A ShareCamp.at Retrospective

My colleague Sebastian and I arrived at ShareCamp in Vienna (Austria) at Friday evening. And it started well – we meet a lot of people very known in the German – and now Austrian Community. To name a bunch: Toni Pohl, Martina Grom, Christian Glessner, Thorsten Hans, Hans Brender, Heike Ritter -  not a complete list. We had a, lets call it pre-conference party. A great start of a ShareCamp.

So what is a ShareCamp?

The idea behind a ShareCamp is as easy as fun: It’s a community conference with no pre-aligned agenda about sessions. Every attendee can present – and they should. Did I mention that it is all about SharePoint? I assume that its best comparable to a SharePoint Saturday.

In Germany there is one ShareCamp in Munich – usually around April – now this year there was the first one in Austria. A good way to bring the community together and for partners to show their products. Around 70 people attended at Microsoft Austria – they have a great office in Vienna. Not that many attendees you think? Right, but we had were small groups and that enabled very detailed discussions – with the whole audience. That was great and very intense.

Sebastian playing with the Microsoft Gadget - a huge touch monitor with Windows 8

Sessions

I attended 6 Sessions at this ShareCamp from the 4 parallel tracks – as usually I blogged about them:

1. Apps or Farm Solutions?
2. Typescript
3. Extending Visual Studio SharePoint Tools
4. Windows Azure Mobile Services
5. App Dev

For a free conference very impressive.

After-Party

After the conference – about 6pm we went to a restaurant and continued with discussions, beer and food sponsored by K2 – perfect way to connect with friends and like-minded community members.

Closing notes

I had a blast – this ShareCamp (my 4th now) was pretty amazing. Meeting friends with similar interests and same level of passion about SharePoint is not that easy – this community event made it possible, again. The insight I got during the sessions about new technologies, tips and tricks – entertaining as well.

Closing Note - shortly before the raffle

Everyone wants to get the Surface RT

Lastly – there was a closing note with Martina Grom and a raffle.

I won a book “SharePoint 2013 for End-Users” – that’s a sign. I think I make client happy and give it to them. But thanks – made my day! Who needs a Surface RT anyways…

I am a winner!

Thanks for all organizers and sponsors for making this possible. Count me in for next year.