Keynotes, Sessions, and More

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We're half-way through the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 already. If you're following me on Twitter, you'll know some of the things that caught my attention as I was sitting through the keynotes and sessions. I really haven't had much time to ponder things too deeply, but there are some items that stand out.

"SharePoint is Magical"

During Steve Ballmer's keynote, this was his answer to the question "What is SharePoint?" Although that seems more than a little hyperbolic, in some ways he's right. Not so much the product itself (though I am beginning to wonder), but the effect it is having.

Consider this: The SharePoint Conference has over 7,000 people participating. That's more than attended TechEd this year. TechEd is covers all of Microsoft's products and technologies. Yet this conference, for a single product, is bigger.

But, that is almost a mischaracterization. Although SharePoint is a single product (well, family of products), its impacts are far greater. Almost every other product Microsoft produces is influenced by SharePoint. In fact, many of the sessions at the conference revolve around some of those impacts.

SharePoint is Pervasive

One of the sessions I went to yesterday demonstrates this clearly. Access has been Microsoft's "end user" database product for well over a decade. It allows users to easily create sets of tables, forms, and reports.

With the 2010 release, Microsoft is introducing Access Web Services. Essentially, this allows you to take an Access database and convert it (not merely upload it) into SharePoint site, with virtually all of the functionality intact. Tables are converted to SharePoint lists. Macros are converted to JavaScript and SharePoint workflows. Even your forms and reports display virtually identically.

What's more, this isn't a one-way ticket - it is a round-trip. You can re-open the site in Access to tweak it, or have full "access" to the functionality that doesn't convert (either by product limit or your choice).

Integration now also exists for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Visio.

"The News"

Of course, no Microsoft event would be complete without the big Attendee Party. This year, the venue was pretty close to "home" - Mandalay Bay's "Beach". The theme was the 80's, so we had breakdancing, "big hair", leg warmers and headbands, even Rubik's Cubes. About the only thing missing was roller skates.

But the highlight of the night was a private concert by Huey Lewis and the News. Just to show you how out of touch with pop/rock music I am, I didn't even know he was the guy who did the songs in Back to the Future (among other things). I only knew him from the karaoke movie, Duets, with Gwyneth Paltrow. (I'm a karaoke singer/fan.) Of course, I had heard of him, but I didn't know which music he was associated with. But I definitely recognized most of the songs he did, as did the crowd - many of whom (myself included) ended up wading into the beach pool to get closer to the stage.

The "Other" News

Of course, as you probably have heard from everywhere by now, this conference is essentially the "coming out party" for SharePoint 2010. But the actual bits aren't quite ready for us yet. They've promised to have the public beta available sometime in November.

So, that's it for me at midway. Keep up with my tweets for in-line learnings, and I'll be back with a conference wrap-up once it is all over.