Event Speakers
*The speaker and session selection process is ongoing. Please check back for updates as sessions become approved.
Keynote Speakers
Joel Oleson
In the year 2000, Joel Oleson, a Sr. Web Engineer was brought in to Microsoft IT design the first Microsoft global deployment of SharePoint. Later he would design the extranet, and hosted SharePoint deployments at Microsoft. Not less than a year later he was sharing these experiences at internal MGB, TechReady, and later to customers at Microsoft Tech Ed and IT Forum conferences globally. On the SharePoint team as Sr. Technical Product Manager for IT Professionals, leading up to and at the release of SharePoint Server 2007, he helped various customers to get the critical governance information, upgrade, achieve scale, and get the essential best practices that they needed. After managing the critical SP1 and Windows Server 2008 launches, Joel started an external SharePoint blog where he would share his decks, best practices, lessons, and joined the field to share his experiences. As trainer, blogger, evangelist, sr. consultant and architect, he continues to gain valuable experience and share it with the SharePoint community on his blog, at major technical conferences, and local SharePoint user groups around the globe. Check out his blog at: http://www.sharepointjoel.com/default.aspx
Keynote Topic:
"Don't let rookie mistakes that come from default settings, and poor designs plague your deployment. In 10 quick steps, Joel Oleson, will provide you with guidance and best practices gathered from nearly 8 years of enterprise SharePoint experience."
Session Speakers
Ben Curry, SharePoint MVP 
Ben Curry - (CISSP, MVP) - is a Microsoft MVP and a highly respected enterprise architect specializing in knowledge management and collaboration technologies. As a senior instructor for Mindsharp, Ben shares his knowledge in training courses that cover the next generation of Microsoft products. Ben is the author or co-author of three books for SharePoint products and technologies, including the newly-released Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices by Microsoft Press. Ben has over fifteen years of experience designing, managing, implementing and securing data center IT solutions.
Ben Robb, SharePoint MVP
Ben has been using Microsoft web technologies for over 10 years, and has been a Microsoft MVP for SharePoint Server for the past 2 years. He is currently lead technical consultant for Microsoft Gold Partner cScape, where he has implemented many SharePoint 2007 builds, including the first public facing website using MOSS in the world - HedKandi.com. In the last year he has spoken at Tech-Ed Europe, MIX 08 and the Microsoft SharePoint Conference.
Bill English, SharePoint MVP 
Bill English - (MCSE, MCSA, MVP, MCT) - is an industry leader, author, and educator specializing in the exciting SharePoint Products and Technologies product set from Microsoft. In his role at Mindsharp, Bill focuses on emerging technical changes in SharePoint to ensure Mindsharp continues to provide cutting-edge training and business solutions. Bill draws on his expertise in knowledge management and collaboration technologies to teach and consult worldwide about powerful customized solutions based on the SharePoint platform. Microsoft has acknowledged Bill’s professional contributions to the SharePoint Portal Server platform by awarding him the prestigious title of Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for six consecutive years. Since 2000, Bill has authored 11 books on Exchange and SharePoint products, including the newly-released Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices by Microsoft Press.
Bob Fox, SharePoint MVP 
Bob Fox, is a Microsoft SharePoint MVP has been working as an IT Professional since the mid 90's. During that time he have spent a great deal of time working as a Systems Administrator with a focus on various Microsoft Technologies. For the past 6 years Bob's primary focus has been Microsoft SharePoint Services. Bob specialize in Architecture, Deployment, Portal and Site Customization, Administration and Collaboration Solutions. Bob is a Lead SharePoint Technical Specialist for B&R Business Solutions, LLC based out of New Jersey.
Bob Mixon, SharePoint MVP
Bob Mixon (MVP) has been in providing technology solutions since the 1980's and is currently the co-owner of Mixon Consulting, a consulting and training company providing technology solutions for SharePoint, Collaboration, Knowledge Management, and Business Process Management. Bob has extensive skills with design, architecture and implementation of Windows SharePoint Services 2003 (WSS), SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (SPS), Windows SharePoint Services 2007 (WSS v3), Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS), and Microsoft Office and Microsoft Server technologies. Other core technical competencies include development experience in .NET, ASP.NET, C#, Web Services, MSMQ and other leading Microsoft developer tools.
Bradley T. Smith, CEO - BlackBlade
Bradley Thomas Smith is a software developer providing business technology consulting services. He became involved in software development and consulting using Microsoft technologies after serving a tour in the United States Marine Corps, and has since been doing business primarily with the US Department of Defense and associated agencies. His expertise and willingness to offer assistance to members of the community won him his first Microsoft MVP award in April 2004. His work with MS Office server product teams led to a seat on the Office Developer Advisory Council, allowing him to contribute towards upcoming Office Server products and subsequently, the Office 12 Technology Adoption Program. In 2005, Bradley founded Black Blade Associates, Inc. to provide real world solutions to customers in the public and private sectors in the Washington DC/Metro area.
Corro'll Driskell 
Corro'll Driskell (MODL, MCT, MCTS: MOSS 2007, MCTS: WSS 3.0, MCSE: Exchange, MCSE 2003, MCSD.NET, MCAD.NET, CUSE) is a recognized expert and innovator in the fields of Knowledge Management and Collaboration. In his role as a Mindsharp instructor, Corro'll leverages his years of experience to train hundreds of people in both private and public organizations about architecting solutions using the Microsoft Office Systems platform. Currently Corro'll is writing a book on Microsoft Office InfoPath, as well as several of whitepapers and articles. Corro'll has over 16 years of experience in Information Systems (IS) in varied industries such as government, healthcare, professional and financial services.
Darvish Shadravan
, Microsoft
Darvish ("D") Shadravan is a Senior Technology Specialist employed by Microsoft where he focuses on SharePoint, InfoPath, and related technologies. He has been with Microsoft for 11 years in various technical roles working directly with enterprise customers. Darvish holds MCTS-SharePoint, MCSE, and CISSP certifications.
Dennis Martin, File Systems & Storage MVP
Dennis Martin is the founder and President of Demartek, a computer industry analyst organization with its own test lab. Dennis has been working in the Information Technology industry for more than twenty-seven years, primarily involved in software development and project management in mainframe, UNIX, and Windows environments. Dennis is also the founder of the Rocky Mountain Windows Technology User Group in Denver, and served as its President for its first six years (1994-2000). Dennis was re-elected President of the group in May 2008. Dennis is a Microsoft MVP for File Systems & Storage.
Eric Shupps, SharePoint MVP
Eric Shupps is the founder and President of BinaryWave, a premier SharePoint consultancy headquartered in Irving, Texas, and Director of BinaryWave Limited, a subsidiary based in Bristol, England. Eric has worked with SharePoint Products and Technologies since 2001 as a consultant, administrator, architect, developer and trainer. He is an advisory committee member of the Dallas/Ft. Worth SharePoint Community group and a participating member of the UK SharePoint User Group. Eric has authored numerous articles on SharePoint development, speaks at user group meetings and conferences around the world, and publishes a popular SharePoint blog at http://www.sharepointcowboy.com.
James Curry 
James Curry is a respected computer scientist and consultant with over 15 years of programming experience. In his role as a Mindsharp instructor, James uses his knowledge of Microsoft products to provide students with a dynamic, hands-on classroom experience. James is a contributing author to both Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator's Pocket Consultant and the newly-released Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices, both by Microsoft Press. As a computer scientist with InfoPro Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama, James developed information management solutions for organizations of all sizes. Prior to joining Mindsharp, James focused on developing Web applications for a large federal agency.
Jason Medero, SharePoint MVP
Jason Medero - ( MCP, MCT, MCTS, MVP [WSS]) is a systems architect with a concentration in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and its related Microsoft technologies. He is a managing partner of B&R Business Solutions, a central New Jersey-based firm specializing in SharePoint and surrounding technologies, infrastructure, real-time communications (OCS), and application development. He is an active member of the SharePoint User Group in NJ/New York City where he sits on the speaker selection committee. He speaks frequently at SharePoint events across the country. He also contributes his SharePoint knowledge as a mentor for some of the popular forums ( TechNet, Yahoo groups). You can visit his blog at www.sharepointblogs.com/JasonMedero or visit his company's page at www.bandrsolutions.com
Joel Oleson
In the year 2000, Joel Oleson, a Sr. Web Engineer was brought in to Microsoft IT design the first Microsoft global deployment of SharePoint. Later he would design the extranet, and hosted SharePoint deployments at Microsoft. Not less than a year later he was sharing these experiences at internal MGB, TechReady, and later to customers at Microsoft Tech Ed and IT Forum conferences globally. On the SharePoint team as Sr. Technical Product Manager for IT Professionals, leading up to and at the release of SharePoint Server 2007, he helped various customers to get the critical governance information, upgrade, achieve scale, and get the essential best practices that they needed. After managing the critical SP1 and Windows Server 2008 launches, Joel started an external SharePoint blog where he would share his decks, best practices, lessons, and joined the field to share his experiences. As trainer, blogger, evangelist, sr. consultant and architect, he continues to gain valuable experience and share it with the SharePoint community on his blog, at major technical conferences, and local SharePoint user groups around the globe. Check out his blog at: http://www.sharepointjoel.com/default.aspx
Mark Ferraz, President of SolutionsMark 
Mark is an Senior Information Architect and Developer specializing in Information Management, Collaboration Tools, and Knowledge Management systems for medium to large enterprises. Mark has over ten years of experience designing, managing, and implementing complex technology projects involving application implementation, supporting infrastructure, custom development, and integration. Most recently Mark has been working with the team at Chevron as the Technical Development Lead for one of the largest SharePoint deployments to date.
Mark Schneider 
Mark Schneider has over 30 years experience in successful technology leadership, specializing in strategic technology planning and governance. He is a gifted communicator who is able to simplify complex issues into understandable action items that get various stakeholders “on the same page.” He has served as contributing author for a number of publications, most recently including the newly-released Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices by Microsoft Press. He is President of VitalSkill LLC, a provider of technology strategy, governance, and taxonomy workshops. Mark can be reached at his blog site www.sharepointplan.com.
Mike Watson, Microsoft Product Team
Mike Watson (MCSE, MCSA) is a Technology Architect at Microsoft focused on SharePoint Products and Technologies. Mike specializes in deploying highly scalable, highly available SharePoint environments with an emphasis on new datacenter trends and technologies. In addition to supporting Microsoft's corporate SharePoint deployment, Mike was instrumental in planning and deploying Microsoft's SAAS (Software as a Service) efforts including Microsoft Managed Services and Microsoft Online. In his new role at Microsoft, Mike documents and distributes best practices as support and operational offerings such as MOSSRAP (MOSS Risk Assessment Program) and SLM (Service Level Management) for Microsoft's Premier customers
Natalya Voskresenskaya, SharePoint MVP
Natalya, SharePoint Architect, EMC, has been working in the IT field for over 10 years. Her professional experience has been very diverse from Media Publishing Group, Online Crime News, Digital Music World, Corporate Law Firm to a consultancy and system integration company. With experience in design, architecture, development and deployment of Web based applications, she has been dedicated to developing portal solutions since early days of 2000. Natalya has been working with SharePoint Technologies since the 2003 version to the present.
Paul Galvin, SharePoint MVP 
Working as a SharePoint Solutions Architect at EMC (formerly Conchango), Paul Galvin has worked in the IT industry for over 15 years in a number of roles including software development, consulting and most recently SharePoint solutions design. Paul works with clients to create top-notch business solutions using the SharePoint platform. He contributes to the SharePoint community through MSDN forums, blogging (both as host and regular guest at End User SharePoint.com) and online news letters and magazines, including SharePoint Beagle and SharePoint Magazine. Microsoft awarded Paul with MVP for SharePoint in July 2008.
Paul Schaeflein
Paul Schaeflein, MCTS, manages the development team for Barracuda, LLC, an independent software vendor (ISV) building tools for SharePoint Technologies. Previously, Paul was an independent consultant specializing in solutions built using ASP.NET and SharePoint. He is a contributing author to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices and has written numerous articles and whitepapers. Paul spent 5 years teaching programming and has presented at numerous User Groups and MOSS Camps (Code Camps for SharePoint).
Paul Stork, SharePoint MVP 
Paul Papanek Stork - (MVP, MBA, CTT+, MCT, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCSD, MCDBA, MCITP, MCPD, MS CRM Certified Master) - has specialized in Microsoft products since the mid-1990s. Paul is a Jack-of-all-trades who has developed expertise as an administrator, developer, and DBA. His primary area of expertise is Microsoft application servers, which defy compartmentalization and leverage multiple technologies. His 20+ years of experience and broad background make Paul a much sought after resource for SharePoint questions that involve both administration and development issues. Paul has worked for a variety of companies including religious nonprofit organizations, a local government, national bank, university, and several consulting and training firms. His knack for quickly learning new technologies allows Paul to work on the "bleeding edge" of technology. Currently, Paul's work focuses on Microsoft CRM, SharePoint, and .NET Compact Framework development.
Spencer Harbar, SharePoint MVP 
Spencer Harbar (MVP) is an enterprise architect who helps organizations implement and drive value from solutions based upon Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. With over fifteen years of commercial experience in the architecture, design, development, deployment and operational service management of Web based applications and hosting platforms, his broad base of skills enables Europe’s largest organizations to succeed with SharePoint. Product expertise includes SharePoint Technologies, MCMS, IIS, SQL Server, Commerce Server and BizTalk Server, Windows Security, Active Directory, Identity Integration Server and High Availability. In 2006, Spencer co-authored Enhancing Microsoft Content Management Server with ASP.NET 2.0. Spencer was a speaker most recently at Microsoft Tech Ed Developers EMEA, 2007. Spencer is also an instructor for Combined Knowledge, EMEA’s premier SharePoint training provider.
Todd Bleeker, SharePoint MVP .jpg "Todd Bleeker")
Todd Bleeker - (Ph.D. and MVP) - is an industry leader in Microsoft-centric software development, specializing in SharePoint products and technologies. Todd is an innovative, resourceful, and competitive technologist with an intense desire to excel. Todd has authored or co-authored several books on Microsoft's integrated suite of products, including Developer's Guide to Windows SharePoint Services v3 Platform and Step by Step series Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 by Microsoft Press. Todd has been awarded the title of Most Valuable Professional (MVP) by Microsoft for his contributions to the SharePoint Server Platform and community. He has and he is a regular contributor to Web sites such as Microsoft TechNet.