We're now less than a week away from the Tuesday morning kickoff of this year's Best Practices Conference (BPC), which returns for a second year to the Hyatt Reston Town Center in the Washington, D.C. 'burbs.
I've learned from past experience to begin my BPC session preparation well in advance of walking up to the registration booth on "opening day," and I heartily encourage all attendees, especially any first-time attendees who may be reading, to adopt a similar approach. To do otherwise is to invite panicked last-minute decisions, and who's got that kind of time to spare when the goal is to soak up as much knowledge as possible during your time at the BPC? Unless you're following one specific track, it can be difficult to narrow your schedule down to just a single session in each time slot, especially given the quality of the presenters you'll find at the BPC. Given that fact, I find it's best to at least get a rough draft of my intended schedule prepared in advance, even if that rough draft includes some time slots where I might only be able to narrow it down to an either/or between two competing sessions. I'll end up making a game-time decision on those time slots later, but at least I'll have narrowed the field by preparing in advance.
To that end, I've completed my rough draft schedule and, if all goes according to plan, an incomplete list of BPC sessions that you can expect to read in-depth coverage of right here in the Bamboo Team Blog next week include: Tuesday morning's keynote; Cathy Dew's session on branding; David Mann on workflows; Dux Raymond Sy on gathering requirements; Todd Bleeker on Service Apps; Lori Gowin on Administration; Bamboo's own Jeff Tubb on process automation; and Mark Eichenberger on social networking capabilities.
Mind you, that's just a partial list based on my rough cut schedule, and I won't be blogging all of them myself. I'm thrilled to announce that in addition to my own dedicated BPC blogging, this year's conference coverage on Bamboo Nation will also feature the blogging talents of Technical Writers (and regular Bamboo Nation bloggers) Cynthia Fistler and Katie Packard, both of whom will be attending and blogging as frequently as their schedules allow. As well, Community Manager Chris Dooley, the man who brings you SharePoint Daily every weekday, will be manning the official media booth along with our friends from Women in SharePoint. In addition to Bamboo Nation's media sponsorship of the BPC, Bamboo Solutions is a sponsor of the conference and will, of course, have a booth in the Exhibit Hall, so if you're attending, please stop by and say "hello" to your pals from Bamboo both in the exhibit hall and in the common area where the media booth will be set up.
Reminder #1: I've still got some certificates good for $200 off the cost of your BPC registration to give away, so if you haven't yet registered to attend, and are planning to do so, please see details on that money-saving offer here.
Reminder #2: If you'd like to participate in the BPC Live Blogging initiative that Women in SharePoint are organizing, please see Cathy Dew's guest blog for full details on how to get in on the action.
See you at the BPC next week!
