SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati Spawning New Startups

Oct. 3, 2012 - PRLog -- Every technology camp has its own community of developers, users, managers, buyers, sellers, and fans.  Microsoft’s enterprise software solution, SharePoint, is no exception.  In fact, with 125 million client licenses sold globally, many major cities now hold an annual, one-day event called “SharePoint Saturday”.  These non-profit events are produced, managed and promoted by a volunteer group within each local community.  Each event is funded through corporate sponsorship, and is free for SharePoint enthusiasts to register and attend.

Cincinnati will be hosting their second SharePoint Saturday on October 27, starting at 8 a.m. at the Kingsgate Marriott on the UC Campus.  The event is expected to draw several hundred professionals from around the region, and features free workshop tracks for developers, information workers, SharePoint administrators, and project managers.  Even lunch is provided for attendees.  

The Cincinnati event is unique, being the first SharePoint Saturday to offer PMI certified project managers continuing education PDUs for attending the free project management-related sessions. This is a landmark event for the community because it represents a major endorsement by the Project Management Institute.

“We’re all passionate about SharePoint and I think that’s what draws our community together around these events,” says Stacy Deere, President of the SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati Committee, “It’s a lot of really hard work, but we have a lot of fun and get to connect with old friends and make new ones.”  

As a nationally recognized SharePoint architect, Deere actually launched her rapidly expanding consulting firm, Focal Point Solutions ( http://www.focalpointsolutions.co ), as a result of being involved with many SharePoint Saturday events around the nation.  Deere’s reputation recently helped her forge a relationship with the Cincinnati Reds to help them develop and manage their internal SharePoint implementation.

The money has started to pour in as well.  Many software vendors like AvePoint have recognized the ground floor opportunity to be involved in the community and pick up the tab to simply be present at the pitch free events.  Stacy Deere said, “Enterprise level decisions to buy SharePoint related software tools or contract for services happens at SharePoint Saturday events.  The big players want in.”

In fact, an entire grassroots industry has mushroomed around the underground publicity and networking happening at the SharePoint Saturday Events. Founder of Columbus-based TekDog, Jason Keller has been a regular presenter at events across the nation.  By leveraging his expanding presence in the community, Jason has managed to bootstrap his SharePoint end user training and SharePoint user adoption ( http://www.tekdoginc.com/user-adoption ) consulting business.  

“I kept getting interest in my workshop sessions, and that led me to respond to the market by offering targeted solutions around the topics I presented,” said Keller, “When I showed up to speak at SharePoint Saturday in Redmond, people had already heard about TekDog and my presentations, so I was a little surprised.” Redmond, Washington, is the global headquarters for Microsoft.

For more information or to register for the event, visit http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/cincinnati