This retreat, organised by Paul Beck, is looking at two areas LINQ to SharePoint and InfoPath.

The other brilliant thing about SharePoint Retreats is they are completely free to attend community events – this does mean that the places even on a Saturday get filled very quickly.

For more information on the event and to register visit the Eventbright listing.

Happy SPRetreating

Don’t delay get signed up now.. http://spretreatlondon11.eventbrite.com/

As this was the first SharePoint Retreat the prize is really pretty fantastic.

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN subscriptions valued at $11,899 each!*

The prize was donated, indirectly, by Microsoft, I was sent a number of copies to give away for being an MVP and taking part in testing Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

There were some great posts:

@WorTony : SharePoint Retreat

@Weshackett: Review of the day

@nigel_price: SPRetreat London

 But there was one that really stood out and provided some great code samples and “how to”s from the day 

… and the winner of the prize is

Martin Hatch

Martin did a great 3 part series on the challenges and lessons learnt from the day.  With full source code available in part 3.

Congratulations Martin

Part 2 – What a day!

Part 3 – Going forward

Retrospective

For any activity I find the best way to improve is to review the positives and the negatives and then action the most important parts. Over the years of doing this I have found that a couple of techniques work very well – especially for new teams or groups that don’t normally work together.

Allow a set amount of time,  for SPRetreat it was 30 minutes, and then ask the people present what were the positives and negatives about the event.  The floor is open to any comments from the activities, organisation, people, location, food, value of the event etc.  The idea is to capture everything, to have some discussion to clarifyand record the comments. 

Every comment is valuable feedback, but like all good agile techniques deal with the most important things first.  To get the most important things highlighted you ask the team to allocate their votes  (each person gets 4 votes they can place against any comment).  Allowing allocation of votes on the positive comments means you make sure these don’t change when you try to fix the negatives.

The feedback we got from the first event was

Actions

From the feedback the actions should be:

- Keep the event on Saturday and running for a full day

- Split the event and have more focused learning

- Keep people moving around at each session and keep them pairing

- Improve the communication about the event

- Provide more guidance and resources to help with setup

Going Forward

Based on the feedback above I will be working on the next SharePoint Retreat Events.  Expect SharePoint retreats to become more regular and to spread out to other locations.

I have already had some offers of help in setting up future events; if you feel you would like to get involved – perhaps host your own SharePoint Retreat or would like to become a sponsor – please contact me via 21apps.

Part 2 – What a day!

Part 3 – Going forward

The Problem

Cross sell component

============================

Requirements:

A client wants to be able to have a component on a page which can be used to drive traffic to other areas of their site.

The setting of the problem actually had a fairly big impact on the way the day went – we captured some some ideas in the feedback at the end of the day that I will cover in Part 3.

The sessions

Session 1 and 2

During the first two sessions there was a lot of discussion around the problem and ways to solve it, what the scope was and if this provided enough information.  Some teams took the opportunity to question the client (Ben Robb) and ask further details about the problem space.  It was very clear from the way the session went that the people in the room tender to deal with the bigger deployment issues and less on the coding. 

At the end of the first session the teams presented (at this stage just talked through) the solution they had come up with.  It was interesting to see that following this session, and with a move around of pairs each team started to approach the problem in a similar way.  Having gained a better understanding of the problem and seeing real value in one of the presented sessions it made them switch their design. 

Lunch

It was originally planned to do a couple of short presentations during Lunch however the weather was so nice we all walked ‘in single file’ to the a park near the office and enjoyed lunch. We only had a few strange looks as we all queued up to eat!

Session 3, 4 and 5

The original request was for the teams to delete the projects, configuration and settings and focus on the muscle memory in getting things setup. But after lunch people had started to get quite competitive and really wanted to try and do that little bit more and some decided to not delete… (they know who they are)

After each session the teams presented their solution,  it was really great to see how changing the teams around and sharing the knowledge really helped to give people a shared understanding. 

Some of the problems seemed harder than others… like adding web part properties

The final solutions really were very impressive and there have already been some great write ups

Martin Hatch

• RCWP Part 1 – Extending the Search Core Results Web Part
• RCWP Part 2 – Web Part with Ribbon Contextual-Tab
• RCWP Part 3 – Edit Web Part using a Ribbon modal dialog

Wes Hacket

• SPRetreat number one

Retrospective

After the session ended and the demos were done there was a little time to get feedback on the first SharePoint Retreat.  There was some great feedback and ideas on how to refine and make the event better which will be covered in Part 3 – Going Forward.

SharePint

The event ended with a SharePint at the local pub before people headed home.

Part 2 – What a day!

Part 3 – Going forward

Only a couple of months ago myself (@AndrewWoody) and James (@draken) were talking about ways we could help development practices in the SharePoint community. Being avid agile enthusiasts we take a close interest in other events and activities outside of the SharePoint world. One event really caught our attention, it focused on improving techniques, it had a simple format that could be tailored and was very much community focused.

In May we announced it, the worlds first SharePoint Retreat!

To make the event work, and to ensure we could always offer developers a place free of charge, SharePoint Retreat was a sponsored event.  More events are being planned and we are looking to get people onboard with SharePoint Retreats around the globe  (tweet me if you want to get involved as an organiser or sponsor).

The first event was held in London at the cScape offices with food an refreshment provided by 21apps becoming the joint sponsors for the event.

supported by myself and Ben Robb.

The Event

The event was sold out within a few weeks of announcement with a growing waiting list.  Being summer and with the hottest day of the year predicated for the Saturday of the event we had a couple of no show’s leaving us with 10 coders – which actually worked out as a very good number.

Starting at 9am in London when Transport for London decide that people don’t need tubes on a Saturday made some of the journeys in a little hectic.  Even so everyone was in, seated, eating croissants and drinking coffee by 9.30 ready to go.

Having set the problem everyone paired up ready to code…

Part 2. What a day!

We are proud to announce the world’s first SharePoint Retreat!

The first event is taking place in London on Saturday 10th July. Don’t delay places are filling up fast with a limit of 16 people.

 

The aim of SharePoint Retreat is to help developers practice the fundamentals of software development, but like all things in the SharePoint community we intend to keep this SharePoint focused, so developers practice the fundamentals of SharePoint development

What is SharePoint Retreat?

The idea is not our own, more information can be found about the original Code Retreat at http://www.coderetreat.com/ – we have just given it a SharePoint flavour. 

It has a simple objective:  provide a day-long event that is focused on practicing the fundamentals of SharePoint development.

Why SharePoint Retreat?

We want to bring SharePoint development to the fore, to make developers want to work with SharePoint and to show that doing SharePoint development does not mean you have forego any plans to become a software craftsman.

How does it work?

A group of SharePoint developers – That means you! - gather at the Retreat with laptop in hand ready to code.

• Problem:  TBC – the problem will be SharePoint related and can vary between Retreats
• Retreat lasts from 9am until 5pm followed by SharePint
• Each coding session will last 1 hour
• Each session coders will pair program

Some rules!

• code is deleted after each session,  its about learning the techniques and not getting code samples
• Encourage techniques like TDD where appropriate
• programming pairs are swapped at each session

on the day

• 9:00 – 9:30 Intro to the day
• 9:30 – 10:30 session 1
• 10:30 – 10:45 retrospective
• 10:45 – 11 :45 session 2
• 11:45 – 12:00 retrospective
• 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch – with brown bag presentations
• 1:00 – 2:00 session 3
• 2:00 – 2:15 retrospective
• 2:15 – 3:15 session 4
• 3:15 – 3: 30 retrospective
• 3:30 – 4:30 session 5
• 4:30 – 5:00 wrap up
• 5:00 – late ShareFood and SharePint

in the sessions

session 1 and 2

The area of SharePoint may be unfamiliar to some people, others may have done something like it before.  The aim of the first two sessions are to allow people to understand how they are going to approach the problem and what the final solution could look like.  Some pairs may try and implement it, others will spike out ideas and try to solve specific challenges.

At the retrospectives each pair will have a few minutes to discuss what they did and any problems they could not solve.

Lunch

During lunch the coders get to sit back and relax whilst the facilitator demonstrate techniques or ideas in a couple of short brown bag sessions.

session 3, 4 and 5

continue with the problem and looking to refine some of the scenarios and techniques.  The aim is to learn and practice techniques that will improve the knowledge and experience of the coders.  If you don’t complete the problem it’s not an issue – if you complete the problem then look for new challenges or refine the techniques.

After the event

Any gathering of SharePoint people and you are likely to find a SharePint – the facilitator will find a suitable venue for people to unwind, drink beer and SharePint – hopefully more SharePoint people will be in the area so that they can brag about the new found talents.

What Next?

If you can be in London on Saturday 10th July 2010, you’re a SharePoint developer and you fancy spending a day with other like-minded people honing you development skills.   Sign up.

This first event is limited to 16 coders – so be quick.  

If you fail to make the first 16, put your name down on the waiting list.   We do ask that people who have signed up but for whatever reason can’t make it please make the space available to others.

How Much?  – Its Free

Best of all this is a community activity,  we are funding this event through sponsorship in order that we can provide the places to coders F.O.C

The sponsors for this inaugural event are

providing the venue and internet access – and Ben Robb

providing the food – and Andrew Woodward