2015 Year in Review

2015, what a year. What a great year. So much happened this year that I feel I must document it so that in my senile years I’ll be able to look back and say “Woah! That good looking guy had a great year”. This year had more professional highlights than probably any previous year… Looking back on it, it will be hard to top, but I’m willing to give it a shot!

So, since you obviously have nothing better to do, journey back with me to 2015 and let’s take a closer look at some of those highlights.

New Job at PAIT Group

There were lots of big changes for me last year, probably the biggest change however was joining PAIT Group in Cincinnati, OH as a Partner and CTO. PAIT Group specializes in all things SharePoint and Office 365. Basically, if you have SharePoint, want SharePoint, hate SharePoint, love SharePoint, or need any help getting onto Office 365 and making the most of it, we can help.

I’ve known PAIT Group’s founder and CEO Stephanie Donahue for several years now and we’d previously done some small projects together without wanting to kill each other. When the opportunity arose to join PAIT Group full time and help grow the business it just seemed like the natural thing to do.

I’m really honored and impressed to work with some such a great group of folks. The culture at PAIT Group mirrors my own goals and highly values customer relations above the billable dollar. We are more interested in providing the right solution and getting the NEXT project with a client rather than just milking a customer and moving on.

Thanks to Stephanie for taking a chance on me, all our awesome employees for doing such a great job, and our clients for trusting in us and investing in a long term relationship. 2016 looks to be a banner year for PAIT Group! Oh… and we ARE hiring… hint.. hint… J

Awarded Office 365 MVP

How can you possibly hope to top landing a job as a partner at a company with people you trust and push you to grow every day??? How about being awarded Microsoft MVP? One of my proudest achievements happened in 2015 when I was awarded Microsoft MVP for Office 365.

For those of you who are not aware of what a Microsoft MVP is, it’s basically a recognition from Microsoft for all of your contributions. In some ways it’s a validation from Microsoft that you aren’t a complete screw up. In other ways it’s recognition from your peers that you aren’t a total screw up Smile . Being an MVP allows me to have access to Microsoft resources, insights, and information not generally available. It means my voice has a chance of being heard within Microsoft, and personally it means I get to be a peer to many MVP’s I’ve looked up to for years.

So, thank you Sonya, Jeremy, CJ, Jason, Dan, Kris, Rob, Eric, AC, and my countless friends who helped to make this happen. I hope to do the award proud and if I’m lucky I’ll be renewed this coming July.

SharePointalooza

SharePoint and Branson, MO… think it can’t happen? Think again. I organized my third SharePoint conference in Branson, Missouri in 2015. This event is dear to me and always one of the highlights of the year. I have so many amazing SharePoint friends who take the time out of their busy lives to come hang out with me in the middle of nowhere and talk about SharePoint. We hang out, teach people stuff, and I even bring in some bands to play music for us on Branson Landing’s outdoor stage. Thanks for coming North of Eight and David Palmer! A great time was had by all.

2015, however, was likely my last SharePointalooza. It breaks my heart to think about it, but as SharePoint and Office 365 evolve, and sponsors merge, and the number of conferences grow, it just becomes unrealistic for me to take time away from my family to pull this together. We ended on a high note in 2015 with hundreds of attendees, amazing sponsors, and a lot of fun. Thank you so much to everyone who made it to Branson to spend time with us. Special thanks to my brother from another mother Jason Himmelstein for (as always) going above and beyond.

Released StratusForms

It’s not a secret that I am NOT a fan of InfoPath. You know what’s dying? InfoPath… You know what I did about it? I created a tool that replicates a lot of InfoPath’s functionality… and called it…. StratusForms. StratusForms is not just another tool for creating forms for SharePoint Lists and Libraries, it allows you to create forms using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS where fields on the form don’t have to have a corresponding field in your SharePoint list. With StratusForms you can create highly stylized forms, call web services to get data from your business systems, and utilize awesome functionality like repeating content, encrypted fields, and automatic parent/child relationships.

In addition, my awesome friends over at IT Unity are hosting a channel where you can go to download the source code, examples, and join a discussion about the product.

Did I mention it’s free for non-commercial use? Check it out now and keep an eye out for our application in the SharePoint Store that brings most of the functionality to non-technical users. Also, be sure to like our page on Facebook to stay up to date with announcements and enhancements.

A final note

As time marches on and my circle of friends grows, we will undoubtedly have some sad news too. In 2014 we lost one of the nicest, gentlest, most encouraging men I’ve ever known to cancer Dave Coleman… in 2015 we lost an equally as generous soul Enrique Lima… I feel these losses and I want to do what small part I can to keep the memories of these amazing gentlemen alive. If you don’t know them or have not had the chance to be blessed by them, please take a moment to learn more about them.

Also, in 2015 a wonderful friend and equally generous soul was diagnosed with cancer and is currently valiantly fighting. Linda Czech has been a friend since I met her at the Best Practices conference in Sand Diego in 2010 and her fiancé Brian Alderman is an amazing soul in his own right. I’m more than honored to call these two people dear friends and I ask that you take a few moments in your 2016 to pray for Brian and Linda and their battle. She’s stubborn enough to beat it! I love you guys and you are continually in my thoughts and prayers.

To Summarize my ramblings…

So many incredible things happened this year and I really do want to thank all those people who helped make it happen. I’d list you all, but I know I’d miss someone. So, here’s a global thank you.. to all my family, friends, supporters, and all those who influenced me to do more and be better… even if they didn’t know it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart…

Now, let’s see what plans 2016 has for us!

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MarkRackley.net

M365 Architect, Speaker, Podcaster, Developer, Blogger, Bacon Aficionado