SharePoint, New York City and lack of sleep: not a bad way to spend a weekend.

The concept of Sleepless in NY is simple. Combine SharePoint training, fantastic prizes and the glamour and intrigue that can only be offered by a big city and wrap it up into one intense technology weekend.

In that spirit, from Friday September 7th to Sunday September 9th, 2007 Infusion Development, in association with Microsoft and .NET Rocks! presented “Sleepless in NY – The Ultimate SharePoint Weekend.”  Twelve of North America’s best software developers were flown in from all over North America, put up the “Park Central,” one of New York Cities premiere hotels, and given in-depth customized training in SharePoint and Silverlight.

The developers ranged both in skill-set and career level, but were bonded by their passion for Microsoft technologies and motivation to advance their SharePoint knowledge.  There were Microsoft MVP’s, consultants, as well as entrepreneurs, who set out from places like San Francisco, Colorado, Toronto and Texas to broaden their skill-sets and prove their worth as developers.  

Format
Over the course of the weekend, approximately $30,000 of prizes would be given out, including Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Project and Office 2007. In addition, participants could win a Microsoft Zune, an XBOX, complete with 3 games, “Insomniac,” the ultimate developers laptop, and a grand prize trip to Microsoft Redmond’s campus as well as Seattle for the 2008 SharePoint Conference.  Participants would be judged on the basis of passion for the technology, as well as progress made through the weekend. Each judge in attendance would be observing each participant on the basis of how well they demonstrated each criterion. The judges included:

Richard Campbell and Carl Franklin: Co-hosts -.NET Rocks! Radio show.  Carl is a visual basic MVP and Richard is a Microsoft Regional Director. .NET Rocks!  is a twice weekly podcast with over 140,000 downloads,  twice weekly

• Sahil Malik: SharePoint MVP
• Bob Fox: SharePoint MVP
• Lawrence Liu: Senior Technical Product Manager and Community Lead, Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies (http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/)
• Bill Zack: Developer Evangelist Team
• Allan Schweighardt: Senior Technology Specialist, Microsoft Corp. NY-Metro District

Friday September 7th
After a full day of travel, participants arrived at the training centre at Microsoft’s New York offices where they witnessed a room that had been transformed into the “Sleepless in NY” – training hub complete with a customized theatrical set, “Sleepless in NY” branded movie posters and an XBOX break-out room for much needed breaks.  After meeting Infusion Development’s CEO Greg Brill, along with members of the judging panel, the participants were treated to an in-depth SharePoint introduction by Infusion’s Kurt Guenther, one of the two lead trainers for Sleepless in NY.  The format for the weekend was also explained to participants. Afterwards participants and judges alike were taken to a private roof-top patio in the heart of New York City’s Time square district   for a patio party unlike any other.  Not only was it a chance to get to know other Sleepless participants and judges, but it was also an opportunity to sample some of New York’s legendary BBQ food, from one of the city’s most prominent establishments.

Saturday September 8th
Saturday would be the day where “Sleepless in NY” would truly earn its name.  From 9 AM – 9 PM, participants were treated to a full day of presentations and labs, both from Infusion trainers as well as the judges. Topics ranged from a WPF overview to an introduction to the Community Kit for SharePoint as well as Microsoft Silverlight. After the training, it was now time for the main event – “The overnight assignment” This assignment would feature a culmination of all of the content taught up to this point and would test the ability of each participant to implement it.

But before the assignment was to be given out, there was another surprise in-store: a guided tour of Central Park, by none other than Infusion’s CEO Greg Brill.  Greg took all 12 developers through Central Park, buying them ice cream and pointing out some of the features that have made the park legendary.
Upon returning, participants were given their assignment.  They had from 9:00 PM, Saturday evening until 10:00 am, Sunday to create a Community Kit for SharePoint.  How long they spent on it was up to them, but they had to be back at Microsoft and ready to present by no later than 10:00, Sunday morning.

Sunday September 9th
For many teams, calling the day “’Sunday” was just a formality. For many it was just an extension of Saturday, as they had been up all night completing the overnight assignment. Each team had put a great deal of thought into each assignment and developed some great ideas wrapping around several themes including sports as well as events. In the end, the team aptly named “Sleepless,” emerged victorious, winning a prize package that included a Zune, Windows Vista and Office 2007. “Team Sleepless” developed an event notification solution that can be leveraged by a broad community of stakeholders to promote anything from developer events to charity functions.

The time was 1:00 PM and only two elements remained: “the mystery game-show” and the awarding of the grand prize trip to Redmond.  After a grueling one hour game-show featuring rapid fire, elimination style multiple choice questions, Leon Gersing from Dayton, Ohio emerged the winner and recipient of “Insomniac,” the ultimate developer’s laptop that doesn’t sleep.

Finally it was grand-prize time. The judges voted unanimously: Ed Myers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania became the winner of “Sleepless in NY” and the recipient of the grand prize trip to Redmond as well as Seattle for the 2008 SharePoint Conference.

Post Sleepless
The response has been fantastic.  Infusion Development has received numerous letters from Sleepless participants thanking both Microsoft and Infusion Development for the opportunity. Participants have also pledged to keep in touch with each other and continue developing the work they did together at Sleepless in NY.

Selected Quotes
“I would have to say that the gang and Infusion and everyone else that took part did a bang up job of taking care of our every need and definitely over delivered on the weekend. It would be at the very minimum to say that they did an outstanding job. I truly don't think there are any words to describe what a terrific job they did.”
Excerpt taken from the blog of Michael Van Cleave, "Sleepless in NY" participant and XBOX winner 
http://geekswithblogs.net/RogueCoder/archive/2007/09/12/115315.aspx

The trip was awesome. Greg Brill and Infusion were great hosts, from picking us up to the airport, to feeding us, to keeping the training interesting and fun.  The first night, they even treated us to catered BBQ on a rooftop 17 stories above Times Square. Yes, that was as cool as it sounds.
They werent kidding when they called it "SleeplessinNY," though. They started us off with a Sharepoint/MOSS overview Friday night (before the food), getting us all to bed around 1 AM for our 7 AM wake-up call.  The following day focused on a wide range of topics, including Sharepoint specifics (like the Business Data Connector and Excel Services), WPF, and Silverlight.  Then, Saturday night, they gave us the assignment:  By 10 the next morning, in groups of 3, we were to develop something intended for contribution to the open-source Community Kit for Sharepoint. 
Excerpt taken from the blog of Cam Soper, “Sleepless in NY” participant
http://www.camthegeek.com/blog/HomeFromSleeplessInNY.aspx