Today, I attended a lunch sponsored by Colligo and presented the Sharing the Point Africa Tour team. As expected, we heard lot about the places they visited in Africa earlier this year and other faraway places they’ve traveled to share the SharePoint story. We learned how Colligo’s Briefcase Pro helped the team collaborate even when Internet coverage was unavailable. I was sitting near a guy from West Texas who hopes that tool may help his engineers and field crews more efficiently repair and maintain equipment in remote areas of Texas. I sometimes must feel as remote as some of the places the STP team has visited.

What I didn’t expect to learn at lunch was how the STP team is impacting communities in areas of the world that are underserved. These guys are making a difference, one city at a time. Listening to their stories of the first gathering of SharePoint users in Nairobi or the group of students that crowded the event in Beijing was truly inspiring. The encouragement and support that the STP team provides make a real difference in the lives of people, their families, and their communities. It’s easy to take for granted access to information, SharePoint user groups, SharePoint Saturdays, and events like SPC 2012. Lunch today was a moment to pause and think about what it’s like not to have easy access to these things. We are fortunate to have people like the STP team in our community reaching out and reminding us that there is much more to share the point than SharePoint. Thanks for all you do, STP team!

Here is a video featuring the members of the STP Africa team that Colligo prepared for today’s Sharing the Point Africa Executive Luncheon:

Missed any of Bamboo Nation‘s SPC 2012 coverage? Catch up here:

• Greetings from Booth #941 at SPC 2012 in Las Vegas!
• Notes from the SPC 2012 Keynote
• Dux Raymond PSY Leads the ‘Gangnam Style’ Flash Mob at SPC 2012
• Dan Holme’s ‘Deployment Wizard: SharePoint 2013 Installation Tips, Tricks, and Scripts
• Surrealism at SPC 2012: Jon Bon Jovi, Speaking at Colligo’s STP Africa Luncheon, & More
• Dux Raymond Sy’s ‘Lead the Enterprise Social Revolution – 5 Steps to Drive Culture Change
• Sharing the Point is About Much More than SharePoint…
• Microsoft SharePoint is Inconsiderate to Ladies
• Jon Bon Jovi & the Kings of Suburbia Play a Pool Party for SharePoint
• John Pruitt & Robin Miller’s ‘Building Vibrant Communities in SharePoint 2013’
• Chris Bortlik’s ‘Overview of the Top 10 Ways that SharePoint Will Help Drive End User Adoption
• The Sharing the Point Roundtable Discussion & Some Ruminations on This Year’s Microsoft SharePoint Conference