Next week the SharePoint 2010 Ignite training kicks off in New Zealand.  Full details including costs and registration details are here.

If you haven’t already registered, do so today!

The DPE team (my old team mates) are running an unplugged event on SharePoint 2010 in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin in March.  You can get more details and sign up to attend these here.

The following is copied and pasted from the latest NZ TechNet Flash.  Subscribe here.

Since the beta for SharePoint 2010 was publicly released in November 2009 there has been a lot of interest and activity here in NZ by our customers and partners, testing and planning for SharePoint 2010 release. In this issue of NZ TechNet flash we highlight the best SharePoint 2010 resources to get you started:

• SharePoint 2010 main Microsoft site - The primary starting point for finding all SharePoint 2010 information, videos, whitepapers and other resources.
• SharePoint and Office 2010 whitepaper - Get all of the details on what features require the 2010 versions of Office and SharePoint.
• SharePoint 2010 evaluation guides - These were given to all SharePoint Conference attendees in October 2009. Separate guides for SharePoint 2010 overview, IT pros and developers.
• SharePoint Conference content - You can access all SharePoint Conference content and session replays online. Conference attendees already have access. Didn't make it to Las Vegas for the event? No problem. You can also purchase access to the content at the site.
• End user training - Point8020 has started publishing some SharePoint 2010 training videos.
• Twitter - The #SP2010 hash tag is the primary one I follow for all news on SharePoint 2010.
• TechNet - Review the published SharePoint 2010 technical guidance and best practices. Some of the key areas to check out include server, database and client requirements; migration planning; and the new management capabilities.
• SharePoint product team blog - keep up to date on the latest technical announcements from the SharePoint product team.
• SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) - Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and our partners have been trained extensively in SharePoint 2010 and have offerings to help you with the planning and upgrading to SharePoint 2010.
• Get the SharePoint 2010 beta bits! To do so, you have a few options:
• Build your own environment: You can download SharePoint 2010 beta and use these instructions to setup and configure SharePoint 2010. I've also found this blog post from Ron Bokleman to be very helpful as well.
• Use a prebuilt environment: You can download a fully built SharePoint 2010 beta test environment which is a set of Virtual Hard Drives (VHD) that can be used with Hyper-V. This set of virtual machines enables you to demonstrate and test Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in a fully configured environment with sample data.

Sign up to head to the Unplugged events here.

If you’re  looking to migrate from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2008, then you may be interested in some training.

Auldhouse are running what is likely a first in New Zealand – course 6317 Upgrading SQL Server 2000 DBA skills to SQL Server 2008.

This is a three day course priced at $1800 to help SQL 2000 DBAs become confident to:

• Describe the new features of SQL Server 2008
• Plan for a SQL Server 2008 installation, upgrade, and migration
• Understand SQL Server data types
• Manage SQL Server 2008
• Secure a SQL Server 2008 database
• Prepare for and recover from potential database disasters
• Maintain availability to their SQL Server data even through server downtime
• Configure replication of SQL Server 2008 databases
• Implement policy-based management. Monitor database activity
• Monitor and manage database performance

To register for this course which is running on Feb 22-24, click here.

The Auckland community are organizing a cloud camp event later this month (Feb 26 to be precise).

Cloud camps are in the tradition of unconferences where anyone can put themselves forward to present a session.  From the cloud camp Auckland page:

CloudCamp is an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing technologies exchange ideas. With the rapid change occurring in the industry, we need a place where we can meet to share our experiences, challenges and solutions. At CloudCamp, you are encouraged to share your thoughts in several open discussions, as we strive for the advancement of Cloud Computing. End users, IT professionals and vendors are all encouraged to participate.

If you are interested in being part of the revolution of cloud computing and shaping the future of the IT industry, I think these events are going to be a great way to get on board and start that process.

Microsoft are one of the sponsors of this event, so I will be there and will be taking part.  If you are interested in what Microsoft has to offer in the cloud computing space, where we are going and what it means to the NZ IT industry, I encourage you to come along. I’m looking forward to it!

Full details are on the Auckland event home page.  You can also watch out for more cloudcamps in a city near you here.  Wellington has an event planned for next month too.

Last year the SharePoint community in New Zealand hosted the very successful SharePoint community conference in Wellington.  This year they are doing it again. 

This is the New Zealand conference to learn about both SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 with expert local and international speakers presenting on topics that will help you understand and succeed with your SharePoint implementations and add real value to your organisation and businesses.

In addition to the session content you'll have ample opportunities to network with your peers in the community and technical and industry experts including local and international Microsoft Most Valued Professionals and New Zealand's top Certified Partners.

Don’t miss out on New Zealand's biggest SharePoint event of the year
Wellington June 9 and 10!

The unique thing about this conference is that it is for both business and technical communities.  Both were very well catered for last year and many business users who attended enjoyed seeing how others were using SharePoint and talking with each other about how to do things with SharePoint that they hadn’t thought about in the past.

If you are a SharePoint expert or if you’ve used SharePoint to drive business change in your organization, there is an opportunity to share your knowledge with the rest of the community.  The convenors of the conference is looking for speakers, so get your suggestion in by emailing them at info@sharepointconference.co.nz.

The registration fee is $600 per person, group bookings are available, and they expect to sell out, so get your registration in today.

We’re looking forward to being there and sponsoring the event, so I look forward to seeing you there!

Full details including registration are available at www.sharepointconference.co.nz.

If you are in Australia, the same organizers are working with the Australian community to do the same in Australia.  Details of the Australian conference are here.

Just a quick note in case you missed it, that SQL Server 2008 R2 will be hitting the pricelist (i.e. available for purchase) in May.

Full details here.

I’ve been a little remiss not posting an update to the ignite training earlier.  The Ignite training originally scheduled for January (as detailed in my last post) has been rescheduled for the following dates.

• March 8-12 – Ignite Developer – Wellington
• March 15-19 – Ignite Infrastructure – Auckland

With Ian Morrish changing roles, we’ve needed to get another infrastructure trainer, so we have got Patrick Harkins from Intergen who will be doing the training.  Patrick has plenty of experience and credentials in SharePoint having passed the SharePoint Elite Infrastructure exam on the first attempt back in August (the first person to pass this exam).  He has also been working with SharePoint 2010 for some time and has recently been to Singapore to go through the Ignite training there.

We’ve managed to retain Wayne Ewington from Microsoft Consulting to do the Development training in Wellington.  Wayne has been working on SharePoint for some time and was in India recently doing the SharePoint Ignite Training.

The pricing remains at $1650.  There are limited seats, so get in quick.

SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. We are enabling partners to get trained early on SharePoint 2010 and learn about these new features and enhancements through SharePoint 2010 Ignite.

SharePoint 2010 Ignite is technical training for SharePoint 2007 professionals who are looking to upgrade their skills to SharePoint 2010.

There are two Ignite offerings, Ignite for the IT Pro and Ignite for the Developer. Each track will cover 5 days/40 hours of technical training and content:

SharePoint 2010 Ignite for Developers

For developers: SharePoint 2010 provides the business collaboration platform to rapidly build solutions and respond to business needs. The training will show partners how to build custom applications with SharePoint 2010.

Trainer: Wayne Ewington (Microsoft Consulting)
Dates: March 8-12 (Auldhouse, Wellington)

SharePoint 2010 Ignite for IT Professionals

For IT professionals: SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. The audience for the SharePoint Ignite IT Pro includes SharePoint 2007 professionals who are experienced in deploying and supporting SharePoint 2007 implementations. This training is designed to assist SharePoint 2007 professionals in their preparation to implement SharePoint 2010 projects.

Trainer: Patrick Harkin (Intergen)
Dates: March 15-19 (Cliftons, Auckland)

Cost: $1650 ex GST per person

Register by calling Avenues on 0800 832 433 or emailing microsoftevents@avenues.co.nz or register online.

I’m pleased to be able to announce the availability of SharePoint 2010 Ignite training. This is the first training opportunity we have in New Zealand to give SharePoint people a good hands on overview of SharePoint 2010 and what it will mean to their day to day workload.

I expect these places to fill up, so make sure you register quickly.

SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. We are enabling partners to get trained early on SharePoint 2010 and learn about these new features and enhancements through SharePoint 2010 Ignite.

SharePoint 2010 Ignite is technical training for SharePoint 2007 professionals who are looking to upgrade their skills to SharePoint 2010.

There are two Ignite offerings, Ignite for the IT Pro and Ignite for the Developer. Each track will cover 5 days/40 hours of technical training and content:

SharePoint 2010 Ignite for IT Professionals

For IT professionals: SharePoint 2010 offers enhancements to drive productivity, a scalable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment. The audience for the SharePoint Ignite IT Pro includes SharePoint 2007 professionals who are experienced in deploying and supporting SharePoint 2007 implementations. This training is designed to assist SharePoint 2007 professionals in their preparation to implement SharePoint 2010 projects.

Trainer: Ian Morrish (Microsoft Consulting)
Dates: Jan 25-29 (Auckland only)

SharePoint 2010 Ignite for Developers

For developers: SharePoint 2010 provides the business collaboration platform to rapidly build solutions and respond to business needs. The training will show partners how to build custom applications with SharePoint 2010.

Trainer: Wayne Ewington (Microsoft Consulting)
Dates: Jan 18-22 (Auckland), Jan 25-29 (Wellington)

Cost: $1650 ex GST per person

Register by calling Avenues on 0800 832 433 or emailing microsoftevents@avenues.co.nz or register online.