Well it’s that time again — beginning of a new year, deciding with the rest of the BIWUG board if we are going to organize another SharePoint Saturday or not… and the answer is YES! 😊
Keep the SharePoint Saturday site in your favorites, because a lot needs to be revealed in the coming months.
What Goes Into Organizing SPS
Believe it or not, a LOT of work goes into organizing one day.
Normal BIWUG work takes up 1–2 hours a week. With SPS, it goes up to easily 5 hours a week.
Here’s what organizing SharePoint Saturday actually involves:
- Swag — what are we giving out, what are sponsors contributing to the bag
- Sponsors — contacting all companies that want to sponsor, negotiating amounts
- Speakers — launching a call for speakers, re-inviting previous speakers, managing submissions
- Logistics — organizing not just the Saturday but the day before and after, showing international speakers around Belgium
- Speakers dinner — different menu options, dietary requirements
- Communication — streamlining all announcements across channels
- Budget — calculating costs, making the numbers work
- Location — arrangements, capacity, A/V setup
- Agenda — deciding track count, curating interesting sessions
Luckily the BIWUG team is one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with, and we each take our tasks very seriously.
So I’d like to say to them: I’m proud of working with you guys.
And of course to the Belgian SharePoint community — without you, we wouldn’t have the success we have now. Almost all of the events we organize are practically sold out.
In the end we all do it for the community. And judging from what we’ve already discussed for this year’s edition, I don’t think you will be disappointed. 😊