Since I last wrote about this fall's inaugural SharePoint Best Practices conference, there's been a great deal of activity on that score, so it feels like it's time for an update.

First, we're excited that the last few days have seen our first two guest bloggers over in the Bamboo Team Blog.  Conference speakers, SharePoint server MVPs, and authors of SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices (from Microsoft Press), Ben Curry and Bill English have each written a guest blog entry for us.  Head on over to the Team Blog to read Ben's overview of the mission of the Best Practices conference, and Bill's post on the importance of strong information architecture in a SharePoint environment.

Bamboo is proud to announce that our own Wes Bryan and Jonas Nilsson have been added to the list of confirmed event speakers.  A list which, by the way, has grown considerably since I last mentioned it.  As well, Bamboo has joined the conference as a Gold-level partner, throwing our full support behind the notion of a best practices summit.

All of which makes me extra-salty that I won't be able to attend the conference myself (due to long-standing vacation plans).  There is, however, some very exciting news which is going a long way towards taking the sting out of my not being able to attend the conference.  News which will have direct bearing on the content and tone of SharePoint Blank beginning four weeks from today:  I will be attending Mindsharp's three-day, hands-on SharePoint Power End User training course here in Washington, D.C.!

You better believe that I'll be blogging all about that glorious learning experience in this space.