There is so much cool stuff being announced at this conference.

From Microsoft there are the following SharePoint related announcements:

OBA Composition Reference Toolkit http://www.wssdemo.com/redir.aspx?id=1552

The OBA Composition Reference Toolkit brings to surface the underlying composition capabilities of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. It integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft Office 2007 System to enable a prescriptive application composition experience for Information Workers to build and deploy Office Business Applications (OBAs) using semantically related OBA Components like Workflows, SharePoint document libraries and lists, SharePoint Pages, Web Parts, VSTO Office Client Add-ins, BI Reports, BI Dashboards etc. The toolkit comprises an OBA Composition Server and an OBA Composer.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions, Version 1.1 RTM
http://www.wssdemo.com/redir.aspx?id=1200

WSeWSS - Tools for developing custom SharePoint applications: Visual Studio project templates for Web Parts, site definitions, and list definitions; and a stand-alone utility program, the SharePoint Solution Generator. Please also download the User Guide and Samples listed in Related Resources.

From Partners:

Open Text's Case Management Development Framework for MOSS

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/open-texts-case-management-development-framework-for-moss-002301.php

"Using the Case Management Framework, SharePoint Server 2007 developers can focus on the business domain rather than having to build the underlying plumbing," said Jens Rabe, Vice President, Microsoft Applications and Solutions Business at Open Text. "This saves about 70 percent of the development time on a normal case management project, ensures consistent use of best practices, and increases the probability of success and rapid return on investment."

The new Open Text Case Management Framework, SharePoint Edition, will be offered directly to customers by Open Text and to the global network of Microsoft partners developing solutions based on Office SharePoint Server 2007. Developed by Open Text, the framework is intended to help application developers quickly and consistently create enterprise-class case management solutions that take full advantage of the SharePoint Server 2007 platform.

So SharePoint is as much a platform as it is an application. More on this later... but if you can't wait, at least check out https://www.obacentral.com/default.aspx

On Software + Services, FedEx announces "Shipping Inside Microsoft Office Outlook"

http://www.fedex.com/ODC2008/

With the FedEx add-in installed, Office Outlook users will be able to generate labels, track packages, check rates, schedule pickups and find FedEx drop-off locations while still inside their Office Outlook 2003 or Office Outlook 2007 e-mail application. To initiate the shipping experience, users simply right-click on an existing contact (could come from a SharePoint shared Contact list?) and choose "ship" from the menu. Shipments are then stored in a task view allowing users to conveniently recall and sort previous shipments.

On the next version of SharePoint (14), Bill Gates promises: SharePoint Server "will be able to render a greater set of Office documents in an HTML environment." http://www.computerworld.com.my/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=7603&pubid=4&issueid=130

I hope they have kept some surprises for the SharePoint Conference in a few weeks (which I will be attending:-)