Barring a catastrophic weather-related event such as the blizzard in the northeast that caused me to miss SPTechCon in San Francisco back in February, I'll be Boston-bound for the East Coast edition of SPTechCon tomorrow.  Earlier this year, I wrote about how excited I was to be attending my first SPTechCon and, given that the snowpocalypse kept me from the West Coast edition, that excitement has only redoubled as I look forward to this week's event in Boston (and, since the focus of the conference is technical, let's get technical for a moment and admit that technically, the event is in Cambridge).

Normally in a conference preview post like this, I'd say that there's still time for you to make plans to attend, but the fact is that full event passes to SPTechCon Boston sold out quite some time ago, so we'll skip that bit.  I should note, however, that there are still a handful of one-day workshop passes available for Wednesday, prior to the beginning of the conference proper.  There are full-day and half-day workshop offerings available from such SharePoint luminaries as Mike Watson, Robert Bogue, Todd Klindt, Shane Young, Brett Lonsdale, Laura Rogers, Mark Miller, and Peter Serzo, and I'd advise that you check out the SPTechCon Boston Workshops page for further information.  (But act fast, as the workshop passes are likely to sell out too.)

The full list of SPTechCon Boston speakers is a dynamite collection of SharePoint stars including, in addition to the aforementioned folks: Andrew Connell, Brian Culver, Bill English, Mike Fitzmaurice, Ruven Gotz, Joel Oleson, Heather Solomon, and Dux Raymond Sy … and that list represents just a fraction of the full list of speakers SPTechCon Boston has in store for attendees this week.

Not surprisingly, given the lineup of talent, and the range of offerings in the Course Catalog, I'm having a difficult time pinning down my schedule.  I've still got a lot of difficult decisions to make between now and the beginning of the workshops on Wednesday morning, and those decisions aren't made any easier given the fact that there are an incredible nine sessions competing for attendees' attention in each timeslot!  Having said that, however, some of the sessions I'm looking at with an eye towards covering here on Bamboo Nation include:

• SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 Integration: Laura Rogers and Mark Miller
• Keynote: Steve Fox
• SharePoint 2010 Out-of-the-Box Web Parts: Laura Rogers
• Best Practices in Managing SharePoint Projects: Dux Raymond Sy
• Sites with Style: Deep Dive into SharePoint CSS: Heather Solomon
• SharePoint Foundation 2010: From the Inside Out: Errin O'Connor
• Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Open Mic with SharePoint Experts: Dustin Miller, Matt Passannante, and Heather Solomon
• Keynote: Bill English
• Making SharePoint Social: Joel Oleson
• Best Practices in SharePoint User Management: Dux Raymond Sy
• Everything You Need to Know to Plan SharePoint Workflows: Mike Fitzmaurice
• The New Pillars of SharePoint 2010: Paul Swider
• Core Collaboration in SharePoint 2010: Chris McNulty

Alas, I won't be able to catch them all (in addition to that whole can't-be-in-two-places-at-once complication, I also need to build in time to blog the sessions I attend so as to get my reports out in a timely fashion), but you can bet that I'll take in as many as my schedule will reasonably allow.  As well, Bamboo's Director of Global Partner Programs, Jill Kunkel, will be on hand for the first couple of days, and is planning to blog Robert Bogue's "A Day's Walk in SharePoint with the Shepherd" workshop, and Mark Rackley's "Special Sauce of SharePoint" session, in addition to her reports from the exhibit hall.  Between the two of us, you can count on daily reports from the scene in Boston throughout the conference… and if you're going to be on the scene in Boston yourself, by all means, please introduce yourself and say "hello" if you see us!