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Field note / 16 August 2011

Taking an IT pro session to SharePoint Saturday UK

A community session is a conversation with a room, not a product demonstration with an audience attached.

By Benjamin Athawes 2 min read ConferencesSharePoint 2010Uncategorized

Preparing a conference talk is a useful test of understanding. A topic that feels clear in private becomes full of hidden assumptions when it has to be explained to a room of practitioners with different environments and priorities.

For a SharePoint Saturday session, the audience is usually generous with experience and short on patience for a sales pitch. The most useful material is a real problem, the evidence that exposed it and the decision that followed.

Build the talk around a decision

Choose one question the audience can apply to their own work. Show the options, the trade offs and the point where the decision becomes expensive to reverse. Leave room for the cases where the recommended path is wrong.

Rehearse the transitions and the timing, then prepare a shorter version in case the room wants more discussion. The slides are a support, not the session. A talk that can survive a broken projector is usually built on a strong narrative.

The short list

Checks worth running

  • State the decision the session will help the audience make.
  • Include one case where your preferred answer does not fit.
  • Prepare a shorter path for a discussion heavy room.

The event is an opportunity to test an argument in public. The questions afterward are often more valuable than the polite feedback form.

Outside reading

Reference shelf

Official documentation and independent community reading for the subjects in this note.

  1. Microsoft Tech Community (opens in a new tab)Community discussion, product announcements and practical posts from Microsoft teams.
  2. Microsoft Tech Community: SharePoint (opens in a new tab)SharePoint announcements, community articles and product team updates.
  3. Microsoft Learn: Microsoft 365 documentation (opens in a new tab)Product documentation for Microsoft 365 services, administration and adoption.
  4. Microsoft Learn: SharePoint documentation (opens in a new tab)The starting point for current SharePoint administration, development and hybrid guidance.
  5. Microsoft Learn Q&A (opens in a new tab)A community question and answer space hosted by Microsoft.
  6. SharePoint Stack Exchange (opens in a new tab)An independent question and answer community for SharePoint practitioners.
  7. Microsoft 365 Patterns and Practices (opens in a new tab)Community maintained guidance and samples for Microsoft 365 work.
  8. Microsoft Support (opens in a new tab)Support articles, troubleshooting steps and product help from Microsoft.
  9. Microsoft 365 roadmap (opens in a new tab)Planned and rolling out changes across Microsoft 365 services.
  10. SharePoint community on Reddit (opens in a new tab)An independent discussion space for administrators, developers and users.
  11. Microsoft Security Response Center (opens in a new tab)Security advisories, update guidance and vulnerability response information.
  12. Microsoft Download Center (opens in a new tab)Official downloads for Microsoft tools, updates and supporting packages.
  13. Microsoft Learn: SharePoint administration (opens in a new tab)Operational guidance for service settings, site management and the modern admin experience.
  14. Microsoft Learn: SharePoint search (opens in a new tab)Documentation for search architecture, crawling and result management.
  15. Microsoft Learn: PowerShell documentation (opens in a new tab)Language reference, cmdlet documentation and guidance for repeatable automation.

Keep reading

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