The presentations from last Wednesday’s meeting are now up on Slideshare, and embedded below.

Matt Moore’s presentation on Making Technology Sexy

Kathy Hughes’ presentation on SharePoint 2010 for Business

Technology News session by Nick Rayner

As well as the Agenda for the night with links and 4 Companies 2 Rule the World slide.

For SBTUG and SWUG attendees, we are very fortunate to have a full conference ticket to the Australian SharePoint Conference as a prize giveaway – valued at $650. The conference is on in Sydney from June 16 to 17.

To go in the draw, simply write a blog post about why you’d like to attend the conference (eg mention a SharePoint 2010 feature you are interested in) and let me know. Make sure you link to the Australian SharePoint Conference in your post.

Between us Nick Rayner and I have two tickets to give away. We’ll go through the entries and choose the winners in mid-May.

If you win, you’ll be able to add a nice little badge like this to your blog!

Here’s the details of our meeting tomorrow Wednesday 27 January:

Microsoft Commerce Server 2009

Presented by Lewis Benge and Ducas Francis

Microsoft Commerce Server 2009/2009 R2 is a comprehensive e-commerce solution for B2C (business-to-consumer), B2B (business-to-business) and B2X scenarios (combining B2C and B2B). It provides a reduce time to market by providing the key tools and components required to get a solution off the ground – whilst remaining extensible enough to integrate into third party systems, such as CRM, ERP, and other LOB systems.

This session will cover an introduction to the server platform – explaining its 5 core areas, and a high level overview of its API for extensibility. The session will also feature some case studies, and application examples around the deployment of Commerce Server.

About Lewis Benge
Lewis is a technology consultant with Orchard Marketing, Sydney. He specialises in solution architecture with Microsoft technology. He’s a Microsoft Commerce Server MVP as well as a Microsoft Technology Specialist covering MOSS and has developed and deployed solutions in both an intranet and internet environment.

About Ducas Francis
Ducas is a Senior Consultant with Readify. Over the past couple years he has been involved in building the internet retail solution for the largest e-commerce retailer in Australia using Microsoft technologies such as Commerce Server.

The New Efficiency

Presented by James McCutcheon

What is ‘The New Efficiency’? It is about how IT can help you to ‘with less do more.’ The focus of this launch is to outline products that offer more effective solutions for lowering costs and helping your business including Windows 7®, Windows Server® 2008 R2, Microsoft Exchange Server® 2010, Forefront Security as well as System Center.

About James McCutcheon

James is the founder and CEO of Foundry 38, a technology consulting and development business, specialising in helping startups turn into businesses.

10 Things In 10 Minutes (TTiTM)
Plus, we’re going to launch a new segment this year.

Each meeting we’re going to have a 10 Things In 10 Minutes (TTiTM) session where we give 10 lightning fast tips on a certain topic – in under 10 minutes. We’ll even have a timer and gong people who go over! This month I’m going to kick it off by giving you 10 quick tips on search engine optimisation.

Agenda

Here’s the agenda for the night:

5:45 – Doors open
6:00 – Welcome & Intro (Craig Bailey)
6:10 – News (Nick Rayner)
6:30 – Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 (Lewis Benge + Ducas Francis)
7:20 – Pizza break
7:40 – 10 Things In 10 Minutes – SEO (Craig Bailey)
7:50 – The New Efficiency (James McCutcheon)
8:20 – Networking, Chat
8:45 – Finish

It starts at 6pm (doors open from 5:45pm) tomorrow – Wednesday 27 January, at Microsoft, North Ryde (map).

Please RSVP here to let us know you are coming.

Q: What do all these things have in common?

A: They are all going to be present in abundance at next Wednesday’s Sydney Business & Technology User Group (SBTUG) meeting.

Make sure you join us for our final SBTUG meeting this year. Which also happens to be our SBTUG Christmas party! It’s going to be a really enjoyable, and informative, night.

Please RSVP here on Facebook as soon as possible because if we get more than 50 confirmed guests on Facebook I’m going to organize a special bonus for the night. Alternatively you can email me to let me know you are coming.

When: Wednesday 25 November 2009
Where: Microsoft, North Ryde (map)
Time: Starts at 6pm
Why: Because you need to understand how to use Social Networking in your business
RSVP: Please RSVP here

Laurel Papworth – Business Benefits of Social Networking

First up, Laurel Papworth (@silkcharm) will be giving us a comprehensive overview of all the changes in Social Networking over the last year or so with a particular emphasis on how you should be using (or perhaps adapting) your use of social networking and social media in your business.

Laurel is a recognised industry expert with more than a decade of experience, both in analysis and consulting. She’s travelled and consulted globally to numerous businesses and enterprises, and is a regular speaker at industry conferences. You can read her full bio here.

Pizza, Chocolate, Beer

After Laurel’s session the food and drink starts flowing. Pizza of course, plus beer, and then the chocolate. There’s even a rumour about mojitos being served. 

You’ll not only be well fed but you’ll also get to network with other attendees, including Laurel and other well known Social Media ‘celebrities’.

SassySEO.com Love

Each month I ask for a nominal $5 donation to help me cover expenses (you know the pizza and drink, etc). This meeting, with the beer, chocolate and extras I’m looking at taking a bit of a hit in the wallet.

But thanks to the generosity of Rob and Kristin Rohan and SassySEO.com they’ve kindly offered to co-sponsor the night.

Which means you still get all the beer, pizza and chocolate for only a $5 donation.

If you’d like to be another co-sponsor and help me out, please shoot me an email. In return you’ll get a few minutes at the start to introduce yourself and your company, plus we’ll link to you on the site and in newsletter email-outs.

RSVP now please

Please RSVP here on Facebook as soon as possible, so that I can plan the food and drink. Plus know whether to organise the special bonus if we hit more than 50 confirmed guests!

You may want to tweet this post (or better still the Facebook event page) to help us. Thanks in advance!

Just a quick note to remind you about our SharePoint 2010 Extravaganza tomorrow night at the Sydney Business & Technology User Group.

Here’s the Facebook Event you can RSVP to.

Details

When: 6pm Wed 28 October 2009
Where: Microsoft, North Ryde (map)

Agenda

6:00 – News & Intro (Craig Bailey)
6:15 – Introduction to SharePoint 2010 (Kathy Hughes + Aaron Saikovski)
7:15 – Pizza break + networking
7:30 – Overview of Office 2010 SharePoint Integration (Alistair Speirs)
7:45 – SharePoint Workspace (previously known as Groove) (Alistair Speirs)
8:00 – Diving into SharePoint 2010 (Kathy Hughes + Aaron Saikovski)
8:30 – Visio Integration Services + SharePoint 2010 (Jamie Hutchins)
8:45 – Final demos + Panel Session Q+A
9:15 – Finish + networking

Because this is a big SharePoint night, there’s also going to be a stack of Sydney’s finest SharePoint consultants and developers coming along. So, it’s a good chance to make useful contacts if you are looking to investigate SharePoint strategies.

Although the night officially commences at 6pm, most of us will be there from 5:30pm for general chatting and mingling. Feel free to come along early (and get a good seat!).