SharePoint Spotlight: Todd Klindt's Thoughts on Microsoft TechEd 2014

In today's SharePoint Spotlight, we're highlighting Todd Klindt, who not only is a contributing author for SharePoint Pro, but is heavily involved in the SharePoint community, where he regularly writes about his adventures in SharePoint administration on his blog. Todd will also be presenting at next week's Microsoft TechEd 2014 conference in Houston, Texas. Here's what Todd has to say about the upcoming show:

Todd Klindt

BG: Hi Todd, can you tell SharePoint Pro readers a little more about yourself for those who may be unfamiliar?

TK: I was born in Iowa and raised by wolves until the age of 12. Okay, I was really just born in Iowa, but that’s pretty boring, so I add the wolf part sometimes to liven it up a bit. Being nerdy, and a touch sarcastic, I spent a lot of my formative years stuffed in my locker and inside reading comic books instead of being outside.

It all worked out though. I’ve been a professional computer nerd my whole career, and I’ve been focusing on SharePoint for over 10 years. My area of expertise or the area I’m the least bad at is administration, or IT pro. I also dabble in the black arts of PowerShell and SQL administration. SharePoint has been good to me. I’ve written a few books and been lucky enough to speak about SharePoint all over the world. And being a SharePoint guy drives the ladies wild! Now I’m working at Rackspace helping the SharePoint practice there do new and amazing things.

BG: You're also the co-author of the book, Professional SharePoint 2013 Administration. Can you tell us more about that?

TK: Writing a book is like getting really, really drunk at a party. It sounds like a really good idea when you’re planning it, but afterwards you’re all, "I’m NEVER doing this again!!" Writing a book is like that, except without all the fun of being really drunk at a party. Every time I do it, I swear it’ll be my last. I’m not going to write any more books, either.

For this book I got to work with the same two guys that drug me down in our last two books; Shane Young and Steve Caravajal. It’s good thing I like those guys, so I don’t mind supporting them. We’ve all been friends for a lot of years, so we’re able to get through the arduous book writing process without killing one another.

As with all the books I’ve written, I learned a lot about the product in the process, which is good. I need all the help I can get. We end up having to write about stuff we wouldn’t normally work with, so we get to learn too as we’re getting up to speed on it. It’s also fun to give the books away at events and do book signings. It’s exciting that people find the book useful, even if it’s just to throw at stray dogs that wander into their yard.

BG: TechEd is quickly approaching. What types of announcements would you like to see from Microsoft from the SharePoint/Office365 perspective?

TK: As an IT pro I’m always a little worried about the cloud products. I’ve spent a good deal of my life putting food on the table by clicking "Next, Next, Next, Finish," and the cloud threatens to take some of that away. That being said, the technology is pretty cool, and the nerd in me loves to see what they’ll come up with next. I don’t have any specific things I’d like to see, but I always love hearing what functionality they’ve added to the platform, and then reading about how they’ve done it. Also, a lot of the new functionality in SharePoint Online finds its way into my beloved on-premises SharePoint, so new stuff for SharePoint Online is good for me and my customers too.

BG: Can you tell us more about what to expect during your all-day seminar on installing Microsoft SharePoint 2013 with Shane Young?

TK: You can expect Shane to screw up our demos. A lot! But even through all of his buffoonery, the students will see us build a SharePoint 2013 farm from the ground up. They’ll see all of our little tips and tricks, and they’ll get all the scripts we used along the way. We’ll also take a lot of questions. Shane and I enjoy interacting with the class. And if things really get exciting, maybe Shane will throw his shoe at me. Again. The things I put up with for my craft.

BG: Thanks so much for your time, Todd! Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

TK: I think that covers it. I’d love to chat more, but I have some demos for TechEd I need to put some polish on. Okay, a lot of polish. During TechEd, when I’m not on stage embarrassing myself, or hunkered down in the speaker room working on my slides, you can find me at the SharePoint product booth, or at the "Hey Scripting Guy!" booth on Monday. Swing by and say hi.