape* and make you proud to be a member of the community. Niche I'd say is their SharePoint Designer, Dev, as well as Admin with focus on the web design work. Todd teaches a good developer course. I first saw Dustin training on FrontPage Dataviews. He makes that tool sing. The courses they do are either on site at your company or offsite. He did a session on SharePoint Designer at SharePoint Connections. Todd did one as well there.
MINDSHARP SHAREPOINT TRAINING. KNOW MORE. DO MORE.
Bill English, Todd Bleeker, are a killer team (both MVPs)... Add now with the likes of Ben Curry and Keith Richie, my good buddy previously of CSS (product support) and of SharePoint Utility fame. Todd's developer training is top of the line (if you can keep up). These guys have all been around for a while. Bill's newest book (shared with a number of authors), the MOSS 2007 Administrators Companion and the 2003 Admin Resource Kit I do recommend as great IT Pro resources for your SharePoint reference library. Andrew Connell signed my copy when he was walking by my desk after the SharePoint MVP summit (he's now out on his own). Bill's a great guy, good heart, really knows how to bring a group together. His knowledge is deep on upgrade and Admin (pick up his poster if you go by their booth). Todd as a dev is fast, deep, and really knows his stuff.
The Ted Pattison Group
Ted Pattison, knows his @#$%. He won't let you down. Top of the line developer training. Anyone I know that's been through his course. Mike Watson for example, came away saying it was worth every penny. Ted's got a great personality, very funny guy as well. I met him first at an internal event a couple of years ago presenting a case study on a financial institution setup as Acme corp. It was great to have him sit in on my session at Tech Ed last year and say nice things to Fitz about me. He even thinks I'm funny. :) Kudos for that.
Combined Knowledge (EMEA)
Steve Smith is someone I worked with on the Exams. Smart guy. I've been impressed with his attention to detail. I don't know much about their offering, but I do recommend Steve.
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Pilot House pinged me about their SharePoint Training. They've been doing classes since 2003.
I also got a mail about information worker (end user) training videos on WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 Portalogiks: http://portalogiks.com/TrainingCenter/SharePoint2007TrainingPackage/tabid/285/Default.aspx
Looks like a pretty good list of videos.
- 20 custom SharePoint training videos (View List of Training Modules)
- All high quality 1024 X 768 resolution for clear readability
- License to store and make accessible via your SharePoint Portal or website
- Covers skills in both Portal Server 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0
- All videos have playback controls for pausing and rewinding timelines
- Includes the HTML to quickly deploy a web-based training center page
- Includes the script for each training module (helpful for user guides and Help Desks)
- Each video is lead by an instructor who explains the actions and completes them with the mouse
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