I recently attended the European SharePoint Conference (ESPC), the primary SharePoint conference in Europe. The ESPC takes place annually in a different European city; and this year, it was held in the beautiful city of Stockholm, Sweden. Although Microsoft does not organize the conference, the company is highly supportive of the conference, as well as the roughly 1,500 members of the European SharePoint community in attendance.
This year, I was a speaker in the ESPC’s “The Slippery Slope of Content Migration,” session. Content migration is a challenge that almost all companies have faced or will face at some point, so they need practical help and information to help them integrate new technologies, retain what they have created and be able to retire legacy technology. I felt that I was able to share my expertise and experience in this area and offer value to my audience.
But in addition to my role as a speaker, I was also there to learn. Read on to learn the three key lessons that I took away from ESPC.
Lesson 1: Hybrid Is the Way, On-Premises Is Here to Stay
A lot of ESPC speakers were sharing information around hybrid SharePoint. In the past, using hybrid SharePoint did not present a very cohesive experience for users, but I learned many new technologies are coming soon to streamline the user experience.
Moreover, Microsoft is committed to future releases of the on-premises version of SharePoint, repackaging innovations from the cloud. Although many companies are embracing the cloud, they are still sticking with on-premises technology – for now, at least. That means hybrid solutions are likely to be a key part of future SharePoint development.
Lesson 2: The SharePoint Community Is Vibrant
The European SharePoint community boasts many experts in Microsoft Office, Office 365 and SharePoint. I was impressed by their technical expertise, maturity and depth of knowledge demonstrated at ESPC.
With such a talented pool of people present, I had a great time meeting folks and sharing war stories. More importantly, it was fantastic to find out just how broad a reach SharePoint has outside of the United States. The conference brought different cultures together and uncovered a wonderful vibrancy in my European SharePoint cohorts.
Lesson 3: Collaboration Challenges Are Real
Despite huge technological developments over the last few years, people continue to look for easier, better ways to find what they need and share what they know. And companies are still looking for tools and strategies to help people manage information in a way that increases productivity without compromising security. Collaboration challenges are still very real, even with the considerable development of SharePoint and related technologies. In the face of these challenges, the SharePoint community is coming together to find solutions and ways to share information safely, effectively and reliably, which is very encouraging to witness.
Final Thought
When traveling abroad, it’s normal to encounter cultural barriers with the people you meet. But instead, I felt as if all ESPC attendees were speaking a common language when discussing SharePoint and the collaboration challenges they face. I could have been at a SharePoint conference anywhere – even in the United States.
Since having such great experiences at the conference, the world feels smaller to me, and that’s a fantastic feeling to have.
