Richard Willis – SharePoint Learning Kit Coordinator, SalamanderSoft Owner

We had another great set of speakers and sessions at the Learning Gateway Conference 2010. We had a fantastic set of speakers and couldn’t have held the event without them.

Here is a linked list of all the presentations given on the day. It’s not complete yet, but I’ll add them as I get them.

Keynote

Portals and Gateways for all : Simon Shaw

Building the Learning Gateway

Understanding SharePoint 2010 : Steve Smith

Branding : Chris McKinley

Patching SharePoint and Preparing your SharePoint 2007 for 2010 : Neil Hodgkinson

A look at live@edu : Chris Rothwell

Virtualisation : Alan Richards & Dave Coleman

User Adoption

2010 Social Networking Features : Alex Pearce

Encouraging user adoption & quick wins : Steve Smith

SharePoint 2010 for Education : Alex Pearce

Integrating InfoPath Forms : Paul Baker

SharePoint Learning Kit : Richard Willis

School Stories

Parental Engagement : Simon Thompson

Hosted Overview : David White

In School Overview : Mark Leighton

Replacement of the File Server : Alan Richards & Dave Coleman

There’s now only one week left until the 2010 Learning Gateway Conference. This will be a fantastic learning resource for all those using SharePoint in Education and there’s still just enough time left to register. See http://www.learninggatewayconference.com for more details of the day.

Since my last post on it we have announced the agenda and key note speaker:

Agenda

Key Note Speaker – Simon Shaw

As Head of Institutional Management Simon has led Becta’s work to support schools using ICT to improve parental engagement through online reporting. Working with a national network of leading "advocate" schools and local authorities to develop best practice he led the creation of the online reporting framework and supporting resources. Working with Naace Simon led the development of the ICT Mark and has worked closely with local authorities to engage schools in improvement through self-review. As project leader of the ICT Test Bed project he supported change management in schools to make innovative and effective use of technology for learning and teaching. Early work with Becta included providing procurement advisory services, managing research into the total cost of ownership of ICT in schools and developing lifecycle based investment planning tools to use in capital investment programmes. Simon comes from an educational background as a teacher of science, technology and outdoor activities, a physics subject leader, school ICT coordinator and "in house" system developer. As a MCSE he also used his technical expertise in designing and integrating curriculum and information systems as a business development manager and NGFL service manager working as part of the Capita group.

If you are in education and using SharePoint then the Learning Gateway Conference is the must attend event of the year. Run by Alex Pearce (MVP) and myself it follows on from the highly successful first Learning Gateway Conference last year. This year will be even bigger and better! We have added a whole new track which is dedicated to leading SharePoint schools telling us their stories of how they have implemented their Learning Gateways, what has worked for them and what pitfalls to avoid.

With the recent release of SharePoint 2010, it is an exciting time in the SharePoint world and the educational pricing makes it a great product for use in schools, colleges and local authorities. However, in addition to covering some of the fantastic new features in SharePoint 2010, we will still have lots of content for SharePoint 2007. So whether you have already moved to SharePoint 2010, are planning to upgrade over the summer or don’t currently have any plans to change, there will be lots of great information you can take away and use in your Gateway.

With both technical and user oriented sessions there is something for everybody – network managers, technicians, users, Learning Gateway managers or members of senior leadership teams. In addition the conference will be relevant and useful whether you are an experienced SharePoint user, just starting out or just considering SharePoint. With 3 concurrent tracks running throughout the day it would be worth considering having more than one attendee!

In addition to the content it will of course be a great networking event with the opportunity to meet others in the same situation as you and discuss what you are doing. At only £150 for the day it’s an unrivalled professional development opportunity providing information you will be able to put in practice straight away.

The venue is Church House, Westminster in Central London so is easy to get to from almost anywhere.

For more information visit the conference web site and register today. To whet your appetite here is a list of the sessions:

We hope to see you there on the 14th!