Presenters

Prof. Michael Blumenstein

Michael Blumenstein is an Associate Professor and Head of the School of Information and Communication Technology at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. His research interests include the areas of Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence (specifically Machine learning and Neural Networks). He has published over 70 papers in refereed conferences, journals and books in these areas. Michael has also been invited to serve as Organising Chair, Program Chair and Committee member for a number of national/international conferences in his areas of expertise. He is also the Gold Coast Chapter Convener of the Australian Computer Society. Michael is also a member of the Queensland Government's ICT Skills Formation Strategy Leaders Group.

Rob Cooper

Rob Cooper is a Test Lead on the Access team at Microsoft. He started at Microsoft as a Support Engineer in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1998, and joined the Access team in Redmond in 2001. During the Access 2010 release, he led the team focused on new design experiences for Access and Access Services, including the new macro designer, changes to Layout view, and the Navigation and Web Browser controls. Rob also worked on some of the efforts around VBA in 64-bit and continues to provide direction around programmability and security in Access.

A long-time fan of Access, Rob is the co-author of Expert Access 2007 Programming and the Access 2007 VBA Programmer’s Reference. He has written articles for the Microsoft Knowledge Base and Access Advisor, and has spoken at the Portland Access User Group conference and Seattle Access Group and PNWADG meetings. Aside from writing code in Access and C#, he also enjoys spending time with his family watching movies, going to the zoo and aquarium, and hanging out in and around Seattle..

Alistair Speirs

Alistair is a Technology Specialist for Office at Microsoft Australia. Before moving to Sydney, Alistair was based in Brisbane working with technology start-ups and later, as a consulting developer.

With experience from excel automation, forms and workflow using InfoPath and development with SharePoint Products and Technologies Alistair has a wide understanding of the Office Platform and where developers can get even more out of it. He maintains an office development blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/alspeirs and a drizzle of thoughts through http://twitter.com/alspeirs

Andrew Coates

Andrew Coates has been a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft in Australia since January 2004. Before joining Microsoft, Andrew was an independent consultant specialising in database applications using Microsoft technologies including SQL Server, Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Office.

Kathy Hughes

Kathy Hughes is an independent SharePoint Consultant based in Sydney, Australia. Her main area of interest is in architecting and customizing SharePoint, and .NET deployments, specifically from a usability and design perspective.

Kathy has developed and designed Web technologies for over 15 years and has worked with Microsoft collaborative technologies since SharePoint 2001. She has globally deployed and customized SharePoint solutions. She co-authored the Microsoft Press Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator’s Companion and the Microsoft Press Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices book and is currently writing a new book on SharePoint Server 2010.

Kathy holds a Master of Interactive Multimedia. She blogs at http://www.kathyhughes.com/blog/, writes whitepapers on SharePoint and collaborative technologies, and consults and delivers training on SharePoint technologies and user centered Web design solutions.

Luke Chung

Luke Chung is the president and founder of FMS (www.fmsinc.com), a privately held software development firm located in Vienna, Virginia. Celebrating its 24th year in business, FMS is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and the world's leading 3rd party developer of products for Microsoft Access.

FMS also offers products for the .NET, SQL Server and Visual Basic communities, with over 50,000 customers in over 100 countries. For individual clients, FMS can provide custom software solutions. FMS has won over 40 industry awards, and was recently included in the SD Times 100 as the 100 most innovative software companies.

Luke has directed the company's product development and consulting services efforts as the database industry evolved. In addition to being a primary author and designer of many FMS commercial products, Luke has personally provided consulting services to a wide range of clients. A recognized database expert and highly regarded authority in the Microsoft Access developer community, Luke was featured by Microsoft as an "Access Hero" during Access' 10 year anniversary celebration.

Although this is Luke's first speaking engagement in Australia, he is a highly popular speaker at conferences in the US and Europe, and has published many articles in industry magazines. He was a former president of the Washington, DC chapter of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO), and is a graduate of Harvard University with a Bachelor Degree in Engineering and a Masters Degree in Physical Oceanography.

Armen Stein

Armen Stein is the president of J Street Technology, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with a team of database application developers near Seattle, Washington. J Street also offers web design, web hosting and CartGenie, a complete e-commerce web storefront.

Armen is a Microsoft Access MVP and MCP, and is President Emeritus of the Pacific Northwest Access Developers Group. He has taught college level database classes, and has also developed and taught one-day training classes on Access and Access/SQL Server development. Armen has spoken at various user groups and conferences, including Microsoft TechEd and Office DevCon, and is co-author of Access 2007 VBA Programmer’s Reference (Wrox). His other interests include activities with his family, travel, backgammon, Mariners baseball, and driving his 1969 Ford Bronco in the sun.

Chakkaradeep Chandran

Chaks is a Senior SharePoint Developer employed by Intergen where most of his time is spent working with SharePoint and related technologies. Chaks is passionate about Windows Client and Server products and frequently blogs about them. He is a regular contributor and visitor to the local .Net & SharePoint user groups. Chaks can also be found wandering at the Microsoft MSDN SharePoint forums helping others with their issues.

Chaks' Blog - http://www.chakkaradeep.com
Chaks' Tweets - http://twitter.com/chakkaradeep

Graham R Seach

Graham Seach is CEO and Chief Architect with Pacific Database, a successful Sydney-based software solutions provider and database consultancy. For about 20 years, Graham has developed solutions in both the public and private sectors, including health, Defence and aerospace, manufacturing, consulting, banking, finance and investment, and so on. He specialises in developing high-performance Access-based solutions for large multinational organisations, frequently involving millions of records.

Graham holds a Masters degree in Systems Development, MCAD, MCSD and a host of other Microsoft certifications, and has been a recipient of the Microsoft MVP award (for Access) for the past 7 years. He is also a Senior Member of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and IEEE. Graham has been working with Microsoft Access since Version 1.0, is a published author, presents sessions on Access and SQL Server to developers and influencers at industry conferences around the world including TechEd and Microsoft product launches.

As an MVP, he visits Microsoft HQ in Redmond once or twice a year to keep abreast of new products and technologies.

Joshua Haebets

Joshua is a Microsoft Certified SharePoint specialist, with over 11 years experience in the IT industry. He has extensive experience delivering “real” business solutions, having delivered or been involved in over 100 SharePoint implementations using different components of the platform, across of range of different businesses and business functions.

Joshua has experience working in many different industries, including mining, not-for-profit, professional services and construction; moving from predominantly infrastructure roles into SharePoint analysis, configuration and development. He is driven by using SharePoint to solve business problems, finding appropriate solutions and producing great outcomes for all clients/projects he has been part of. Josh is passionate about SharePoint and is an active advocate for the platform, presenting at a number of conferences both internationally and within Australia.

Ed Ferrero

Ed Ferrero is SharePoint Manager with Spiritus in Brisbane. He is an Applied Mathematics graduate with extensive experience in business planning and strategy development at BHP Steel. Ed has been a business reporting consultant since 1988, and has sold his Excel based Balanced Scorecard solution to companies such as Amcor, Tourism NSW, and New Zealand Sugar. He has been an Excel MVP since 2006.

Ed's website: www.edferrero.com

Mick Badran

Mick Badran is a training and integration specialist with over 14 years experience in the industry. During that time he has consulted on small, medium and large enterprise scale projects, following these through from the initial design to implementation. Mick has always focused on SharePoint and integration technologies with strong developer and solution architect skills.

Mick currently consults in MOSS based solutions for Microsoft to relevant clients. Along with very strong consulting skills, Mick also presents and instructs at various local and international Microsoft events, such as TechEd.

Shauna Kelly

Shauna Kelly has developed add-ins and templates for Office applications for over 10 years, and has been a Word MVP since 2002. She has developed solutions running in Word for businesses and government clients in Australia and the US including organizations in banking, research, law, consulting, public sector administration and government arts agencies.

She specialises in developing tools to help improve users’ productivity and help users create documents that conform to corporate documentation standards.

Shauna Kelly lives in Melbourne. Outside of Word interests, she is a Certified Practising Accountant, a member of CPA Australia’s Centre of Excellence for Information Technology & Management, and consults to businesses and government on business planning, budgeting, process improvement and project management.

Garry Robinson

Garry Robinson is the editor of www.vb123.com and the Access Unlimited Newsletter. He wrote a book on Microsoft Access Protection and Security and wrote many articles for the Smart Access Magazine and databasejournal.com. Recently Garry purchased the rights to publish all the back issues of Smart Access magazine online and so far 100 have been posted at his website.

Most of the time Garry tries to find work for a team of experienced Access and Office subcontractors and even jumps into the deep end on a few projects himself (just to keep improving his skills).

Finally Garry has been selected as an Access MVP for the last four years.

Adam Clark

Principal Solutions Architect, Sharing Minds

Blog: http://adamclark.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CraZZySyfen

A veteran of the collaboration industry, Adam Clark run the collaboration specialist company Sharing Minds. Adam has been working with collaboration and SharePoint technology since its introduction to the market. Having worked for some of the most influential technology services firms in the market today, and as the community leader for the Brisbane Office and SharePoint Users Group, Adam brings enterprise class experience to a rapidly growing company and a passion for technology and collaboration notable in all his speaking engagements.

Ben Williams

Senior SharePoint Developer, Sharing Minds

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ausben

As a Senior SharePoint Developer for Sharing Minds Ben Williams brings the broad experience of a .NET Developer has worked on multiple SharePoint projects delivering custom developed components through the SharePoint framework to meet business requirements. Ben has specifically worked in the delivery of multi-lingual SharePoint sites and complex network environments for both small and large firms in both the private and public sectors.

Nick Randolph

Nick currently runs Built To Roam which focuses on building rich mobile applications. Previously Nick was co-founder and Development Manager for nSquared Solutions where he led a team of developers to build inspirational software using next wave technology. Prior to nSquared, Nick was the lead developer at Intilecta Corporation where he was integrally involved in designing and building their application framework.

After graduating from a combined Engineering (Information Technology)/Commerce degree, Nick went on to be nominated as a Microsoft MVP in recognition of his work with the Perth .NET user group and his focus on mobile devices. He is still an active contributor in the device application development space via his blog at http://community.softteq.com/blogs/nick/ and via the Professional Visual Studio website, http://www.professionalvisualstudio.com/.

Nick has been invited to present at a variety of events including Tech Ed Australia, MEDC and Code camp. He has also authored articles for MSDN Magazine (ANZ edition), two books entitled Professional Visual Studio 2005 and Professional Visual Studio 2008, and helped judge the 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 world finals for the Imagine Cup.

Blog: http://community.softteq.com/blogs/nick
Twitter: BTRoam

James Milne

With over 15 years of direct IT experience James has spent the last five years working exclusively with enterprise level SharePoint Solutions. Prior to this James spent a number of years working for a leading integration company based in Silicon Valley. While working directly with large customers such as Intel and Siebel, James gained an in-depth knowledge of Middleware, Workflow and Business Intelligence. Today, James consults on large scale Portal deployments and is an active member of the local SharePoint community.

Steve Schapel

Steve Schapel has been a freelance software developer for over 12 years. He designs and develops customised database systems, specialising in using Microsoft Access and related products. He is the owner of Data Management Solutions Ltd, based in Wellington, New Zealand, servicing mainly small to medium businesses and organisations, across many sectors, for example tourism and auctions. He has a special emphasis in sports administration, having developed the highly acclaimed SportsRunner system.

Each year for the past 9 years he has been awarded as a Microsoft MVP (Access). He is an enthusiastic advocate of Access's continued status as the "best tool for the job" in so many business scenarios, and is more excited than ever about its direction and future.

http://blog.datamanagementsolutions.biz/dms.html
http://accesstips.datamanagementsolutions.biz/
 

Mark Morton

Mark Morton is a Senior Portal consultant for Myriad Technologies, concentrating on the design, development and implementation of Business Intelligence solutions via Microsoft SharePoint Server and associated technologies. Mark has a decade of experience in the SQL Server/BI/SharePoint space as both a Microsoft Certified Trainer and consultant.

Mark Morton is a familiar face to the SQL Server community in Brisbane and is a regular speaker at Microsoft events such as TechEd and SQL Server User Groups.

Paul Woods

During the day, Paul leads the Marketing Communications team at Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Data#3. At night, he runs www.thenewpaperclip.com - a popular Office 2007 tips and tricks website.

Since 2006, over half a million people have relied on articles on www.thenewpaperclip.com to help them overcome their challenges with Office 2007

A speaker at TechEd Australia 2006, and 2009, Office DevCon 2008, and a ex-Microsoftie, Paul recently received a Microsoft MVP award for his passion in helping people become more productive with the tools they use every day.

Glen Millar

Glen Millar has built and delivered hundreds of presentations on science, the environment and business solutions. Glen’s tutorial website www.pptworkbench.com has attracted thousands of visitors since 2001 and Glen is a regular speaker at PowerPoint Live (www.pptlive.com). Glen who have been awarded a Microsoft MVP award since 2003, lives in Brisbane.