I attended a SharePoint group meeting this last Saturday. The group is the “SharePoint Meetup”. The group is based in the Washington DC Metro area and is led by Naveed Jauhar. We met in Tyson’s Corner and it seems to be a diverse mix of consultants, trainers, decision-makers, and aspiring SharePoint developers and administrators. If you are in the DC area and are interested in SharePoint, I recommend that you join the group.
Items discussed in the meeting:
- SharePoint Designer is now free – Wow! I couldn’t believe it! Check this out: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx?ofcresset=1
- Certification paths in SharePoint – MCTS Exam 70-542, 70-630, 70-541, and 70-631. All these exams use case-study type exams. So, the recommendation of those who have taken the exam is to get real-world hands-on experience
- There is a “Certified Master” for SharePoint. If you get this certification, you pretty much are considered all-knowing with everything related to SharePoint. For details, see http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/master/SharePoint/default.mspx
It’s been a while since I’ve met with others that share the same or similar interest with a given technology. The information sharing and networking benefits of going to these events are great. There are things that you would otherwise miss because it’s difficult to keep tabs on everything going on in tech. Also, with today’s challenging economy, you should go out there and network. I recommend you find meetup at your hometown. If there is none, perhaps it’s time you start your own and lead the way. 🙂
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