Are you a SharePoint expert? Do you like to teach? Great! The SharePoint Technology Conference (SPTechCon) San Francisco 2010, is seeking proposals from speakers for full-day and half-day workshops, as well as shorter technical classes.

SPTechCon is for SharePoint administrators, architects, developers, and line-of-business professionals who customize, deploy, maintain and maximize business value from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Windows SharePoint Services.

The first day at SPTechCon is filled with deep-dive full (6-hour) and half-day (3-hour) workshops. The next two days contain dozens of 75-minute classes running concurrently in nine time slots.

When you propose a workshop or a class, be clear about the audience. Is your class for business managers and analysts? IT professionals? Administrators? Developers? Think about who would be most interested in your topic, and your presentation of that topic. Also, be sure to explain what skill students will take away from your class. Be definite! Also tell us if your session is introductory, intermediate or for experts.

SPTechCon welcomes sessions built around real-world SharePoint case studies.

Acceptance of your class proposal will be based not only on your topic’s timeliness and relevance, but also on your own credentials as a SharePoint expert and experience as an instructor. Be sure to communicate how clearly you can state what your class will be about, who would benefit from taking it, any prerequisite knowledge, and what the student will learn. A muddled, confused submission is likely to get rejected.

The ideal instructor is someone with expert credentials in SharePoint and other relevant technologies, and who has proven experience teaching practical solutions to real-world challenges, presenting new skills, and offering students an information-packed learning experience.

Sample Topics

Take a look at the classes and workshops presented at the Boston 2009 SPTechCon. These are generally the type of submissions we are looking for. If you have an idea and it’s not on the list, that’s great. We welcome your ideas, creativity, experience and expertise.

Want some suggestions?

No Marketing.
Attendees are coming to take technical classes — they don’t want to hear a sales pitch, no matter how thickly veiled. Please do not submit classes that are geared around persuading attendees to buy your product or use your service. SPTechCon classes are for teaching, not for marketing.

One Instructor.
Our experience shows that a class taught by more than one instructor is generally not as satisfying as a class taught by a single instructor. If you are proposing multiple instructors, be sure to explain why — and the role that each instructor plays in the class. Note: Only the lead instructor will receive a free conference pass.

Be Prepared.
Teaching at SPTechCon means more than just showing up at the conference. Please pay attention to the deadlines for submission of handouts and other materials. These deadlines help us ensure that the conference provides a quality educational experience for all attendees, and your cooperation is appreciated.

No Parachutes.
Part of the value of having an expert speaker at SPTechCon is that you’ll stick around for most or all of the conference and interact with attendees and other speakers. We expect our instructors to commit to the entire SPTechCon experience. We’re not looking for instructors to parachute in for a class, teach and then disappear. Of course, speaking at SPTechCon gives instructors a free pass to the rest of the technical conference. If there are multiple instructors, only the lead instructor receives a free pass.

No Substitutions.
Proposals are from individual instructors, not from companies. You are proposing something that you personally wish to teach at SPTechCon. If we accept your proposal, our agreement is with you, not with your employer. We expect that you will actually attend the conference and teach the classes that you have agreed to teach. If you change employment, we expect that you will honor your agreement to teach your class.

Event Schedule

Wednesday, February 10, 2010: Workshops
Thursday, February 11, 2010: Technical Classes
Friday, February 12, 2010: Technical Classes

Speaker Deadlines

Thursday, August 6, 2009: Abstract submissions, including all information described below.
Friday, August 14, 2009: Speaker notification of acceptance.

Preparation of Submission

Please include the following information in your speaker proposal:

• Title of class or workshop
• Abstract or submission, 150–200 words, describing the class and what attendees will learn from it
• Any prerequisites of the proposed class, such as technical proficiency or knowledge-level of a topic
• Any prerequisites such as a laptop and any pre-loaded software
• Speaker bio, 125–150 words
• Speaker name(s), mailing and e-mail addresses, telephone and cell phone numbers
• Hi-res digital headshot of speaker
• Twitter and blog addresses, if you have them

Please submit your information electronically as a text e-mail or as a Word document to David Rubinstein, Conference Chairman, DRubinstein@bzmedia.com. Please note that we will edit class titles, descriptions and bios to fit our style, and also to ensure that the description clearly presents information about your session to attendees.

Contacts

Questions about the speaker submission process:

David Rubinstein, Conference Chairman
+1-631-421-4158 x105 or drubinstein@bzmedia.com

Kathy Bruin, Conference Manager
+1-415-642-6108 or kbruin@bzmedia.com

General questions about SPTechCon:

Ted Bahr, Director of Events
+1-631-421-4158 x101 or ted@bzmedia.com