Tracy van der Schyff

And so we’ve come to the end of our yearly South African SharePoint Saturdays. First up was Johannesburg (#SPSJHB) on the 6th of September, Cape Town (#SPSCPT) next on the 13th of September and finally Durban (#SPSDBN) on the 20th of September.

Don’t know what SharePoint Saturday is? “SharePoint Saturday Events (SPS Events) are FREE one-day events held in different cities around the world, featuring sessions from influential and respected SharePoint professionals. At the local event level, SPS Events:
•Provide local SharePoint professionals and users with excellent training and networking opportunities
•Encourage increased membership for the local user group
•Help develop, grow, and encourage new speakers”

Those who know me well enough will tell you that I eat, sleep and repeat SharePoint – but there is one thing I love more and that is people! SharePoint Saturday is the perfect place to meet new people, network and reconnect with old friends.

A special thanks this year to the people who worked very hard to make this possible. You guys (and girls) are the true Rock Stars!! Alistair Pugin, Veronique Palmer, Bradley Geldenhuys, Sarah Nolan Vernon and Joanne van Vuuren. Add the Speakers, Sponsors and Delegates and you have the perfect combination of the right people, in the right place, at the right time – creating magic. Which makes me think that the “S” in the Superman logo stands for SharePoint – don’t you think??

Being a speaker at these events is not only an honour but an amazing learning playground, which opens your eyes to possibilities and delivers answers to common problems (or opportunities as I would like to call them). This goes for the delegates as well and it’s always wonderful to see new faces. My event buddies over the last 3 weeks were Alistair Pugin, Bradley Geldenhuys, Craig Tarr, Warren Marks & Fabian Williams and I have to thank them for making it unforgettable. I have not laughed so much in ages and I consider them SharePoint family.

This year I spoke about the power of lists & alerts. Session overview: “Is over engineering causing your “Quick Wins” to never realise? In this session we will cover the following functionality with only lists and alerts, no workflow required. • On-boarding System • ISO Compliant Document Registry • Audit Findings Register including Corrective and Preventive Measures SharePoint End Users equipped with the items listed above will have a better understanding of SharePoint and will also be able to enrich their productivity and with these small iterative value adds, fast track their SharePoint maturity and success.”
All the slides can be found on my SlideShare profile.

Below are the speakers at the 3 events, doing this with SharePoint Passion, at their own cost, because they (we) care!!

Johannesburg: Nick Bradshaw, Dinah Coetzer, Bradley Geldenhuys, Marlon Green, Jozua Joubert, Bryan Kimmel, Bramley Maetsa, Brian Murdoch, Johan Myburgh, Carmen Nel, Karen Pheiffer, Alistair Pugin, Vanessa Raath, Chantelle Smith, Lizl Snyman, Craig Tarr, Andrew Thornton-Smith, Tracy van der Schyff
Speakers on SPS Events Website; Sessions on SPS Events Website; Sponsors on SPS Events Website

Cape Town: Menke Bonnema, Nick Bradshaw, Hannes Burger, Bradley Geldenhuys, Martin Hattingh, Elrico Heinen, Jozua Joubert, Bryan Kimmel, Bramley Maetsa, Warren Marks, Tal Nathan, Naz Parker, Samantha Perry, Alistair Pugin, Jody Roberts, Lizl Snyman, Craig Tarr, Tracy van der Schyff, Fabian Williams
Speakers on SPS Events Website; Sessions on SPS Events Website; Sponsors on SPS Events Website

Durban: Bradley Geldenhuys, Bryan Kimmel, Bramley Maetsa, Warren Marks, Johan Myburgh, Alistair Pugin, Tineke Speirs, Craig Tarr, Tracy van der Schyff
Speakers on SPS Events Website; Sessions on SPS Events Website; Sponsors on SPS Events Website

Well, that’s a wrap then. I could carry on for pages and pages, but nothing will truly describe the last month.
If you fancy speaking at one of these events, or would like to attend next year – feel free to contact me and I will pass your message on.
Also don’t forget about Information Worker (every 2nd Tuesday of every month, Microsoft Bryanston from 4pm onwards) and SharePoint Business Workshops (every 1st Tuesday of the month, Syspro, Sunninghill).

Till next time.