So what does 2015 hold for me?

Well it’s that time of year, where we all take stock of where we are at and what we would like to do or be. No different for me and my family. I like to review my year and set goals that I can actually achieve not the ones that I would like to achieve but are so far away from me being able too.

2014 was a great year, work was great, lots of interesting projects and clients. Community stuff went great too, travelled quite a bit, even made it out to the European SharePoint Conference in Barcelona, as well as lots of other conferences throughout the year. I didn’t really do lots of SharePoint Saturdays, nothing personal but felt like I already spent enough time travelling, and then to give up weekends with the family was getting too much. I also got promoted to an Associate Director at Protiviti where I work!!

In my personal life I spent a lot more time focused on Security, Hacking and of course Linux, as well as trying to study so I can pass the Ham Radio test this coming year.

As a family we had a great vacation to Disney World, my wife had been before but the rest of us had not. It was an amazing time, we all loved it and can’t wait to visit again. I finally got round to registering as a Scout Merit Badge Councilor, even taught my son Joel the Programming Merit Badge (which he is now has), and with a few others put on a weeklong Scout Camp this past summer as well as the Youth Conference that I am part of each year. I got to take my wife with me traveling without any of the kids for the first time in about 10+ years, we went to Seattle and Vancouver Canada, where we ate Fish and Chips for the first time in a long long time J

This past year has been a good one, achieved lots of things, and really just tried to enjoy it more with family and of course the rest of the SharePoint Community.

So what is 2015 going to be like?

Firstly it will be a busy start to the year for us, my wife has Shoulder surgery coming up next week, so I will be working at home while she recovers. It could be quite a while too, so I have had to cancel out of speaking at some events already. Hopefully she will be well so I can still attend SPTechCon Austin in February, but maybe not we shall see. Outside of that it is all about spending more time with family, my kids are getting older, interested in lots of difference things and before I know it my daughter will be driving and out of the house even more. So I will be speaking at events, so far I am planning on attending or speaking at the following through the first half of the year.

Reston SharePoint User group Meeting, Reston, Virginia, January 5^th
SPTechCon, Austin, Texas, February 9^th – 11^th
SharePoint Fest, Washington DC, April 8^th – 10^th
SharePoint Evolutions, London, UK, April 20^th – 22^nd
Microsoft Ignite, Chicago, Illinois, May 4^th – 8^th
Secure 360, Minneapolis, May 13^th – 14^th
European SharePoint Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, November 9^th – 12th

I won’t be speaking or attending at everything this year, I will be more selective so I can spend more time at home. It has been many years of traveling, before moving to the US, I was on the road all the time, literally leaving on a Sunday evening, driving to a Hotel and coming back on a Friday after work, then repeat the same for almost 5 years. So it is now time to focus a bit more back at home, I will still be at conferences and events, but a little less than before. I will still be blogging and tweeting etc. as always and of course still squarely sitting in the SharePoint (well Office 365) corner. However I really love the security space and will be working a lot more to merge what I know well and how it wraps into that.

I will be spending my own time trying to finish the studying needed so I can pass the Technician Exam for Ham Radio, and of course playing with Raspberry PI’s and all of its associated programming and hacking.

All in all this coming year will be one of spending more time with family, still doing stuff in the community, working in my new role and just enjoying what I do.

I am grateful for all of you who read my blog, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ etc. as well as come see me present at conferences and user group meetings. I really enjoy spending the time to chat with you all and hopefully help you out where I can. I look forward to seeing you all at some even in 2015.

I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that 2015 is the best year ever for you all.