SharePoint Saturday

Thank you SPS Charlotte!

theChrisKent Column Formatting, SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday, SPFx, Web Parts , , , , , ,

This past weekend I was pleased to speak at SharePoint Saturday Charlotte. It was an awesome time and is one of the best SPS events out there. I had a great time presenting both Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) and Office 365 List Formatting (Slides can be found below).

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Photo courtesy of John Warner (@kingfumaster)

Both sessions were full of people asking great questions and actively participating. Presenting at these events can be a lot of work and requires not just the travel and the weekend time, but often many many hours of prep. Unfortunately, not every event feels worth it, but the attendees at SPS Charlotte were genuinely interested and engaged and I felt like I was able to both teach and encourage them to do awesome stuff.

Having spoken to several attendees (of not just my sessions) the overall sentiment was very positive. I wasn’t the only one amazed that these SharePoint Saturdays are FREE. The quality of speakers, sponsors, and attendees all put together by fantastic organizers is super impressive. If you missed it this year, be sure to correct that mistake next August!

P.S. – Charlotte has public electric scooters that are super cheap to ride. I rode all over downtown after the event and even went 4 miles on one the next day on my way to the airport. Even if you don’t use SharePoint, you gotta get to Charlotte just to feel the wind in your hair, the jealous stares of the walking pedestrians, and the unbridled feeling of freedom while traveling at 8 mph on a lime green scooter.

Resources

Join me at SharePoint Saturday Charlotte on August 11th!

theChrisKent SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday , , , , ,

I will be presenting Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) and O365 List Formatting on Saturday, August 11th 2018 in Charlotte as part of SPSCLT!

SPSCLTvan

Last year’s event was awesome! Don’t miss this opportunity for free training with keynotes by Bill Baer, Brian Alderman, AND Naomi Moneypenny (Not to mention all the other great speakers)!

I’ll be presenting Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) at 10 am. This session will provide an overview of all your customization options and focus on where the SharePoint Framework fits in that ecosystem. You’ll leave this session knowing what the SharePoint Framework is, what it can do, when to use it, and how to get there. I’ll also provide you a bunch of tips and tricks to get you going right away.

Then I’ll be presenting O365 List Formatting at 11:15 am. We’ll cover Column Formatting and take a look at the soon to be released View formatting. We’ll talk about both the power and flexibility of this approach along with some of the limitations. I’ll share the basics of list formatting, tips and tricks, and tools and resources available to enable you to get started immediately (including a demo of Column Formatter 2.0).

I’m really excited to return to SPS Charlotte. Great attendees, great speakers, and great SWAG all at a FREE event – don’t miss it!

Join me at SharePoint Saturday New York City on July 28th!

theChrisKent PnP, SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday

I will be presenting Getting the Most out of SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) on Saturday, July 28th, 2018 in New York City as part of SPSNYC!

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There are 54 sessions – all for free!

I’ll be talking about SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP):

The SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) is an open source initiative coordinated by SharePoint engineering – but what does that mean and why should you care? PnP has tons of tutorials, videos, samples, documentation, and tools (as in amazing, ground-breaking tools). If you haven’t heard of it or if you thought it was just one or two things, you’re doing SharePoint development on hard mode!

In this session we’ll dive into what’s available, how to get started, how to stay up to date, and even how to contribute. You’ll leave this session knowing not only what PnP is, but you’ll be ready to start taking advantage immediately! It doesn’t matter if your using On-Premises or Online, you’re sure to learn something new and likely amazing.

I’m really excited to not just speak, but also to attend! The schedule and speaker lineup looks amazing and it’s sure to be a great event. If you happen to be one of the few people living in New York or the surrounding area, join us for FREE training, a bunch of swag, and a chance to meet people who are also passionate about SharePoint and doing awesome stuff.

Thank you SPS St. Louis!

theChrisKent PnP, SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday, SPFx , , , ,

I had the honor of speaking at SharePoint Saturday St. Louis (in fact, I’m writing this from the speaker’s room). It was a great event!

JAZZ

My Sessions

I presented Getting the Most out of SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP). You can find the slides below.

Our goal was to introduce everyone to what’s in PnP (and to get them to use it), teach them how to stay up to date, and to encourage participation (even just documentation updates or submitting bugs).

There were some people that had never even heard of PnP and others that were using at least some portion. Everyone was really engaged and we had a lot of great discussion. I love showing off all the cool stuff in PnP and watching people be really amazed about the tools and resources they didn’t even know were available to them.

I also presented Understanding SharePoint Framework Extensions. These slides are also below.

Tons of excitement for SPFx Extensions, although it’s clear that the story of when and where to use these isn’t well known. There were lots of great questions and I even found a way to sneak in a demo of Column Formatter (whoops?).

SPS St. Louis was a really great event and the organizers should be very pleased with how well everything came together. Thanks to all the sponsors, organizers, speakers, and attendees! See you next year!

Resources

Join me at SharePoint Saturday St. Louis on January 20th!

theChrisKent PnP, SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday, SPFx , , , ,

I will be presenting Understanding SharePoint Framework Extensions AND Getting the Most out of SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) on Saturday, January 20th, 2018 in St. Louis as part of SharePoint Saturday St. Louis!

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Mark Rackley and Stephanie Donahue will be presenting the keynote, Transforming Your Organization into a Digital Workspace and there are tons of other really great speakers!

At 9:10 i’ll be talking about SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP):

The SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) is an open source initiative coordinated by SharePoint engineering – but what does that mean and why should you care? PnP has tons of tutorials, videos, samples, documentation, and tools (as in amazing, ground-breaking tools). If you haven’t heard of it or if you thought it was just one or two things, you’re doing SharePoint development on hard mode!

In this session we’ll dive into what’s available, how to get started, how to stay up to date, and even how to contribute. You’ll leave this session knowing not only what PnP is, but you’ll be ready to start taking advantage immediately! It doesn’t matter if your using On-Premises or Online, you’re sure to learn something new and likely amazing.

Then at 2:45, we’ll dive into the exciting world of SharePoint Framework Extensions:

SharePoint Framework Extensions are being touted as the replacement for Custom Actions, JS Link, and more – but what are they really? Whether you’ve started experimenting with the SharePoint Framework or not, come find out exactly what the Extensions are, when to use them, limitations, and advantages. SharePoint Framework Extensions are not only powerful and flexible tools to customize SharePoint, when it comes to modern pages, they’re the only way.

SPS St. Louis is sure to be a great event. If you’re even remotely in the area don’t miss out on this opportunity for free training and a chance to meet people who are also passionate about SharePoint and doing awesome stuff.

Thank you SPS Detroit!

theChrisKent SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday, SPFx , , , ,

Over the weekend I had the honor of speaking at SharePoint Saturday Detroit. It was a well organized and well attended event. I had a great time and the feedback I got from attendees was extremely positive.

The event was held at Wayne State and the campus was covered in squirrels. Including totally black squirrels which I’d never seen (and assumed were rats at first) so of course I took a video:

Here’s a picture somebody else took:

A1FN14 / Black Squirrel
SQUIRREL!

SharePoint is cool and all, but those squirrels were great!

My Session

I presented Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework. You can find the slides below. Here was the outline:

  • Setup Steps 1 & 2
    • Installing NodeJS LTS
    • Installing VS Code
  • SharePoint Development: A Brief History
    • SP 2016 Development Recommendations
    • Office 365 Development Recommendations
  • The Modern Experience
  • Setup Step 3 & 4
    • Installing Yeoman & Gulp
    • Installing the SPFx Generator
  • An Introduction to the SharePoint Framework
    • Client-side Web Parts
    • SPFx Extensions
    • Tool Comparison
    • The SharePoint Workbench
  • Building Your First Client-Side WebPart
    • Running the Generator
    • Trusting the Dev Certificate
    • Exploring the Local Workbench
    • Adding a Custom Property
  • SharePoint Patterns & Practices
    • What’s in PnP (Selective Highlights
    • Staying Up to Date with PnP

If you have any questions about what I presented, or the SharePoint Framework in general, you can comment here or reach out on Twitter anytime. It was really tough to fit everything above into a 45 minute session so although it was a bit rushed, I think it went over pretty well and people seemed genuinely excited to get started with SPFx!

Resources

SPS Detroit was a great event. Thank you to all the sponsors, organizers, speakers, attendees, and squirrels!

Join us at SharePoint Saturday Detroit on December 2nd!

theChrisKent SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday, SPFx , ,

Matt Jimison and I will be presenting Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) on Saturday, December 2nd, 2017 in Detroit as part of SharePoint Saturday Detroit!

Our session is at 1:30 and will introduce you to the SharePoint Framework (both web parts and extensions). We’ll actually walk you through getting the various tools installed and ready (bring your laptop) so that by the time you leave you’ll know not only what the SharePoint Framework is, what it can do, and when to use it – you’ll be ready to start experimenting immediately!

Thank You SPS New England!

theChrisKent PnP, SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday , , ,

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to speak in Boston at the first annual SharePoint Saturday New England. The entire event was fantastic, I had a really great time and the sentiment from the attendees was very positive.

The organizers even coordinated with the O365 Global Dev Bootcamp to put on an all day SPFx workshop the day before. Bob German and Scot Hillier did a great job introducing everyone to SPFx and all the foundational technologies.

Our Session

Matt Jimison and I presented Getting the Most out of SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP). You can find the slides below.

Our goal was to introduce everyone to what’s in PnP (and to get them to use it), teach them how to stay up to date, and to encourage participation (even just documentation updates or submitting bugs).

DocumentationContribution

Nearly everyone in the room had heard of some portion of PnP and there were even those that were using one or more parts. However, there wasn’t anyone that was aware of everything available and it’s always nice to give demos where people are visibly impressed (PnP PowerShell was the big winner this time)!

For no real reason at all we decided to make our slides and session be Stranger Things themed and we even gave away Stranger Things action figures (I’ll miss you my babies). I’m pretty sure we convinced people to use PnP AND to go watch Stranger Things. We’re still waiting for Netflix to send us our royalty check and/or a cease and desist letter.

PnP2StrangerThings

It was a really great event and the organizers should be really proud! If you missed it, they’ve already announced that the next SPS New England will be on October 20, 2018! Thanks to all the sponsors, organizers, speakers, and attendees! See you next year!

Resources

Join us at SharePoint Saturday New England on October 28th!

theChrisKent PnP, SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday , , ,

Matt Jimison and I will be presenting Getting the Most out of SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) on Saturday, October 28th, 201 in Boston as part of SharePoint Saturday New England!

Our session is right after lunch at 12:45 pm and we’ll be talking about SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP):

The SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) is an open source initiative coordinated by SharePoint engineering – but what does that mean and why should you care? PnP has tons of tutorials, videos, samples, documentation, and tools (as in amazing, ground-breaking tools). If you haven’t heard of it or if you thought it was just one or two things, you’re doing SharePoint development on hard mode! In this session we’ll dive into what’s available, how to get started, how to stay up to date, and even how to contribute. You’ll leave this session knowing not only what PnP is, but you’ll be ready to start taking advantage immediately! It doesn’t matter if your using On-Premises or Online, you’re sure to learn something new and likely amazing.

SPSNE_ST_Kids

SPS New England is a collaborative effort from the Boston Area, Connecticut, Granite State, and Rhode Island SharePoint Groups. There are a ton of awesome speakers, Chris McNulty will be doing a Microsoft Q&A, and the whole thing is FREE!

Thank You SPS Cincy!

theChrisKent SharePoint, SharePoint Saturday, SPFx , , , ,

This weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at SharePoint Saturday Cincinnati. It was a really well organized event with speakers coming from as far away as Chicago, Texas, Georgia, Indiana, Canada, and even England. However, it wasn’t just the speakers willing to travel, there were attendees coming from all over Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and even Tennessee!

BillBaerKeynote
Bill Baer’s Virtual Keynote

Unfortunately, Bill Baer wasn’t able to attend in person (family reasons) but he got up super early and delivered a top notch keynote virtually.

My Session

I presented Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework. You can find the slides below. Here was the outline:

  • Setup Steps 1 & 2
    • Installing NodeJS LTS
    • Installing VS Code
  • SharePoint Development: A Brief History
    • SP 2016 Development Recommendations
    • Office 365 Development Recommendations
  • The Modern Experience
  • Setup Step 3 & 4
    • Installing Yeoman & Gulp
    • Installing the SPFx Generator
  • An Introduction to the SharePoint Framework
    • Client-side Web Parts
    • SPFx Extensions
    • Tool Comparison
    • The SharePoint Workbench
  • Building Your First Client-Side WebPart
    • Running the Generator
    • Trusting the Dev Certificate
    • Exploring the Local Workbench
    • Adding a Custom Property
  • SharePoint Patterns & Practices
    • What’s in PnP (Selective Highlights
    • Staying Up to Date with PnP

If you have any questions about what I presented, or the SharePoint Framework in general, you can comment here or reach out on Twitter anytime. The presentation went over very well and people seemed very excited about using SPFx, whoo whoo!

Resources

You can find my slides here: Getting Started with SPFx – SPSCinci17 (now with embedded fonts!)

Many of these slides are original but several have been adapted from other sources (mostly Ignite).

I had a great time! SPS Cincinnati had great organizers, great sponsors, great speakers, and great attendees! If you missed it, be sure to be on the lookout for it next year.