The TechNet team are returning to Newcastle in December for a series of events.  I was at the last event last month where Steve Lamb and James O'Neill covered Virtualisation on the Windows Server Platform.  This was a great event and was heavily weighted towards demos as opposed to lots of slides.  This was a different type of event for me as it covered IT Pro topics, however it was very interesting and an enjoyable day.  The TechNet team are coming back to Newcastle in December and if you're an IT Pro and the topics are of relevance I suggest you register quickly to firstly reserve your place, but secondly to show how welcome these events are in the North East.

Viral Tarpara and Andrew Fryer will be covering Beyond SharePoint: Advanced Solutions in Business Intelligence and Enterprise Search with Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007 (MOPPS) and Microsoft Enterprise Search - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032356165&culture=en-GB

James O'Neill and Steve Lamb will be covering How to take online backups of running applications via System Center Data Protection Manager AND how to provide secure remote access to applications via Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032355688&culture=en-GB

Andrew Fryer will round off the day with an evening session - Eight reasons to migrate to SQL Server 2008 - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032356391&culture=en-GB

Register now to avoid disappointment.

Last night saw the first SUGUK meeting in Newcastle and the first cooperative event between VBUG and SUGUK in the North East of England.  The attendance for the event was great we had in the region of 35+ attendees and the meeting went down very well.  We had the pleasure of having Spencer Harbar, MOSS MVP,  present two topics - MOSS Server Farm Architecture and Design; Top 10 Tips for your SharePoint Development Environment.  Both topics were extremely interesting and provoked some interesting discussions both at the refreshment break and after the meeting.  Indeed my colleagues are looking already to use many of the 10 tips as we develop on MOSS for our latest project.  We also had an impromptu, quickfire chalk and talk session from John Timney, ASP.Net MVP, and his colleagues on how BT were implementing MOSS at an Enterprise Level.  This sparked lots of questions and discussion during the break also.

Here are a few pictures from the event.  Hopefully there will be more similar events in Newcastle in the future - keep an eye on the VBUG and SUGUK Web sites for more info.

Yes, thats right the next VBUG meeting in Newcastle, is a joint venture by both VBUG and the SharePoint User Group and is being held on Monday the 10th September 2007.  We are very pleased to be having Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 MVP - Spencer Harbar - presenting two topics for us.  The topics Spencer will be covering are:

• Server Farm Architecture and Design (Key Influencers, models etc) Update: This session introduces the fundamentals of MOSS Farm design including server roles, topology constraints and design goals which are paramount for delivery of a secure, available and scalable MOSS hosting platform. Each server roles? unique characteristics will be covered with their associated trade-offs. In addition, three common models will be presented with a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses.
• Top 10 Tips for a SharePoint Development Environment (Tools, Utilities, etc) Updated: This session will present 10 essential tips, tricks, tweaks or utilities for making your SharePoint Development easier and quicker. All tips can be used equally in a Virtual Machine or on a ?real? server. Many of the tips are also useful for systems administrators working with SharePoint 2007

The meeting is being held at the BT offices, Unit 7, Room 3, Innovation Place, Delta Bank, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE11 9DJ - for a map go to http://local.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.t4t652gvtvyw_NE11%209DJ%20(postcode)%2C%20United%20Kingdom___&encType=1

To register for the event please go to the VBUG website - SUGUK & VBUG- 'Sharepoint' with Spencer Harbar

If you are a SharePoint Administrator, Developer or just want to find out more about MOSS, please come along all are welcome.