The 2010 SharePoint Technology Conference, February 10-12 in San Francisco, focuses on Microsoft's collaboration software used by IT developers, users and managers. Whether you are migrating to SharePoint 2010, remaining with SharePoint 2007 or just getting started with SharePoint, the future of SharePoint education is at SPTechCon.

SharePointReviews.com subscribers receive a $100 discount off the Full Event Passport and/or gain free admission to the exhibits (first time registrants only - cannot be combined with other offers) by inserting the code MEDIASPONSOR when prompted on the eRegistration page linked from www.sptechcon.com.

The four day SharePoint 2010 reveal-athon is over, and I'm back to a boring and completely regular MOSS 2007 lifestyle. Okay, so it's not that dramatic, but I am definitely feeling a desire to switch completely over to 2010 for just about everything relating to SharePoint. There was tons of great content on display during the SharePoint Conference in Vegas last week. I'll be pouring over the on-demand sessions for weeks I'm sure, so this is only the beginning for the 2010 learning process.

There are some good resources popping up on the net about everyone's favorite features about 2010, so I won't spend time competing with them. I'll even link them below, but I do have my own personal top 5 list that I'd like to share with you...

1. First and foremost, the NDA has been lifted and we will be treated to the first public beta in November. Office 2010 will also exit Technical Preview and enter into the first public beta stage. Pre-register for the SharePoint 2010 public beta now!
2. SharePoint 2010 will offer native support for local installations on Windows Vista/7 with a simple switch in a config file. This is big news, especially for developers, because SharePoint 2010 requires 64 bit architecture. Microsoft does not currently support 64 bit guest OSs on Vista/7, so the only option would have been to run VMWare or VirtualBox.
3. 2010 will offer a UI within Central Administration for granular recovery of items within non-farm content databases. This should eliminate the need for a recovery farm for most recoveries.
4. The SSP is gone. I won't get into all of the technical jargon as to why this is a good move, but basically the SSP has been completely replaced by service applications that run throughout the farm. Each WFE can run all available services, and you can very easily pick and choose which services to run. This is much more scalable and should be a whole lot easier to setup and maintain.
5. 2010 will offer native support for external non-SharePoint lists. We already knew about this, but seeing it work in action was a pleasant sight. You'll be able to create, read, update and delete (CRUD) just like you would with SQL queries.

This was not intended to be an exhaustive list, but rather just a few of my favorite reveals during the conference. Check the below posts to see more detailed listings of new features.

• SharePoint 2010 Features (New and upgraded) - The good stuff!!! (@givenscj)
  

• SharePoint 2010 Top 10 Features and Resources (Joel Oleson)
  

In just a few short days, SharePoint Conference 2009 (SPC09) will finally be upon us. Not only is this the biggest and most important SharePoint conference on the calendar, but this year's conference signifies the lifting of that pesky SharePoint 2010 NDA. We've all been salivating at the tidbits of information and screenshots that have been shared so far by Microsoft, so next week will be a bit overwhelming. The conference recently sold out, and there will be an expected 7,000+ attendees crammed onto the strip! If you've got an "STSADM rules!" coffee mug or a 12 hive shortcut on your desktop, then you're probably going to be at this conference.

With the massive amount of information that will be available during the conference, Mark Miller from EndUserSharePoint.com (EUSP) will once again be offering a platform for live blogging. During the Best Practices Conference a couple of months ago, many of us were able to live-blog the sessions for those that were not able to make it. This year will be no different except that Mark's got over 150 people signed up to blog! If you can't make the conference, then make sure you stay glued to his site and twitter. The appropriate hashtag for the conference is #spc09, so make sure you're following it. As usual I will be taking photos and video and posting them on our flickr and youtube feeds, respectively.

If you were lucky enough to grab a conference pass, then please add us to your list of people to meet. Inna Gordin and I will be all over Mandalay during the conference, so please DM us on twitter (@mikecferrara, @innagordin) if you'd like to meet up. If you're looking for extracurricular activities while you're out there, then check out the activities signup page below on EUSP. There's plenty to choose from there, but I'm going to rep the event that I will most definitely be at, #ShareMNF! If you're a football fan, then join Matt Gowin and I at the Hard Rock Casino at 5:30PM PST for Monday Night Football. Although the "official" SharePint event will be held on Sunday night, there will be many a SharePointer sharing a pint every other night during the conference. ShareMNF will be no different!

All the relevant links for the conference can be found below. We hope to see you there!

Quick links:

#spc09 | @SPConf | #SharePoint | #SharePint | EUSP Media Streams | Joel's 10 Steps to Prepare for SPC09 | Session hashtags | SPC09 extra event listing | Share LasVegas event signups

If you read my last post on Best Practices Conference 2009, then you probably followed the live streaming coverage as provided by EndUserSharePoint.com. That content was fully archived, and is now viewable online. Please take the time to check it out, as the live blogs are full of great content from the conference.

1. Best Practices Conference 2009 - Day 01
2. Best Practices Conference 2009 - Day 02
3. Best Practices Conference 2009 - Day 03

If you enjoyed this as much as I did, then you'll be pleased to know that the same offering will be available for the upcoming SharePoint Conference 2009 in October. Most of the conference will be dedicated to SharePoint 2010, so be sure to watch this space for more info.

We've had a recent drought in our monthly giveaways (July), but I'm here to cure that with a brand new giveaway sure to be enjoyed by all! The good folks over at O'Reilly have donated a free title to our prospective monthly winner, and they've even thrown in a couple of choices for the winner as well. Rather than giving away a specific book this month, you'll be allowed to pick from the list below AND choose it in print or digital format! So if you're one of those bleeding edge techies sporting a Kindle 2, then grab a digital version instead of the caveman-like printed version.

You'll be able to choose from these fine SharePoint titles:

Essential SharePoint 2007, Second Edition

By Jeff Webb

If you're considering the vastly improved 2007 version of SharePoint, this concise, practical and friendly guide will teach you how to get the most from Microsoft's latest information-sharing and collaboration platform. Essential SharePoint 2007 demonstrates how your business can use SharePoint to control documents, structure workflow, and share information over the Web using standard tools business users already know -- Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.

SharePoint for Project Management, 1st Edition

By Dux Raymond Sy

Microsoft SharePoint is perfect for project management, but most companies don't understand it's power. This hands-on book demonstrates how SharePoint can help you organize and manage complex projects -- a decidedly more productive way to use this popular collaboration software. You'll learn how to apply common and practical project management concepts in SharePoint, and build a Project Management Information System (PMIS) that can efficiently coordinate communication and collaboration among team members.

SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide, 1st Edition

By James Pyles, Bob Fox, Christopher M. Buechler, Murray Gordon, Michael Lotter, Jason Medero, Nilesh Mehta, Joris Poelmans, Christopher Pragash, Piotr Prussak, Christopher J. Regan

For any organization that wants to use Windows SharePoint Services to share and collaborate on Microsoft Office documents, this book shows administrators of all levels how to get up and running with this powerful and popular set of collaboration tools. SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide provides a detailed discussion of all Sharepoint features, applications and extensions. You learn how to build Sharepoint sites and site collections, along with ways to administrate, secure, and extend Sharepoint.

SharePoint Office Pocket Guide, 1st Edition

By Jeff Webb

With this handy reference as your guide, you can reap all the benefits of SharePoint--Microsoft's amazing information-sharing tool. It shows you, in plain language, how to construct a web site where individuals from all over can capture and share ideas. Learn how to upload documents, edit content, send alerts, track work items, add new team members, and much more.

So how can you win? Simple! Just post a quick review of any one of our 400+ products, and you are automatically entered into the giveaway. And don't worry if you have recently posted a review. We'll add your name if you reviewed a product during the month of July, and if you've submitted multiple reviews, then you'll be entered for each unique review submitted within the giveaway time period. O'Reilly was also kind enough to give SharePointReviews.com readers a 30% off coupon code to any book in their online catalog! This code is good until 12/31/09, and you can redeem it online by using the code SPR3D during checkout.

Be sure to get your reviews submitted by 11:59PM on August 31st, 2009 to be eligible for the giveaway.