I've been hearing the buzz and reading posts about SharePoint Saturdays for months, and I've finally had the chance to attend one in person with today's SharePoint Saturday Redmond.

 

What's a SharePoint Saturday? It's a forum for training and connecting with the SharePoint community, with venues in many U.S. and some worldwide cities. Make sure to check out the schedule for a city that might be near you.

 

 

In fact, there are three SharePoint Saturdays (Raleigh, Philadelphia, and Redmond) today, plus the SharePoint 2010 RoadShow in Chicago. Plus, SharePoint Saturdays are coming to six more U.S. locations and one Australia location later this month.

 

You can check out live feeds for today's events at EndUserSharePoint.com, as well as a SharePoint Saturday Redmond event page on FaceBook. If you have other links related for today's events, feel free to let us know in the comments.

 

It's amazing to see the energy from all the planners, sponsors, speakers, and participants of these events. For example, the Puget Sound SharePoint Users group has been collaborating on this event for several weeks, not to mention the efforts of people around the world who make events like this happen. If you've ever planned events, you know there are dozens of details to coordinate. 

 

 

It's also impressive to see the dedication of the participants who overcame the inertia of a soggier-than-usual fall day in the Pacific Northwest. Today's weather is more naturally suited for a warm fire, a good novel, and hot tea, but the great content and energy in the 19 sessions are worth donning the raingear.

 

So far, I've caught the SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 overviews. They've provided a great flavor of the upcoming releases, ranging from tags to visual workflows to enhanced editing and customization. 

 

I heard the SharePoint Administration session next door included a wake-up SharePoint dance, as well as insight on governance and server health features.