Connections Conference: Notes of an Observer

By SharePointProConnections editor, Caroline Marwitz

I've been to several tech conferences, but my favorite is the Connections Conference in November in Las Vegas because you get such a mix of IT pros and devs. They sign up for one area but can attend sessions in any subject: SharePoint, Exchange, Windows, SQL Server, ASP.NET, Visual Studio, and DotNetNuke.

At lunch you might be talking to a bunch of SharePoint admins or devs or some DBAs or some Exchange people--or two guys and a gal who do all of the above. There were attendees from as far away as Australia and as close as Vegas itself.

I sampled the sessions, the food, the pool, the weather, the slot machines, and the parties, and decided the best part was being able to talk to admins and developers, the people we keep in mind when we create each issue of SharePointPro Connections magazine.

Now, a week after the conference, the palm trees replaced by snowy pines and shrouded mountains, my notebook revealed these scribbles:

1.No one gives out flash drives anymore—pens and foam boomerangs are as good as it gets. [Update--I've been informed by my colleague BK Winstead* that he came away with 2, count them, 2 flash drives--and one of them was from the booth of the mother ship, Windows IT Pro magazine. Go figure.]
2.The logos for the Connections Conference and the nearby Pool and Spa Convention looked eerily identical--both featured round blue circles or bubbles.
3.The Pool and Spa Convention attendees looked more tanned and wrinkled than the Connections attendees—and oddly, more serious.
4.Letting the Lazy River water feature at the pool area carry you in its current is a great alcohol-free way to unwind.
5.I heard a conference attendee complain about not understanding the accent of a presenter—and the presenter was an American from the Midwest.
6.The DoNotDisturb signs you hang on your room door now say “Recovering” on one side and “Rejuvenating” on the other.
7.Heard SharePoint Designer** called “SharePoint Destroyer” for the first time.
8.IT people at a Windows-oriented conference will stand in a long, coiling line for the chance to win an iPod.
9.The swan population has doubled at Mandalay Bay’s pond since I was last there several years ago.
10.Not everyone in the world is on SharePoint 2010 yet.
11.A conference is a great way to detach yourself from most of your everyday duties and focus on learning.
12.There are tons of Japanese tourists in Vegas.
13.A lot of IT people are curious about what it takes to become a SharePoint developer.
14.The SharePoint 2010 October Cumulative Update breaks things.***
15.The tamales at the Borders Grill are weirdly sweet.
16.Demos, whether given by experts in workshops or vendors in the expo hall, are my favorite part of a presentation.
17.The focus on Windows Phone 7 was fascinatingly surreal to a person who just acquired a borrowed Samsung Blackjack with Windows Mobile 6 and was dang happy to have that. [Update: I do have Windows 7 loaded on my laptop, and sometimes I reverse the two 7s and Windows and think I actually have Windows Phone 7. In reality, my Xbox Live-playing sons will have Windows Phone 7 before I do, because they have more discretionary income than I do.]

* See BK Winstead's take on Connections in his blog post "Exchange Connections Wrap: The Cloud, the People, the Gaffes."

** See Asif Rehmani's video that touches on SharePoint Designer in "Creating Reusable Workflows in SharePoint Designer 2010."

***See Dan Holme's excellent article "SharePoint User Profile Synch: Achilles' Profile Part 1,"  about his trials and tribulations around that stupid Cumulative Update.