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AvePoint in the Rocky Mountain State for SharePoint Fest Denver 2013

AvePoint is the proud Title Sponsor of SharePoint Fest Denver 2013, taking place from March 18-20 in Denver, CO. Boasting more than 65 sessions in multiple tracks, the event gives attendees the opportunity to attend technical classes and seminars – taught by Microsoft Certified Trainers, Microsoft engineers, and Microsoft MVPs – covering Enterprise Content Management, Social SharePoint, Business Value, Infrastructure/Administration, Composites (Workflow), Search, Business Intelligence, and Development.

AvePoint will be on hand throughout the event at Booth T1, where attendees can meet with our team and learn more about our latest products and solutions for SharePoint governance, compliance, and infrastructure management. Attendees can also enter to win a $50 Amazon gift card that will be raffled off at 2:30pm on Wednesday, March 20 at our booth.

Director of AvePoint Client Services Randy Williams will be on hand at the event to share expertise with two separate sessions:

· 10:15am Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Wednesday, March 20: An IT Pro Guide for Deploying and Managing SharePoint 2013 Apps

· 3:15pm PST on Wednesday, March 20: SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint 2010: Reporting Nirvana

We sat down with Randy to learn a bit more about the content of his sessions and why he’s excited for the event.

1. What are your SharePoint Fest presentations about?

Randy Williams: I have two presentations at SharePoint Fest. The first is one of my favorites that I developed a little over a year ago but is still quite popular. It’s called “SQL Server 2012 and SharePoint 2010: Reporting Nirvana”. It’s a high level, business friendly session that demonstrates the reporting improvements that Microsoft SQL Server 2012 added to Microsoft SharePoint 2010. I briefly introduce PowerPivot and Power View as a concepts then dive into a number demos on how these solutions can apply to common business intelligence demands. We spend a lot of time on demonstrating Power View because it’s still quite new and, well, it’s fun to show. We also spend a little bit of time looking at the improvements in SQL Server Reporting Services. I particularly like giving this session because the demos are practical and easy to follow. Plus they center on an interest of mind: population demographics. Using PowerPivot and PowerView, we look at a Gross Domestic Producte (GDP) comparison of different countries. We then take a look at interesting statistics such as fertility rate, population growth, and many other population metrics. Our goal is to see how these features can help us predict future population growth trends.

My second presentation is a brand new one that I am building right now. It’s called “An IT Pro Guide for Deploying and Managing SharePoint 2013 Apps”. The intent of my talk is to educate developers and IT professionals (SharePoint farm and site administrators) how the new app model in 2010 changes some of the packaging and application lifecycle management techniques used to build, deploy, and manage applications. In particular, I want to provide some guidance on how certain governance policies can be enforced and where some of the limitations are. I hope the audience finds it to be a useful talk as they transition to SharePoint 2013.

2. What is one key takeaway you want attendees to walk away with after each presentation?

RW: For my “Reporting Nirvana” session, I want attendees to see how Power View changes the perspective of next-generation reporting systems. You see, Power View is more of a data visualization capability, not so much classic reporting. In other words, it’s not used for publishing PDF-style or reports that you’re going to print as a hard copy. With Power View, you work in an online, connected fashion that lets you display reports but also manipulate them in a dynamic way. Unlike fixed or static reports, Power View lets you answer interesting “what if” style questions to more completely understand the data set.

For my “Managing SharePoint 2013 Apps” session, it’s harder for me to identify a single takeaway. It’s really twofold:

1. To understand the concepts of SharePoint 2013 apps and their basic packaging elements.

2. To understand how to deploy and manage 2013 apps within on-premise, hybrid, or completely hosted-environments deployments such as Office 365 or Azure.

3. Aside from your presentations, what is one thing you’re looking forward to most att SharePoint Fest?

RW: With all my travel across North America and the globe, I have never been to Denver. While I’ve connected to flights through its airport many times, this will be my first time in the city as a stopover. From what I’ve seen in pictures and heard from others, it’s a beautiful city. Unfortunately, this is a very busy week for me as I am coming from a customer visit in Tennessee and heading back to California, so this there won’t be much if any sightseeing this time. Nonetheless, I always look forward to meeting the local community, sharing ideas, and catching up with friends who are on the SharePoint speaker circuit. How lucky am I do have this opportunity? Thanks to AvePoint for understanding community and letting me share my thoughts in another great location.

Will we see you there? What are you looking forward to most at the event? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Franklin T.
Franklin T.
In his former role as Director of Communications, Franklin was responsible for increasing brand awareness across all AvePoint's digital properties.

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