I was going to start by sticking in a picture of the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre but I'm not sure if I really want to inflict that on you - I'll see how my mood develops later in the day. All I can say is at least when you're in it you don't have to look at it.

Anyway enough aesthetics laced with architectural snobbery you're here for the SharePoint bits right?

Joel Oleson gave the keynote complete with Monty Python clips (for reference The Holy Grail bunny sequence, SharePoint being the bunny) and tourist bating union-jack themed head gear. To summarise Joel gave 10 Steps to a Successful SharePoint Deployment:

1. Overcome denial - it's not easy, it's not just a case of installing the product; start simple with quick gains.
2. Create a Plan - if you don't know where you're going then you won't know when you've arrived.
3. Get an executive level sponsor with a clear vision - you may not implement their full vision but again it's good to know  where the road might lead.
4. Build the Dream Project Team
1. Designer
2. Business Analyst
3. Site Collection Admin
4. Content Admin
5. SharePoint Admin
6. SharePoint Dev
5. Build services not stuff - this will generally be a balance between  Commodity (out of the box) and Application hosting. How much of each will ultimately depend on the balance of time and resources
6. Define clear policies and standards - let's call this governance but there's a balance to be found between IT Control and User Empowerment
7. Invest in a Scalable Information Architecture
8. Don't forget or ignore Change Management
9. Adoption is what counts
10. The 'KISS' principle - nope nothing to do with aging glam rockers - Keep It Simple Stupid!

For me the first three points felt most relevant. There is still a major misconception out there that SharePoint as an application akin to Word or Excel, "Lets stick the disk in let the users loose on it and see what happens."

Then you do the numbers and inform them of how much doing a SharePoint project with proper planning and governance will cost.

And the look you get?

Well it's like the conference centre, not pretty...

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