Presenters

Craig Bailey

Craig is the Technical Director at Elcom (www.elcom.com.au), a Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in Web Content Management Systems. He’s a VSTO MVP and runs the Sydney Business & Technology User Group (www.sbtug.com). He blogs regularly (www.craigbailey.net), and enjoys bringing clarity to the sometimes overwhelming world of Microsoft.

Tom Bizannes

Tom Bizannes is a Microsoft Office and Database Developer based in Sydney, Australia. He works for MacroView Business Technology (http://www.macroview.com.au), a Microsoft Gold Partner specialising in Microsoft Office and SharePoint Development and Applications.

Tom has decades of experience of working with Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft SQL Server, both as a user and as a developer. He also has a Business Degree in Accounting & IT and is also a Microsoft Certified Professional in Microsoft SQL Server.

RK Bommini

RK has over 5 years experience implementing, configuring and customizing SharePoint since the 2003 version was released.

RK is particularly strong with SharePoint Architecture design and implementations (as well as the associated technologies) and has a strong understanding of Microsoft Enterprise Architecture and applications.

RK is a certified professional in MOSS and WSS and one of the senior consultants at livepoint (http://www.livepoint.com.au).

Leon Bro

Leon is the principal consultant with Danish based Agile Technology LTD and has over 12 years of experience in the industry with over 5 years of experience using SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007 in configuring and customizing the interface using SharePoint Designer and the web interface.

Leon is a very creative and customer facing consultant, his strengths are in gathering requirements, customizing interfaces, building workflows, look and feel, and user education sessions and getting the most out of the out-of-the-box functionality.

Brian Farnhill

Brian Farnhill is a SharePoint consultant for Unique World and is based in Canberra. Brian has been developing web sites and web based application for the last four and a half years, focusing more on SharePoint based solutions in the last two years. Brian has helped develop solutions based on both Windows and Web based technologies, and can bring them together using web services and VSTO. He has a wide range of programming skills that have helped him provide many customised solutions.

Brian recently achieved his MCAD certification, and actively participates in the SharePoint community, through online forums and his role as a co-manager of the Canberra SharePoint User Group, and also writes a SharePoint development blog at http://pointstoshare.spaces.live.com.

Kathy Hughes

Kathy Hughes is an independent SharePoint Consultant based in Sydney, Australia, and is co-owner of Combined Knowledge Asia Pacific (http://www.combined-knowledge.com.au). 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 Portal Server 2003 since beta inception and has customized and deployed SharePoint Server 2007 since beta release. She co-authored the Microsoft Press Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator’s Companion and most recently co-authored the Microsoft Press Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices book.

Kathy holds a Master of Interactive Multimedia (University of Technology, Sydney, 2004-2007), having majored in Web site usability and design.

Kathy blogs at http://mindsharpblogs.com/kathy/, writes whitepapers on SharePoint and collaborative technologies, and consults and delivers training on SharePoint technologies and user centered Web design solutions.

Shauna Kelly

Shauna Kelly’s interests in Word are in corporate documents involving complex numbering and layout, with a focus on improving users’ productivity of Word. She has developed Word templates and applications for clients in Australia and the US including Australian government departments and agencies, the US Library of Congress, Chevy Chase Bank and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Shauna Kelly lives in Melbourne. Outside of her 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.

John McGhie

John McGhie is the principal of McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd, a privately-held Australian company specializing in documentation engineering. He has been awarded as a Microsoft MVP in Word each year since 1997.

Documentation engineering begins with the premise that "Documentation that serves your needs is a piece of engineering, not a work of art" – which just happens to be my company slogan. That's what we really do: We analyse what you want people to be able to do after reading your documentation and we analyse what they already know. Then we design a suite of information resources to bridge the gap.

Outside of work, John continues to ride his motorcycle in an advanced case of Peter Pan syndrome; and likes cats and small children. He particularly appreciates the fact that you can return small children to their parents!

Glen Millar

Glen Millar specialises in PowerPoint presentations for business and science, particularly sales and conference presentations. He has presented internationally on the awesome graphic effects native to PowerPoint 2007 and amazing animations. Awarded an MVP for PowerPoint since 2003, Glen is based in Brisbane.

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.

Kuldip Obhan

Kuldip Obhan is a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), Australia. Previously, Kuldip was with MCS Canada as a Senior SharePoint consultant. Kuldip specialises in SharePoint and VSTS/TFS Architecture, Planning, Deployment and Development. He has consulted for and worked with some of Microsoft’s largest corporate customers worldwide. He has also presented at various SharePoint seminars around the globe.

Sergio Otoya

Sergio is the Technical Director at livePoint (http://www.livepoint.com.au), a consultancy exclusively focused on SharePoint solutions.

Sergio has worked on SharePoint since 2001 and has vast experience both architecting and developing on the SharePoint platform. He has been involved in countless SharePoint implementations both here in Australia and internationally.

Sergio has strong consulting, coding, design and architecture skills. Sergio speaks at different conferences and user groups and blogs at http://blogs.livepoint.com.au/.

Sergio is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and certified in MOSS, WSS v3 and SharePoint 2003.

Grant Paisley

Grant Paisley is the Chief Architect for Angry Koala, http://www.angrykoala.com.au a Microsoft Partner specialising in Business Intelligence Solutions. Grant is a SQL Server MVP, and president of the Sydney SQL Server User Group.

With more than 10 years of consulting experience in Business Intelligence and data warehousing he has delivered solutions such as the Scorecard Reporting System for the Microsoft Australia Enterprise Group. He is sought after as a speaker presenting practical Business Intelligence Solutions advice at events such as TechEd and various Australian user group meetings.

Ed Richard

After starting his professional career in the Royal Dutch Navy, Ed studied IT in the eighties. He spent a few years as application developer as a civilian for the Navy, but the commercial IT companies were too much of an attraction.

Ed managed the technical aspects of a Clipper development team of 8 people until starting his own development and consultancy company in 1994. During these years both companies were leading training institute for Clipper and later Visual Objects in The Netherlands and ran the Dutch Clipper & VO Helpdesk for CA.

He has been president of the VO-user group section of SDGN (now SDN), the biggest developer user group in The Netherlands, and was a Board Member for many years.

Never shy of new environments, Ed was always very interested in application integration with a strong affinity for Microsoft. When .Net came along in 2000, he dived right in, and when Tahoe was released, he started using and promoting SharePoint.

In 2005 Ed joined Software Objectives in Australia. He has been a speaker at many national and international conferences, such as CA-World and CttM/SDC, and regularly publishes articles for SDN and others. He co-founded the Melbourne Office Special Interest Group (www.mossig.net) and is a Board Member of Victoria.net.

In 2008 he joined the Stargate Group in Melbourne as SharePoint Practice Manager responsible for building a new Intranet in SharePoint and the starting up a SharePoint Practice. In 2008 Ed was awarded MVP for SharePoint.

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. Garry now writes for databasejournal.com and has even done a video or two.

Amongst Garry's online contributions is an Access 2007 Security paper for MSDN at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb421308.aspx.

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 three years.

Steve Schapel

Steve Schapel has been a freelance software developer for the past 10 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 7 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 excited about its direction and future.

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, and is currently completing a PhD, researching workgroup data silos. He holds MCAD, MCSD and MCP certifications, and has been a recipient of the Microsoft MVP award (for Access) for the past 7 years. He is also a professional grade 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.

Alistair Speirs

Alistair Speirs 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

Armen Stein

Armen Stein is the founder and president of J Street Technology, a team of about a dozen developers near Seattle. J Street develops custom applications using Microsoft Access, SQL Server, ASP.NET and Ajax.

Armen is President Emeritus of the Pacific Northwest Access Developers Group, and has spoken at many user groups and conferences, including Microsoft TechEd 2008 in Orlando, Florida. Armen is an Access MVP and co-author of Access 2007 VBA Programmer's Reference (Wrox), which has a five-star rating on Amazon.

Robert Stewart

Robert is a developer at Microsoft Gold Partner Intergen in Wellington New Zealand. Robert has a background in .NET development and has been working specifically with SharePoint for almost 2 years. More recently Robert has been leading SharePoint development projects with a focus on Web Content Management (WCM).

Lucy Thomson

Lucy set-up An Easier Tomorrow in 2006 with two main aims in mind – to rid Australia of bad PowerPoint and to raise the bar on IT training.

Lucy is a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and in January was honoured to be invited to join the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) programme – MVPs are (according to Microsoft) ‘exceptional technical community leaders worldwide who share their high quality real world expertise with others’. In other words, she knows what she’s talking about AND she’s really nice. A passionate speaker and advocate of PowerPoint, her work has been seen on the international conference stage, been used for international tenders and has even been known to get a standing ovation in the tricky after lunch slot.

Lucy’s work life has given her experience in a wide variety of industries across 3 continents. From large multi-nationals to non-government organisations, from retail to legal via education, conservation and a few industries in between.

Ben Walters

Ben Walters has been working in the IT industry for nearly 10 years, over this time he has worked on numerous projects ranging from the enterprise to the small business, he has extensive experience developing forms based solutions using InfoPath and SharePoint Server. Ben is also a Microsoft MVP.

Paul Woods

Paul Woods is an ex-Microsoftie with a passion for Office 2007. In his day job he works as a Marketer for a National Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Brisbane (Data#3), but at night he masquerades as The New Paperclip (http://www.thenewpaperclip.com) - one of the leading Office 2007 Help, Tips, Tricks and Tutorial websites online. Thousands of people every day from around the world visit The New Paperclip to figure out basic things like where to find the Undo button in Word, right through to the most complicated of Outlook annoyances.

With the unique perspective of hundreds of thousands of readers - Paul can help you understand the difficulties that users face - reducing the risk of user dissatisfaction, and increasing your chances of a successful Office 2007 rollout.