I was fortunate to meet and collaborate with the SharePoint fans in Southeast Asia for the 2^nd time during SharePoint Conference 2011. I have been having a very tough time with my projects and personal life, but I still wanted to go and present @ SEA SharePoint conference this year as well.

I flew 7^th midnight from Colombo to Singapore and reached there just before they start the key note. It was very exciting to see such a big crowd for the 2^nd time in Singapore and I was very happy that I made it to the conference.

I presented 02 sessions and 1 of them in the technical session and the other one is in Voice Of Customer track.

Day 1 Session 1 – Deep Dive on Business Connectivity Services
Level – 300
Track – Developer
This session was targeted for developers who have some experience in using BCS. This session talked about advanced topics such and adding behaviors to ECTs with BCS Actions. This session also demonstrated how to surface LOB data using SharePoint Search and how to make them more meaningful using Profile Pages. Finally this session demonstrated on how to configure User Profile Services to supplement User Profiles with LOB data.

Day 2 Session 2 – Creating Internet-facing Sites Simplified
Level – 200
Track – Voice of Customer
This session was targeted for non-technical audience and this was the 1^st time I was doing a non-technical session on a conference. I demonstrated how Virtusa Pvt. Ltd. simplified the way we build internet-facing sites using a Framework we built with bunch of re-usable components.

As usual our DPE – Wellington Perera requested me to do a session at the 11^th hour. Microsoft and University of Moratuwa has organized a 2 day event for all the students in the Faculty of IT. I did a session today to introduce SharePoint development and it was a very fruitful session for them since most of them were keen on moving into SharePoint technology.

I started the session on comparing ASP.NET web development and SharePoint portal development and then demonstrated some of the cool features in the area of collaboration and communication. Next, I demonstrated few OOTB Web Parts and introduced them the concept of Web Parts. Finally I demonstrated the Web Part development and explained them the key concepts on SharePoint development.

This 1 ½ hour session was targeted to all 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd year students and it was very interesting to see around 100 participants early in the morning.

Microsoft Sri Lanka organized an event-Student CTP today targeting for Students in all the universities in Sri Lanka. Objective of this event was to showcase bleeding edge Microsoft technologies to students and make them aware of those new technologies.

We had few interesting sessions lined up and most of them Wowed the crowd. I did a session on Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 and demonstrated how easy it is to develop data-driven business application without writing code. I had only 30 minutes and couldn’t showcase what I really wanted, and I wish I had more time.

Windows 8 Developer Preview, Virtualization using Windows 8 and Lync were some of the other cool sessions we had in the agenda.

I’m waiting for more and more events like this and talk more about latest technologies and make students aware of them.

After 09 months from the start of the local SharePoint forum, today I got an opportunity to present. I did Part 1 of 02 parts sessions on workflow development. I wanted to fill the vacuum in the area of developing SharePoint based workflows using WF and SharePoint but I wanted to start with the basics so that everyone can get the maximum out of forum sessions and also to make sure I address all different levels in the audience.

In this first part I covered OOTB workflows, Visio workflows and SPD workflows. I also talked about the enhancements in the workflow services and discussed about the enhancements in SPD in the area of developing workflows.

There were nearly 30 attendees and I was not lucky enough to have someone to take pictures. I will be doing the part 2 of this series and please join with me to explore the capabilities in developing workflows with Visual Studio 2010, WF 3.5 and SharePoint 2010.

I was privileged to unveil Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011 today in .NET Forum August meet up and we had over 30 attendees to hear/ learn about Visual Studio LightSwitch.

.NET Forum August - LightSwitch Session

.NET Forum August - LightSwitch Session

.NET Forum August - LightSwitch Session

When I was participating for the SEA SharePoint Conference in Singapore which was held on October 2010, during speaker dinner, Michael Noel proposed to host a SharePoint Saturday in Sri Lanka. I was thrilled and wanted to really make it true but unfortunately I didn’t have time to invest after I flew back to India.

I relocated back to Sri Lanka in December 2010 and initiated the conversation with our DPE and here I hear that they have already started planning for the same. Wow..! I was surprised and thrilled and finally we hosted our first ever SharePoint Saturday Sri Lanka yesterday with more than 200 attendees.

I presented 01 session for the Special Interest track and the session was all about how to build data-driven applications at the speed of thinking with Access Services feature in SharePoint 2010. There were more than 70 attendees and lots of them were new to the product and I felt the topic was a great selection because Access Services is not very hard to understand.

We had Dux Raymond, Michael Noel, Jey Srikantha, Shakir Majeed and Nalaka Withanage come down specially for this local event and the event was organized by Microsoft and Innovative-e. Also the event was sponsored by Virtusa, Creative, Greenwich, Millennium IT and Sanje Lanka and thanks a lot for all of them for the support extended.

Me presenting Access Services session

Me presenting Access Services session

Ask-the-Expert session

Ask-the-Expert session

Some of the guys behind the scene SPS SL

SharePoint Saturday Sri Lanka

I was in Singapore last year for presenting at SEA SharePoint Conference and I met Michael Noel & Alpesh Nakar and few other members who are part of SharePoint Saturday. We discussed the possibility of having a SharePoint Saturday in Sri Lanka and Michael liked it to have during Mango season.

Finaly we are having our first SharePoint Saturday in Sri Lanka and it’s happening on 11th June. I’m delighted to present a session there even with the very tight schedule I’m having right now. More importantly, I’m delighted to present while my employer – Virtusa Pvt. Ltd. also sponsoring for the event.

What is SharePoint Saturday SL?

SharePoint Saturday SL is an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!

When is SharePoint Saturday SL?

June 11, 2011 Saturday

Where is SharePoint Saturday SL?

Informatics Institute of Technology,
57, Ramakrishna Road,
Colombo 06,
Sri Lanka.

You can find more information about the event from the official site: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/srilanka/default.aspx also don’t forget to check on the schedule: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/srilanka/Pages/schedule.aspx and the speakers who are presenting: http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/srilanka/Pages/speakers.aspx

I know all of you have been waiting to hear about Tech-Ed India 2011. It was the largest technology gathering in the region. I regret that I couldn’t attend the Day 1 Keynote and Speaker dinner. All what I heard is it was a great starting to the event.

It was great to see more than 2500 attendees and most of them were from different part of the country-India. There was no SharePoint session in Day 1 and Day 2 was targeted for SharePoint Administrators we had 05 sessions in the SharePoint Administration track. All 05 sessions had room-full crowd and it was interesting to see a very active Q & A sessions at the end of every session.

Day 3 was my day and it was the day we had to lock the session hall doors due to large audience. We had 05 great SharePoint sessions targeted for developers and some people didn’t move out of the room because they didn’t want to stand for the next session. My session was just after lunch and it was great to see people were coming in even 10-15 minutes before session star time. I couldn’t finish all my demos due to limited time and I had to answer the questions while the next session is going on. Overall, I’m very glad to see 350+ audiences for the session and it was very fruitful for all of them.

Joy @ Tech-Ed India 2011

Joy @ Tech-Ed India 2011

Big crowd for SharePoint Sessions

Joy @ Tech-Ed India 2011

My session listed among other sessions

Apart from the technical side of the event, it was my pleasure to meet my Indian MVP colleagues once again. I will never ever forget how they treated me and how happy they were when they noticed one of the big vertical banners had my face. Even I got surprised to see that and I’m very much grateful to Microsoft Learning for helping me to build my brand all over the world.

Microsoft Learning Banner

Also I cannot forget how privileged we are to have a special round-table discussion with Brian Hall – General Manager – Internet Explorer and Windows Live and we had a nearly 03 hour session talking about the future of Internet Explorer and Windows Live.

Round table with Brian Hall

Finally, my special “Thank You..!” goes to Harish Ranganathan and Vinod Kumar for fighting very hard to position me among the other great speakers and keeping trust on me. This was my 2^nd Tech-Ed India appearance and looking forward to continue this with all of your support. I will not be able to forget 23^rd – 25^th March, 2011 and it will be one of the greatest memories in my life.

People, who couldn’t make it to Tech-Ed India this time, keep on checking http://www.microsoft.com/india/teched2011/default.aspx for the recorded sessions.

Tech-Ed India 2011

Tech-Ed is an international annual technical conference organized by Microsoft Corporation in every continent to deliver high-quality technical content for the software professionals around the world. Microsoft India hosts Tech-Ed India every year and captures more than 2500 attendees and delivers more than 200 in-depth technical sessions over period of 03 days. Tech-Ed India delivered by more than 30 international speakers and they contribute to the success of this event by bringing their real-world industry experience to software professionals in India.

This 03-day event will focus on technical education, product evaluation and community. The event will include: Keynotes by Senior Microsoft Executives, Breakout Sessions, Hands-on-Labs, Instructor-led Labs, Product Team Tents, Free Microsoft Certification, Community Programs, Solution Expo, and many more social gatherings and opportunities for networking everywhere you look.

Tech-Ed-India 2011 for the 18th time will feature 200+ Deep-Dive Breakout Sessions, 20 Technology Tracks, 20 + Instructor-led Hands-on-Labs from 23rd March to 25th March, 2011. More information about the conferences is available here: http://www.microsoftteched.in

I will be speaking at the Tech-Ed India for the 2^nd time and I’m very happy to share my experience in the SharePoint Development track. Below is the information about my session if you are planning to attend:

Session Title: Developing real-life business process automation application with SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010

Session Abstract: SharePoint is considered as one of the best workflow hosting environments within Microsoft technology stack. Latest release of SharePoint product has been enhanced with lot of new features to make SharePoint is the ideal platform for building real-life business processes. While tools such as Browser, Visio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 have improved a lot there is always big room for Visual Studio to play when building powerful workflows. Let’s build a powerful workflow with Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint 2010.

What am I going to cover: I will be covering mainly what are the workflow changes in SharePoint 2010. I will be spending less time with the slides and more time with my Demos. I will be doing 02 demos, 1^st one will demonstrate the new reusable workflow development feature building to SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. Second demo will cover developing a workflow using Visual Studio 2010 including InfoPath Forms to capture user data, Custom Association Form developed with InfoPath to capture configuration data, Custom ASP.NET-based Initiation Form to capture workflow initiation data and a Custom Task Form developed with InfoPath to help continuity of the process flow.

Session Timing: 25^th March, 02 PM – 03 PM

Here is the 3^rd article of the Business Connectivity Services (BCS) article series. I have demonstrated how we can create an External Content Type (ECT) to bring data from an external system into SharePoint. Check out the article on: http://www.sharepoint24x7.com/2011/03/article-%e2%80%93-business-connectivity-services-bcs-part-iii-%e2%80%93-creating-an-external-content-type-ect-2/

March/ April are the MCT renewal cycle. Though I didn’t do much Microsoft Official Curriculum trainings during the last year, I enjoy being a both MVP and MCT since I was the 1^st be in my country.

After I came back to Sri Lanka, I started delivering MOCs again and I renewed my MCT for the 7^th consecutive time without any hesitation.

I need to mention that their new online payment and renewal process is a very big improvement.

Hoping to deliver lots and lots of MOCs for our Sri Lankan students/ employees.

I got an opportunity to present to my home country once again after 10 months. I delivered the March, 2011 chapter of .NET Forum today.

I selected the same topic I delivered for the last year Tech-Ed India and the reason is I realized that the same session is being repeated in this year Tech-Ed as well. I realized how popular and important this topic is to developers.

The session was all about using Visual Studio 2010 and MSDeploy to deploy ASP.NET application at the speed of thinking. I realized most of the attendees found this topic really interesting and brand-new to them.

I started with an introduction to deployment pain point and then talked about what Visual Studio 2010 and MSDeploy provide us to deploy web applications efficiently.

Presenting @ .NET Forum

Presenting @ .NET Forum

If you are interested in the PPT, here it is: http://www.joyr.ws/downloads/MarDotNetForum.pdf

I was very happy when I got the invitation for the 3^rd Virtual Tech Days session. This time I delivered from Sri Lanka. Today I presented a session on SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Portal and I discussed all the new UI features, new features for Farm Administrators and new features for Developers. Following is the session I delivered and it was very interesting to see over 100 participants for the session.

What’s new in SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Portal

You have seen all the developer features, workflow integration and other enhancements in SharePoint 2010. But, what does the Central Administration Portal offer to you in SharePoint 2010. Tune in to this session to see some of the coolest stuff that you can configure and accomplish in the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration Portal.

Look forward for the recoded session on http://www.virtualtechdays.com/default.aspx

Thanks a lot for Harish who is still counting on me though I’m not part of Indian MVP pool anymore.

I published the Part II of  my article series which talk about setting up a try-out or development environment.

Feel free to enjoy it – http://www.sharepoint24x7.com/2010/11/article-setting-up-a-sharepoint-2010-environment-for-try-outs-or-development-%e2%80%93-part-ii-%e2%80%93-windows-server-or-windows-7/

After long time I have got some free time to spend for my blog. I started writing a series of articles which will help all of you to discover various deployment options of SharePoint 2010 as a development environment. Also this can be used as a guideline when you setup your actual project development environment.

Please feel free to enjoy the Part I of this series of articles - http://www.sharepoint24x7.com/2010/11/article-setting-up-a-sharepoint-2010-environment-for-try-outs-or-development-%e2%80%93-part-i-introduction/

I was very happy when I got the invitation for the 2^nd Virtual Tech Days. Today I presented a session on PowerPivot and I discussed both the Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010 features provided by PowerPivot technology. Following is the session I delivered and it was very interesting to 176 participants for the session.

PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010

Business Intelligence (BI) is quite old, matured concept. But Self-service Business Intelligence is a brand-new initiative from Microsoft to increase the reach and use of BI solutions. It is not an alternate to traditional BI implementations and it’s meant for totally different set of people having different set of objectives. Let’s examine what Self-service BI is and Microsoft solution for Self-service BI-PowerPivot. PowerPivot has 02 different implementaions-PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010. Let’s try and explore both of them.

Look forward for the recoded session on http://www.virtualtechdays.com/default.aspx

While I was in Sri Lanka, I got a request from the Head of Training and Delivery @ Virtusa to do a session on how they can align their business around the new release of SharePoint.

I had a very hectic schedule due to my project and SEA SharePoint Conference bus I managed to find a ½ day for them.

I spent a ½ day yesterday for Architects and Tech Leads in Virtusa discussing what’s new in SharePoint 2010, how this release focus on ISVs, how they can align their business around SharePoint 2010.

It was a very useful session and I managed to convey them that there are plenty of opportunities for them with new SharePoint 2010.

Of course Microsoft was the Platinum Sponsor and AvePoint, SYNERGY, MindTree and Quest Software are some of the other people who helped them to make it a success.

As an active SharePoint Server MVP, I was invited to speak at the conference and I ended up doing 03 sessions being the most busiest speaker in the event. I couldn’t believe we had 550+ attendees just for one product and over 02 days and it was very nice to see 19 attendees from my country (Sri Lanka) as well.

Mike Fitzmaurice did the keynote talking about the history of the amazing product and the factors which involved taking SharePoint to a 1^st class Collaboration Platform. There were 42 sessions in 04 different tracks followed by the keynote and I saw all the sessions had room full crowd and during some sessions we had people standing at the back of the room.

I delivered following sessions over the 02 days:

1. PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010
2. Building SharePoint 2010 Internet sites
3. New face of Access with SharePoint 2010 and Access Services

Overall, it was a very successful event and hats off to people like Steve Sofian, Randy Williams and Debbie Ireland who took the total responsibility of arranging the event and coordinating speakers and finding right speakers, etc…

You can download the session PPTs from http://www.envisionit.co.nz/SPevents/SEASPC/SitePages/Home.aspx

And I’m proud to be the only Srilankan speaker in this regional event.

I wish good luck for them on the future SharePoint Conferences and looking forward to contribute no matter where it is happening.  

Opening Note by Debbie

Opening Note by Randy

Contries participated

Mike doing the keynote

Me doing my 1st session

Me doing my 1st session

Speakers from India

Me doing my 2nd session

Me doing my 3rd session

Me doing my 3rd session

Microsoft decided to put together a series of webcasts to help grow SharePoint 2010 in the area of Collaboration. While Business Collaboration is the primary focus of SharePoint 2010, it has lot of meanings under the hood. This webcast series been promoted all over the India and were expected to be very popular.

Microsoft arranged 05 webcasts over 05 days of period to help individuals to register and make them aware what SharePoint 2010 can do in the area of collaboration and what are the underlying features in SharePoint 2010 actually provides this powerful business collaboration.

I got an opportunity to present in my favorite are of workflow development and I did a session named “SharePoint 2010 and Custom Workflows” which demonstrated all the key things in the workflow services in SharePoint 2010 which makes collaboration better. I saw more than 300 participants were online for the session and that was a very good no for an online event.

The complete list of session can be found here:

Virtual Tech Days is an online event targeted for the people who do not have time for attending in person for large conferences such as Tech-Ed and Community Tech Days. The other idea behind hosting Virtual Tech Days is to leverage Microsoft’s Unified Infrastructure to prove its capabilities.

Today I got an opportunity to take part of Virtual Tech Days to show my capabilities in the area of SharePoint. This was the 1^st time I did a public online session using Live Meeting technology and it was very surprised to see more than 500 participants online.

I delivered a session called “SharePoint 2010 and Custom Workflows” which demonstrated the integration with Visio 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 in the Business Process Management vertical within SharePoint.

See the complete list of sessions we executed over 03 days of time and try downloading session recordings from http://www.virtualtechdays.com/agendaDay1.aspx

My session can be found from http://www.virtualtechdays.com/agendaDay2.aspx

Today I was lucky to be part of Community Tech Days, Hyderabad and this was my 1^st speaking engagement for the Hyderabad community.

Organizing committee decided to have 02 tracks this time due to major focus on the technologies such as Virtualization, SharePoint and Visual Studio. We had 02 tracks – Developer and IT Pro and though we started marketing campaign little late compared to other cities, we got more than 600 participants.

I delivered 01 session on topic “SharePoint 2010 and Custom Workflows” which talks about all the aspects of new workflow services in SharePoint 2010. I wish I had more time to show lot more cool demos but unfortunately I had only 01 hour and 15 minutes to do my session.

I also managed to give 04 books as giveaways and the credits goes to O’REILLY for providing me books on time.

You guys know that photography inside Microsoft Campus, Hyderabad is strictly prohibited and sorry for not able to show you how crowded was the event and my session.

This is the place you can read more about it: http://blog.mugh.net/2010/08/community-tech-days-2010-in-hyderabad.html

I did 02 wonderful sessions for Tech-Ed India one in Web track and the other in SharePoint track. I had very good level of participants and I was waiting to see my feedback ratings.

Here they come…

• Session 1 – Deploying Web Apps at the speed of your Thinking – 6.44 (no of participants-462)
• Session 2 – SharePoint 2010 Workflows – 7.21 (no of participants-244)

Overall average for the Tech-Ed India event was 7.13

Thanks a lot for the people who joined with me for those 02 sessions and really appreciated your feedback.

Hope to do couple more great session in year 2011.

Microsoft Tech-Ed India 2010 is considered as the major Technology event of the year for various IT Professionals and Developers. This year Tech-Ed is very important and remarkable because we are going to launch Visual Studio 2010 during the event. This event will feature a comprehensive forum in order to learn, connect, explore, and evolve the current technologies we have today.

What I heard during the 2^nd week of March that they had more than 2500 registrations and they closed the registration in the last week of March. It shows how people are looking forward for this event and above all this is happening in the IT Hub in India-Bangalore.

I’m very much pleased to announce that I’m presenting at the Tech-Ed and I encourage attending both the sessions. Following are the sessions I have aligned for you:

Session 1: Deploying web apps at the speed of your thinking
Date: 12^th April                  Time: 05.00pm – 06.00pm

Visual Studio 2010 offers web deployment as an easy walk-through. With its one click deployment model, deploying your applications becomes a seamless experience. Walk into this session where we will take a pretty big application and get it deployed with all the dependent stuff easily, using Visual Studio 2010.

Session 2: SharePoint 2010 Workflows
Date: 14^th April                  Time: 12.30pm – 01.30pm

Workflow in SharePoint 2010 has been revamped with a new designer for building both reusable workflows and list based workflows. Forms and Workflows are important for automating business processes. Organizations usually rely on software developers to create these workflows using code. Not anymore! With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can create powerful data driven form composite solutions on your SharePoint sites. SharePoint Designer’s workflows let you design powerful multi-step workflows centered around the form collected data, building upon the out-of-the-box reusable workflows and even import workflow designs from Visio! In this presentation, you will see how these tools come together to design workflows and route forms across your organization for task assignment and approval, and also how you can reuse your workflows in other lists and libraries on your site and how to prototype workflows in SharePoint Designer for further development in Visual Studio 2010.

Come and join with me for this big, challenging event and let’s Learn, Connect, Explore what’s going to come in this year 2010.

This is my 2nd Tech-Ed speaking engagement in year 2010.

Douglas McDowell (CEO-North America-Solidq) pointed out this article.

I hope this is something we all should read.

http://www.sqlmag.com/Articles/ArticleID/103612/103612.html

January 1st was a very long day because I was waiting for the email from MVP Administrator but it didn’t not reach my inbox. Oh it came on the 2nd.

As I expected they have renewed my MVP status and this is the 3rd time in a row I’m getting nominated as a Microsoft Most valuable Professional (MVP) and the other important thing is they have changed my MVP criteria from Visual C# to SharePoint Server. So that’s it.

I’m very much proud to say I’m the 1st and only SharePoint Server MVP in Sri Lanka.