July 4, 2016
I’ve been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for two years now. On SharePoint for the first year and Office Servers and Services this past year. I received good news last Friday that I am renewed as a Microsoft MVP for 3rd year, on Office Servers and Services – as it is my primary field of work and expertise. It’s been a very busy 12 months for me – numerous events that I’ve organized and co-organized, tons of conferences and seminars I’ve been a speaker at, a few books I’ve published or co-written, and so many workshops I’ve lost count. Spring is always slightly busier, as the intermittent bank holidays in Finland break the productivity cycle for me. It also seems that Finland (along with other Nordic countries) is slowly […]
June 20, 2016
I’ve been waiting for the first IT Pro exam on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016 to become available – the 70-339 Managing SharePoint 2016. I might have missed the beta announcement, but I noticed from Pearson VUE, that you are able to book the exam before the official release date of June 23rd. Without really having time to prepare I took the exam today (20th of June), after a huge cup of coffee. Studies possibly show that adequate levels of caffeine might boost your short-term memory. I cannot go into details on the questions themselves, so here are some initial thoughts after completing the beta exam. I don’t know yet if I passed or not, but I have a fairly good feeling. It took me a little over an […]
June 15, 2016
June 23rd: Updates: This post was updated with community comments and additional ideas on – see the end of the post for the changes. I decided early last year I would focus a bit more energy and effort for speaking at conferences and events than I normally do. I’ve been a Microsoft Certified Trainer since 2003, so there has been plenty of speaking opportunities in classrooms and for slightly larger audiences. I wanted to have more speaking opportunities outside Finland, and also in shorter pieces. Instead of a 3 day workshop, I craved for a 30-60 minutes “straight to the point” talks. Brief thoughts on the past I started my journey by listing (what I thought) would be the topics I’d be most interesten in presenting. This list […]
June 13, 2016
I was happy to be accepted as a speaker for SharePoint Saturday Netherlands, which was held in Vianen (near Utrecht) last weekend. It’s been a super busy May and June for me so far, yet I was very happy to be able to make a visit to the Netherlands before the holiday season. My sister (and her Dutch husband) live near Utrecht, so the event was also a good opportunity for me to catch up with them. Last time our catch-up ended at 5 am by bicycling through Utrecht – so good memories. Flying to Schiphol is rather easy, as it takes around 2 hours direct. This was my 10th flight in 2 months so I am getting very used to packing, going through security and finding my […]
June 2, 2016
I was honored and privileged to be chosen as a speaker for SharePoint Saturday Paris 2016. The event was held this past weekend, 28th of May at the Montparnasse Tower. My trip started as usual from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport in Finland. I normally fly Finnair, and after a few years of collecting the elusive flyer’s miles I am finally able to get free coffee in the lounge. I’m not fully certain if this is the peak of my exclusive membership, but it sure feels like a lot of work. Upon arriving to Charles de Gaulle airport I decide to take the train to the city centre. I read somewhere that taxi might be prohibitely expensive as it is rush hour on Friday upon my arrival. I’m elated that […]