Having just returned home from New York city, I have a great respect for all of the hard work that is needed to be able to put on an event the size and caliber of New York City. I would personally like to thank the organizers of the event:
Becky Isserman,
Greg Hurlman
Thomas Daly and
Tasha Scott.
Without the countless hours, calls, and continuous follow-up from these individuals, this event could not have been possible. A special thank you to Becky Isserman for taking in two speakers into her home for the weekend as well. Kim and I both thank you for the best NYC accommodations possible.
The speakers arrived on Friday in time for the speaker social in the evening. The lucky few of us who arrived early decided to meet up for lunch at City Crab & Seafood Restaurant in NYC. The food was amazing. I would highly recommend it to all. They also had some great specials to align with Restaurant Week in NYC.
After lunch, we all split up to explore the city and also start the initial set-up for the event. A few hours later, we met back up to join all of the speakers at the Latitude Bar & Grill for the speaker social. When you have 50+ speakers with snack food and the addition of alcohol, you are sure to either have a great memory or none at all (depending on alcohol consumption).
After the speaker social, many of the speakers went out for bbq in the Village. I never would have thought of finding great bbq in NYC, but I was very impressed by this restaurant. There were so many of us that when the restaurant closed, the restaurant gave us the extra food they had leftover at the end of the night to us to take for free. The speakers donated the extra food to a homeless man a few blocks away.
Whether I am choosing to attend an event as a speaker or attendee, there are certain things that I hope to see in an event. These include the organization of the registration table when attendees are coming in. With a large event such as NYC, there was the possibility for up to 400 people to show up. With this event being held at the Microsoft office, each attendee and speaker had to not only receive a name badge, but also a pre-printed security badge issued to them. The volunteers arrived at the desk two hours before the event started to get them organized.
The event started promptly with the first sessions of the day and an opening talk given by Clayton Cobb of Plant Technologies. The only difficulty that happened during the event was a delay in the delivery of the lunch from Panera Bread. Even with the anxious attendees waiting for for food, it gave a little bit of extra time for questions in the previous sessions and extra collaboration outside in the halls and entry way.
After the end of the event and raffle, SharePint was hosted along with several other events after the SharePint ended. In the end, this event was a great success, everyone had a wonderful time, lots of knowledge was shared and the organizers can now get a full nights’ sleep for a few months.
I will look forward to seeing everyone at the next community event.