Office Developer Conference 2008 Blog

ODC 2008 Unconference winners!

2008-02-18T21:43:00Z

We are pleased to announce our first-ever Unconference winners from ODC2008. Thanks to all presenters who participated and the great audience turnout for this event!

Title	Presenter	Award
Three SharePoint Development Gems in 30 minutes	Raymond Mitchell	First Place
Using OBA for automating ISO 9000 document approve process	Haaron Gonzalez	Second Place
InfoPath and Workflow Worst Practices: When bad projects happen to good developers	Joshua Blake	Third Place

- Khawar

Congratulations to OBA Solution of the Year Award Winners

2008-02-15T20:22:00Z

Winners of the OBA Solution of the Year Award Contest

1st place: SmartAsset ODC

2nd place: Intrasphere PharmaCM

3rd place: IntelliSafe Vault Desktop for Microsoft Office 2007

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to Round 2 Finalists

Bluespring BPM Suite 4.5
Epicor Information Worker
FirstPoint Enterprise Content Management
IntelliSafe Vault Desktop for Microsoft Office 2007
K2 blackpearl
Knowledge Driven Solution Accelerator
ObjectRisk Enterprise Risk Management and Compliance Modular System
Intrasphere PharmaCM
SmartAsset ODC
Xpertdoc Studio 2007

- Khawar

ODC 2008 agenda highlights!

2008-02-05T00:55:00Z

It's almost time to pack your bags and head out to San Jose - ODC 2008 starts in less than a week!

A quick recap of ODC 2008 agenda/highlights by day:

Sunday Feb 10 2008

10am: Registration open
11am: Pre-conference sessions start
5pm-7pm: Connect and Register event

Monday Feb 11 2008

9:00am: Opening Keynote by Bill Gates, followed by Client and Server MS Exec keynotes
12:30pm: Expo Hall open (also open on day 2 and day 3)
1:30pm: Breakout sessions start

5 technical tracks (architecture, client, server, services and realworld)
1 executive track

5pm: Nominations for unconference close
6pm-8pm: Expo Reception
6pm-8pm: Sleepless Event Finale
OBA Solution of the Year judging

Tuesday Feb 12 2008

7:30am: Unconference voting open
9:00am: UC and Office Live MS Exec keynotes
9:00am-10:30am: Sleepless and OBA Solution of the Year winners announced
11am: Breakout sessions
6 pm: Unconference selections announced
7pm-10pm: Attendee Party

Wednesday Feb 13 2008

9:00am: Breakout sessions
12:30pm: Unconference begins
1:45pm: Unconference/ODC 2008 ends

For more details, check out www.odc2008.com. To register, click here!

- Khawar

Round 1 Finalists of OBA Solution of the Year Award Contest!

2008-02-02T00:33:00Z

Round 1 of the OBA Solution of the Year Award Contest ended yesterday and finalists have now been announced. Top 3 OBA solutions from among these will be recognized at ODC 2008!

Full details at: http://blogs.msdn.com/oba/archive/2008/02/01/oba-solution-of-the-year-phase-1-winners.aspx

- Khawar

Sleepless developer contest update

2008-02-01T22:34:00Z

As you might recall from an earlier blog post, we have a series of Office/SharePoint developer focused regional contests going on right now and the grand finale/announcement of winners will take place at ODC 2008!

Regional sleepless contests have been held for DC, Atlanta, LA, Dallas already. And I'm at the Chicago one right now where several die-hard techies and trainers have braved an overnight snowstorm and some nasty driving conditions to make it here!

You can read more about the regional contests and see the latest videos/pics at the sleepless contest blog: http://www.infusionblogs.com/Sleepless/default.aspx

- Khawar

ODC venue pics (< 2 weeks away)!

2008-01-28T20:49:00Z

ODC 2008 gets underway in just under 2 weeks! The ODC event team was on a visit to the San Jose Convention Center and we thought it might be interesting to share a few of the site photos with you.

The San Jose Convention Center main entrance area. This was taken when no other event was going on at the center, so it is going to be quite different when you actually see it as we'll have banners and registration kiosks, etc. setup in this area. The ODC breakout sessions and other activities will be on the upper level.
One of the large breakout rooms in the convention center on the upper level. These were set up as a classroom for another event that had just finished. In ODC's case, the setting will be more theater style.
One of the fun activities we've arranged for you to enjoy while at ODC. Look for more details in the ODC Conference Guide when you arrive!

For the latest on sessions, labs and other details, and to register, please visit www.odc2008.com.

- Khawar

Less than 3 weeks to ODC 2008!

2008-01-22T22:04:00Z

Hard to believe but ODC is now only 20 days away! We've now published details of all technical content on www.odc2008.com so if you haven't yet, please check out the various tracks and sessions. There are some last minute updates remaining, and those will be posted in the next few days.

Behind the scenes, there are a lot of activities underway. Last couple of weeks, we've been busy finalizing details such sessions, speakers and times, as well as the food menu and the conference guide. There's also staffing arrangements for booths and labs, as well as shipping of collateral and giveways. It's all been a very interesting and an eye opening experience. More on these topics soon in one of the future blog posts.

BTW, if you have already registered and made hotel arrangements, thank you! For those who are still sorting out the details, just wanted to let you know we've been able to obtain an extension on the discounted ODC hotel rates from some of the hotels through Fri 1/25. So you now have a few more days to save on hotels costs. Register now.

- Khawar

Hugh MacLeod ("Blue Monster" creator) will be at ODC 2008!

2008-01-17T00:35:00Z

The ODC 2008 team is pleased to announce that Hugh MacLeod (“Blue Monster” creator, avid blogger and artist) will be at ODC 2008! ODC attendees will be able to meet him on Sunday Feb 10 during the informal registration get together (5-7pm) and also during the Attendee Party on Tuesday.

o Sunday: Hugh will draw sketches based on audience discussion and interaction

o Tuesday: Hugh will be around to sign Blue Monster T-shirts (yes, we’re providing the shirts! J) , and talk with attendees in an informal environment

Visit www.gapingvoid.com/bluemonster to learn more about Hugh and the Blue Monster, and of course, if you haven’t done so already, signup for ODC 2008!

- John

ODC content - current vs futures

2008-01-15T20:44:00Z

Since we’re in the midst of development for the next version of Office and SharePoint (aka Office 14), we have been asked to what extent ODC will focus on the futures vs current products. The majority of content at ODC will be focused on Office and SharePoint 2007, but we will be unveiling a whole set of brand new content, tools, and sample applications for these and other in-market products. We recognize the opportunity to get valuable feedback from the developer community, and as such you will get the earliest peeks into the vision and roadmap for the next versions of Office, SharePoint and Visual Studio. You will also have some important opportunities to connect with key decision makers and influence the plans for how the broad platform evolves.

- Chris

Hands-on Lab sessions

2008-01-14T21:54:00Z

First off, a reminder - we're exactly 4 weeks from ODC 2008! If you haven't done the registration and/or made travel arrangements, now's a good time to do so while you can still get decent air fares and choice of hotels. Register here.

We also wanted to share our final list of content for ODC 2008 - Hand-on lab session abstracts for about 20 unique interactive, self-paced labs. Details below.

- Khawar

Session Title	Abstract
ASP.NET 2.0 Interoperability with Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 - Web Parts	Learn about the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Part framework, designed and built on the Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part infrastructure. The Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Part framework uses many controls in the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part control set, and introduces several of its own that inherit from base classes supplied by the ASP.NET 2.0 Web Part control set. As part of the Web Part Framework Web Part connections can be used to drive interactive content between Web Parts either on the same part or the same site.
Binding Data to Word Content Controls	This session shows you how to create smart documents using Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO). This HOL will show you how to add a data grid, bind that to a data source, and then bind the data grid to Word Content Controls in your VSTO project. Other skills covered will be how to create a custom actions pane and use that actions pane to help browse data which is linked to your document.
Building Microsoft® Office InfoPath® 2007 Forms that Run as Both Rich Client and Browser Applications	The objective of this lab is to become familiar with browser-based scenarios for Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 forms.
Creating and Deploying Microsoft® Visual Studio 2005 Workflows for Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007	In this lab, you will complete a partially built Visual Studio workflow, deploy that workflow, and test it's functionality in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Creating Custom SharePoint Workflow	A major integration point between Visual Studio 2008 and MOSS 2007 is the ability to create, debug and deploy SharePoint workflow to a SharePoint site. This HOL shows you how to create and add activities to a SharePoint workflow and then test that workflow on a SharePoint site.
Creating Custom Task Pane in Excel 2007 Add-in	Custom task panes are great ways to integrate a variety of external features into your Office experience - e.g. connectivity to data sources or web parts. This HOL shows you how you can take advantage of the custom task pane to build complex functionality into Microsoft Excel 2007.
Creating Workflows for Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0	In this lab, you will use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to design a custom workflow that is triggered on file creation or change. Within the workflow designer, you will use out-of-the-box actions such as assigning a task or sending an e-mail message based on promoted values in your form data. In addition, you will learn how to build a custom workflow using the Windows Workflow Foundation plug-in to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and deploy that workflow to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. Both exercises demonstrate how workflow functionality can be seamlessly integrated with the 2007 Microsoft Office system release.
Customizing the 2007 Microsoft® Office System User Interface for Your Solution	The objective of this lab is to become familiar with the programming model behind the new user interface features of 2007 Microsoft Office programs. This includes both the ribbon as well as the custom task pane.
Developing Custom Outlook Form Region	Custom Outlook form regions are an exciting way to integrate functionality into the context of the Outlook experience. This HOL will show you how to create a custom Outlook form region and add data connectivity to a data source (external to Outlook) and add Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) controls that are dynamically updated when browsing through the data controls.
Getting Started with SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007 Development for the SharePoint Products and Technologies 2003 Developer	Learn about SharePoint SDK items that are new to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0. You will discover how to programmatically work with item level permissions, use the new SPContext object, utilize the site collection data query and make use of the elevated administration capabilities within SharePoint. These components add to the breadth of the SharePoint platform and give a developer a new level of control over the the user and programmatic interface of SharePoint.
Microsoft® Office InfoPath® 2007 Forms Development	The objective of this lab is to become familiar with some of the new development features of Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.
Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Designer 2007 - CSS and the Data Form Web Part	This lab will give the participant an understanding of how Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 can customize SharePoint pages and applications using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and the Data Form Web Part.
Programmatic Manipulation of the Microsoft® Office Open XML Formats	The goal of this lab is to show you how you can manipulate Microsoft Office programs documents using the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats without using 2007 Microsoft Office programs. The exercises will lead you through scenarios involving programmatically manipulating documents using the Microsoft Office Open XML Formats.
Synchronizing Data Between Microsoft® Office Groove® 2007 and Microsoft SharePoint® Products and Technologies	With Microsoft Office Groove 2007 project teams collaborate inside contextual workspaces, providing one place for teams to share information and work together more securely. This Lab will help you learn about the architecture and design of Office Groove 2007 applications and how they can be connected to enterprise systems such as Microsoft Windows® SharePoint Services.
Understanding the 2007 Microsoft® Office System User Experience and Interface Design	The objective of this lab is to become familiar with the new 2007 Microsoft Office programs user interface.
Understanding the Structure and Solution Capabilities of the Microsoft® Office Open XML Formats	The objective of this hands-on lab is to help you become familiar with the new 2007 Microsoft Office programs file formats. During this lab, you will examine sample documents for each of the 2007 Office programs that implement the Microsoft Office Open XML Format. You will also learn how you can edit documents by directly manipulating files without the use of the Microsoft Office programs. The following exercises will help you explore the new default Microsoft Office programs file formats and allow you to gain insights on the new solution possibilities they enable for creating solutions.
Using InfoPath 2007 forms with the Business Data Catalog in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007	Learn how to configure the Business Data Catalog (BDC) to read and write data to SQL Server using InfoPath 2007. The level of integration between backend systems and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 has never been higher. SharePoint now offers a common set of interfaces. These interfaces simplify communication, resulting in a significant decrease in the complexity of integration projects and an increase in new cross-system business scenarios.
Using List Events in Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0	In this lab, you will create an Event Handler that is associated with a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 list. List events were not available in preview versions of Windows SharePoint Services.
Using SilverLight to Enhance the Look and Feel of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007	Learn about developing Silverlight enhanced SharePoint Web Parts and Navigation controls. SharePoint makes use of the ASP.NET 2.0 provider model and you will go through the process of extending this model to create a control that is Silverlight based. You will also learn the basic techniques of how to deliver Silverlight 1.0 and Silverlight 1.1 applications in a SharePoint Web Part.
VBA and VSTO Interoperability	A new feature within VSTO 3.0 is the ability to call VSTO managed add-ins from VBA and VBA from VSTO assemblies. This hands-on lab walks you through how you can develop interoperability between your VBA code and your VSTO managed add-ins.

Executive track sessions

2008-01-11T21:43:00Z

Many of you have asked about Executive track session details. Chris just finalized these and we wanted to share these with you via the blog. The details will also get posted to the site in the next few days.

You'll notice a couple of sessions are still listed as "Executive presentation - to be announced". We're finalizing the abstracts and confirming speakers for those and will post those as those details are finalized.

Session Code	Session Title	Speaker Name	Abstract
EXE101	The Role of Office in a "Design for People, Build for Change" Strategy	John Rymer, Vice President, Application Development & Infrastructure Team, Forrester Research	Forrester uses the phrase "design for people, build for change" to describe the key requirements driving the next generation of business applications. In conceiving this view of applications, Forrester has asserted that Microsoft Office will play a major role in the strategies of many clients due to its presence and its increasing utility as an environment for custom business applications. This speech explores the potential and pitfalls of Microsoft Office within a "design for people, build for change" strategy, drawing on Forrester's experience with clients.
EXE102	OBA and Software + Services	Daz Wilkin, Program Manager, Microsoft Platform Strategy Group	Software + Services is Microsoft’s approach for the next generation of computing. By bringing together the best of both software and services, we maximize capabilities, choice and flexibility for our customers. This session will provide an overview of Software + Services and explain how, using customer and partner examples, Office Business Applications demonstrate Software + Services in the enterprise.
EXE103	Executive Presentation	To be announced
EXE104	What’s Up, .DOC? Open XML Formats, OpenDocument Format, and the Revolutionary Implications of XML in Productivity Applications	Peter O'Kelly, Burton Group Research Director	Industry debate about the relative merits of Open XML Formats and OpenDocument Format highlights the significance of the productivity application market shift from binary and proprietary file formats to vendor- and product-independent XML models. The competitive stakes are huge, and the related political posturing is sometimes perplexing. In this overview, Burton Group Research Director Peter O’Kelly introduces Open XML Formats, OpenDocument Format, and related World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, and projects their implications for the future of productivity application-based information management.
EXE105	Bringing Insight to the “Edge” of the Enterprise with Microsoft	John Head, Vice President, Hitachi Consulting	In this session, you will learn how Hitachi helped a Fortune 500 Consumer Goods Manufacturer to increase sales and profits for both the company and its retailer customers despite an increasingly competitive environment.
EXE106	Streamlining Customer Inquiry Processes to gain competitive advantage in the manufacturing industry	Jens Rabe, VP and GM, Microsoft Line of Business at Open Text Corporation	This session will explain how Business Decision makers are able to gain significant savings in unstructured customer care processes by providing “click through” access to information stored in backend systems inside the familiar outlook interface. Attend this session and you will learn how a fortune 2000 steel manufacturer managed to cut customer care process cost in half without introducing a new middleware or even training end users thanks to making use of Office 2007 VSTO technology, bringing backend data and content to an interface all users are at ease with.
EXE107	Executive Presentation	To be announced
EXE108	Partner Opportunities with the Microsoft Office System	Chris Capossela, CVP Information Worker Product Management Group	In this session Chris will discuss the landscape of partner opportunities available on the Microsoft Office System, and also note several important partner and customer solutions that have been developed using the Office platform.
EXE109	Panel Discussion - moderated by Jim Lundy (Gartner Research)	Jim Lundy (Gartner Research)
EXE110	Unlocking Dynamic Data with the PI System and Microsoft Office 2007	Prabal Acharyya, Director, Microsoft Global Alliance, OSIsoft and Ronan De Hooge, Sr. Software Developer, OSIsoft	This session will focus on OSIsoft’s PI System integration with Microsoft office 2007 which brings operations data and events together in a dynamic, easy to understand format within an Office Business Application (OBA). This session will utilize a real world scenario to demonstrate the ways in which OSIsoft utilizes the Office Platform to enable end users to act intelligently on business and production data. Specifically the focus will be on OSIsoft RtWebParts on MOSS 2007, Datalink Server with Excel Services, Datalink Client with Excel 2007, integration with Performance Point Server 2007, Unified Communications, and MOSS components like BDC and Search.

Welcome Fedex!

2008-01-10T22:36:00Z

The ODC 2008 team is pleased to welcome our newest sponsor, FedEx. Now, you might be wondering why a company known for delivering packages on-time is sponsoring an Office developer conference. All I can say is it's very cool and you’ll just have to come to the conference to find out more!

- Khawar

5 weeks and counting!

2008-01-08T05:13:00Z

Hard to believe but we're only 5 weeks away from ODC 2008! Preperations are in full swing for ODC 2008 and I will be sharing details of a recent site visit and other prep details over the next few blog posts.

If you haven't checked out tracks and sessions, do take a look as they are all posted on www.odc2008.com .

And of course, don't forget to register!

- Khawar

Unconferencing @ ODC 2008

2008-01-04T04:47:00Z

Happy New Year!

By now, you’ve hopefully seen the details of sessions in each ODC track. If you haven’t, check out the various sessions by track: Architecture, Client, Server, Services , & RealWorld .

But if you thought you now know all there is to know about ODC content-wise, read on!

To give an opportunity to attendees at the conference to weigh in on topics or speakers we might have missed, and to those who submitted sessions but couldn’t be accommodated, we have reserved a few slots for an “unconference” at ODC.

If you are not familiar with the unconference concept, here’s how it will work:

- Thru End of ODC Day 1: Anyone attending the conference can nominate themselves to present a session on a specific topic during “unconference”

- Thru End of ODC Day 2: Everyone at the conference gets to vote for their favorite sessions from the submitted session list

- At the end of ODC Day 2: Results of unconference session voting published and final sessions identified

- Day 3: Unconference sessions take place

Additional details:

- Unconference session length: 30 mins max

- Topic requirements: Anything at all, as long as it is related to Office/SharePoint development

- Format: free form (prepared presentation, chalktalk, in-depth code demo, etc)

- Max final unconference sessions: up to 12

- Incentives:

o $1000 for best unconference session (based on session evaluation scores)

o $500 each for second, third place sessions (based on session evaluation scores)

o ODC unconference speaker gift for all others

Stay tuned for more details re nominating a session, voting and the unconference!

- Khawar

ODC 2008 session and speaker stats

2007-12-21T22:10:00Z

We recently did some internal analysis of ODC 2008 content and speakers and wanted to share some basic stats with you:

FYI - initial session list titles are now posted by track on www.odc2008.com and the abstracts will be published later today.

Total sessions: 82

(note: the total session count may adjust slightly as we fine tune the session list)

We had originally planned a more modest 60-70 sessions but had so many interesting and relevant submissions that we ended up adding some additional slots to accomodate the extra sessions.

MS vs External speakers: ~50% each!

Our original plan was to select the best sessions and then do a sanity check + any necessary adjustments to make sure we have at least 30% external speakers to really have a diverse mix of individuals, ideas and expertize. As it turns out, we are about even for internal vs external speakers, which is great.

Session distribution by track:

Server (primarly SharePoint server but also others such as project server, Duet, Dynamics) leads the pack in terms of total sessions. Client track is a close second in terms of # of sessions, and the rest are about equally distributed. The architecture and services tracks should be very interesting as these are both topics we're focusing on for the first time in an Office developer focused conference.

Session distrubution by level:

We have good 200 level content at ODC, but much of the content at ODC will be at the 300 level, and some 400 level sessions for the experts. BTW, if you are new to Office dev, don't let this discourage your from attending. In addition to the 200 sessions, we have an Office 101 pre-conference on Sun Feb 10 to ramp you up so you will be in good shape to go through the more advanced level sessions during the conference. Check www.odc2008.com for info on the pre-con.

More stats and details to follow :)

Happy Holidays!

- Khawar