For those of you in the southern Connecticut area, just a reminder that tomorrow (November 10th) is the first Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp.  There is a great lineup of speakers and sessions.

I was just at the UConn Stamford facility this week (speaking with the Fairfield/Westchester .NET UG) and can say it's a great place for a code camp.  Breakout rooms, convenient parking, and of course a Starbucks nearby.

Registration is still open, so consider dropping by for some good content, sharing, and networking.

-Chris

We've taken the wraps off some big announcements related to Visual Studio 2008.  As Soma mentions on his blog, he made the announcements at TechEd Developer Europe today.

The highlights:

• Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 are expected to ship before the end of November
• With Visual Studio 2008, license restrictions are being changed to permit partners to target other platforms with Visual Studio.
• Premier VSIP (Visual Studio Industry Partner) customers will have access to Visual Studio source code
• More details on Popfly Explorer - an add-in for Visual Studio to make it easier to work with Popfly
• Microsoft Sync Framework CTP
  • Document - "Introduction to the Microsoft Sync Framework"
  • Bits - Microsoft Sync Framework CTP1

And more.  Read Soma's post for the full details.

Mary Jo Foley has some coverage as well and there a press release accompanying the announcements.

-Chris

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Technorati tags: Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio, Popfly, .NET 3.5

Just announced on the TechEd 2008 site, TechEd will be run as two back-to-back conferences, the first focused on developers and the second on IT professionals:

• TechEd U.S. 2008 Developers - June 3-6, Orlando, FL
• TechEd U.S. 2008 IT Professionals - June 10-13, Orlando, FL

Both weeks are in the same location as last year's TechEd (Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.) 

Some other details from the FAQ:

• Expected attendance:
  • TechEd Developers - 5,000
  • TechEd IT Professionals - 10,500
• Event cost:
  • "The attendee fees for either event will be comparable to the 2007 ones; more details will be communicated when registration goes live in January 2008."
• For people who are both developers and IT professionals:
  • "Attendees will have access to all content regardless of the event they attend. "
  • "Microsoft will offer special pricing packages for those that wish to attend both events."

-Chris

P.S.  Thanks to my Florida-based colleague, Joe Healy, for the heads-up!

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Technorati tags: TechEd, Microsoft, Events

The "Evangelist" title has come into more common use within the technology industry and many larger companies now have some forms of evangelism roles.  Want to get an idea of what's involved with the role of Developer Evangelist (DE) at Microsoft?  Watch this Channel 9 video with DEs Lynn Langit and Asli Bilgin for some insights.

As Lynn and Asli mention, the role varies by geography, industry focus, and even personal passion and experience, but many of the driving principles are the same (as are the characteristics of what it takes to be a successful DE.)

-Chris

Tim Sneath posted about a great new addition to the already strong lineup of training available at MIX University.

Now you can access a full three-day WPF training course (over 20 hours) for the low cost of free.  From Tim:

"You'll hear a keynote from Ian Ellison-Taylor, the general manager responsible for WPF, Silverlight and client platform tools; introductory sessions on core WPF topics from external luminaries like Ian Griffiths; depth training by talented and knowledgeable speakers from the product group such as Beatriz Costa and Kevin Moore; and lastly, five sessions on real-world experiences from early adopters who built applications ranging from The North Face kiosk application to the new Yahoo Messenger client."

MIX University now has free videos, demos, quickstarts, and labs for the following technologies:

• Silverlight
• WPF
• ASP.NET AJAX
• Sidebar & Live Gadgets
• Expression
• Internet Explorer Extensions
• Media Center
• RSS
• Virtual Earth
• Windows CardSpace

Definitely worth a click to take a look.

-Chris

Michael de la Maza has run three very successful (and free!) C# Day events in Waltham since the summer.  I'm glad to say he's ready to run another one on November 13th from 8:30 - 4:00 at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.

C# Day is a great way to take those first few steps with C# programming - no prior experience required.  The day is structured much differently than traditional training events, so please take the time to read about the event at Learn2Learn2Program.com and watch the video to get an idea of what the day is like.

Attendance is free, but RSVPs are required (and have "sold out" for prior C# Days.) 

I hope you have a great time!

-Chris

If you previously downloaded the Beta 2 VPC for Visual Studio 2008, the OS used for that instance has an expiration of November 1, 2007.  (Note that this only affects the VPCs, not the setup packages, so if you installed VS2008 on your own OS partition, you're fine.)

Jeff Beehler has a detailed post on the timeout and various workarounds.

However, assuming you move any of your custom data off the VPC instance, it might be easiest to just download the reissued Beta 2 VPCs as described by Jeff in another post.

• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite VPC
• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite & Team Foundation Server VPC
• Don't forget you also need the base image (as the above are differencing disks.)

As always, the install packages and VPC images are available from the Visual Studio 2008 Downloads page.

-Chris

If you're been looking into the Acropolis project for building composite applications, take a look at this post by the Acropolis team.

The short of it is that the project in its current form (as CTP's) will no longer be versioned (but will remain available.)  However, the goals, concepts, and lessons learned from Acropolis are being transitioned to the Patterns & Practices team for long-term direction and development of guidance:

"We are very excited to announce that we are going to be working closely with the Microsoft Patterns & Practices team to provide guidance (samples, applications blocks, patterns and so on) for building composite client applications for .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008."

The post includes a summary of guidance for customers who have been considering how to implement composite applications:

"If you have evaluated Acropolis and are unsure whether to adopt it for your project, or to use the existing CAB, or to wait for the new guidance, our guidance for this situation remains the same - if you are building a Windows Forms LOB composite client (with maybe rich islands of WPF content) you should carefully evaluate the current CAB release. If you are specifically interesting in building composite applications on .NET 3.5, please get involved with the Patterns & Practices project and help us to deliver a guidance package that meets your requirements."

In a related announcement, Glenn Block of the P&P team has announced plans around the WPF Composite Client.  It will be a new set of libraries and guidance, not a new version of the existing CAB, to be delivered in several smaller releases so customer feedback can be incorporated into subsequent iterations.

-Chris

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Technorati tags: Patterns and Practices, Acropolis, CAB, WPF

Plenty of events and meetings for .NET developers are coming up soon in the northeast.  User groups are back in full swing, southern Connecticut will have its first Code Camp, Russ Fustino's Toolshed is sweeping across the area, and much more.

Know of other events or user group meetings?  Please let me know!

Connecticut

October 23, 1-5 PM
MSDN Event - Hartford, CT
VS2008, Silverlight, AJAX, Astoria

October 23, 7-9 PM
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT
Russ' Toolshed:  "It's all about the Tools" - Russ Fustino

November 6, 6-9 PM
Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group - UConn, Stamford, CT
"Enterprise Library 3.0, Software Factories, Guidance Automation Toolkit" - Chris Bowen

November 10, 8:30 AM -6 PM
Fairfield/Westchester .NET Code Camp- UConn, Stamford, CT
Join fellow .NET developers for the area's first Code Camp!

November 13, 6-8 PM
South CT .NET SIG - Shelton, CT
"Silverlight" - Osie Brown, Microsoft

November 14
Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server UG - UConn, Stamford, CT
"SSIS and MDM" - Kirk Haselden

November 27, 7-9 PM
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT
Topic TBD

Massachusetts

October 22, 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Plymouth, MA
Russ' Toolshed: "It's All About the Tools" - Russ Fustino

October 23, 6:00 - 7:30 PM
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA
"Backup and Disaster Recovery Strategies and Evaluation Standards" - Chris Foreman

October 24, 6:30 - 8 PM
Boston User Groups Special Event - Waltham, MA
Russ' Toolshed:  "It's All About the Tools" - Russ Fustino
[Presented by Boston User Groups]

October 25, 6 - 8 PM
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA
"Principles and Patterns of Software Development" - Steve Seymour

October 25, 1-5 PM
MSDN Event - Boston, MA
VS2008, Silverlight, AJAX, Astoria

November 1, 6-8 PM
Beantown .NET User Group - Boston, MA
"Software-Oriented Architecture" - Michael Stiefel

November 1, 6:15 - 8:30 PM
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"WPF Means Business" - Michael Hennessy

November 6, 6-8 PM
Western Mass .NET Users Group - Easthampton, MA
Topic TBD

November 11, 6:30 PM
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"User-Defined Functions in SQL Server 2005 and Beyond" - Andrew Novick

November 14, 6 - 8:30 PM
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Mobile Devices Web Design and Development with ASP.NET 2.0 and Beyond" - Don Sorcinelli

November 15, 1-5 PM
MSDN Event - Taunton, MA
VS2008, Silverlight, AJAX, Astoria

November 15, 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Team System Public User Group - Waltham, MA
Topic TBD

November 15, 6:30
National Information Security Group, New England Chapter - Waltham, MA
"Convergence of Physical and Logical Access" - Tony DeStefano

November 21, 1 - 8:30 PM
Boston Access Day - Waltham, MA
Featuring a variety of sessions throughout the day.

November 21, 6 - 8 PM
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA
Topic TBA

Maine

October 26, 5:30 PM
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME
Russ' Toolshed: "It's All About the Tools", Russ Fustino

November 15, 6 - 8:30 PM
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME
Topic TBA

November 29, 3:30 - 6 PM
Maine Developer Network - Waterville, ME
"A Look at Microsoft Acropolis" - Shawn Robichaud
"Challenges in .NET Architecture and Team Development" - Mark Blomsma

New Hampshire

November 7, 7:00 PM
New Hampshire SQL Users Group - Nashua, NH
Topic TBA

November 16, 11 AM - 12:30 PM
Daniel Webster College - Collings Auditorium, Nashua, NH
Russ' Toolshed: "It's All About the Tools", Russ Fustino
[Site contact - Genevieve Baudin]

New York (Upstate)

October 24, 6:00 - 8:30 PM
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY
"Data Access Layers through Code Generation" - Greg Smalter

November 1, 5:30 (Food) / 6:00 (Presentation)
NJ & Upstate NY Microsoft Developer Group - Rochester, NY (Broadcast from NJ)
LINQ (Details TBA)

November 7, 6:00 PM
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
Topic TBA - Mike Amundsen

November 14, 6:30 PM
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY
Topic TBA

November 28, 6:00 - 8:30 PM
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY
Topic TBA

November 29, 1-5 PM
MSDN Event - Albany, NY
VS2008, Silverlight, AJAX, Astoria

Rhode Island

November 14, 6:00 - 9:00 PM
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI
"Using CLR Assemblies with SQL Server Stored Procedures" - Steve Simon

November 15, 7:30 - 9 PM
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI
Russ' Toolshed: "It's All About the Tools" - Russ Fustino
(RSVP to Al Cutting - ACutting |@at| RIDotNet |dot| com)

Vermont

November 12, 6:00 - 8:30
Vermont .NET User Group - Burlington, VT
Russ' Toolshed: "It's All About the Tools" - Russ Fustino

November 13, 1-5 PM
MSDN Event - Burlington, VT
VS2008, Silverlight, AJAX, Astoria

[Update 10/22 - Updated Boston .NET Architecture meeting date and topic]
[Update 10/22 - Added Southern NE SQL meeting topic & speaker]
[Update 10/22 - Russ' events RI from 11/14 to 11/15 and NH from 11/15 to 11/16]
[Update 10/28 - Added NISG 11/15 meeting]
[Update 11/5 - Added Fairfield/Westchester SQL UG meeting]

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[From the "Better Late than Never Department"]

It's been a very busy couple of weeks after Code Camp, with ReMIX and working on the home stretch of "Essential WCF", but I didn't want to forget to post a summary for our fantastic New England Code Camp 8!

The weekend before last saw over 40 sessions by 25 presenters, all volunteering their weekend time to an engaged audience of people who also volunteered their weekend time to attend!

Judging by the surveys we received, this was one of our best Camps yet, with both the session ratings and overall event rating extremely high.   

Blogs

I wanted to point out Samantha Milowsky's great summary of the event!  Thanks for taking capturing the event in words and photos!

Thanks also to Dave Burke for his kind words in his Code Camp wrap-up. 

Session Materials

We'll be hounding the speakers to get links to their presentations up on TheDevCommunity site.  Some speakers already have their content available through their blogs:

• Fritz Onion
• Robert Hurlbut
• Andy Beaulieu
• Chris Bowen

Log in to http://theDevCommunity.org/CodeCamps for links to the materials for each session (you need to be logged in to see the presentations.)

Thanks to Our Speakers

Please join me in thanking our speakers for volunteering their time and effort!  Without you, Code Camp would be... well, a lot of people just sitting around eating pizza.  :)

• Andy Beaulieu
• Chris Bowen
• Dave Burke
• Allan da Costa Pinto
• Michael Cummings
• Ben Day
• David Edson
• Bob Familiar
• Bruce Ganek
• Robert Hurlbut
• Julie Lerman
• Jesse Liberty
• Anthony Lombardo
• Adam Machanic
• Todd Mancini
• Michael de la Maza
• Mark Mullin
• Tim Ng
• Andy Novick
• Fritz Onion
• Chris Pels
• Richard Hale Shaw
• Steve Simon
• Paul Swider
• Max Weber

Contributors

A special thank you to our contributors for supporting this Code Camp!

• ASP.NET Pro Magazine
• Atalasoft
• Code Magazine
• Dundas
• Infragistics
• Magenic
• Microsoft
• Telerik
• Wiley/WROX

These companies contributed either funds for food or giveaways for attendees, with no expectations of the the usual sponsorship perks like logos in lights, banners on the walls, and expo hall receptions.  Please join us in thanking them for supporting the .NET community.

Code Camp v.Next!

If you thought this Code Camp was packed with information, keep in mind we have a the launch of a certain trio of products coming, so things are going to be very interesting for Code Camp 9 in the spring!

Last, but absolutely not least, THANK YOU to every attendee who exchanged precious weekend time to come out and share, learn, and drive the buzz that makes the New England .NET community one of the best in the world!

-Chris

My friend and Team System coauthor Noah Coad has just posted a great article about the issues and opportunities around supporting multiple monitors with the version of Visual Studio after 2008. 

Noah's on the VS team and is asking for your feedback, so this is a prime opportunity to help shape the functionality of Visual Studio:

• How should the windows be controlled?
• How should dragging and docking work?
• What is the default solution/project behavior when multiple monitors are present?
• Options for zooming/panning?
• Helpful keyboard bindings?
• Helpful mouse options (like right-click -> Send pane/window to monitor X?)
• More?

I've been getting a lot of questions about multiple monitor support when speaking about VS2008 recently, so I know there's a bunch of you who have definite interest and opinions on this. 

Head over there and let your voice be heard!

-Chris

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Technorati tags: Visual Studio

If you read my blog, you've seen that I've recently been trying the beta of Windows Live SkyDrive internet-based storage service for hosting my session materials.

Cool news - the 500MB free space has now doubled to 1GB.  They've also added some other nice features such as RSS updates to watch for file changes and easier ways to add your friends by email address for file/folder access.

There's a SkyDrive team blog if you're interested in keeping an eye on related news.

-Chris

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Technorati tags: Live, SkyDrive

I wanted to pass along late word that tonight's (10/10) Boston .NET User Group meeting will be packed with speakers. 

First they have the group's own Tony Pino (currently attending Harvard) to speak on interesting research he's doing on "The Social Web and Digital Natives".

After Tony, the group will be visited by four members of Microsoft' Common Language Runtime team:

Mike Downen is a Lead Program Manager on the Common Language Runtime team, focusing on the base class libraries, security, reflection, and add-ins. Before becoming management overhead, he was the Program Manager for security on the CLR. He has been on the CLR team for 4 years, and has been at Microsoft for over 9 years, starting as a developer in Office.

Jesse Kaplan is the PM on the CLR team for Add-Ins and Extensibility, runtime versioning, and hosting.

Melitta Andersen is a Program Manager on the Base Class Libraries team of the Common Language Runtime.  She currently works on the base types, globalization, localization, and numerics.  She’s been at Microsoft for two months, plus an internship with this same group last summer.

Andrew Dai is a new Program Manager for Security on the Common Language Runtime group. He is currently involved with the CLR security model and APIs as well as internal security assurance. Andrew has been with Microsoft for a little over two months and is a college hire.

They're all visiting from Redmond for the ReMIX '07 Boston event, so this is a good chance to see what's new with the CLR.

The meeting is at 6:00 at the Microsoft offices at 201 Jones Road, Waltham, MA.

-Chris

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Technorati tags: User Groups, Massachusetts, .NET, Events

I'll be in Boston tomorrow night (10/4), giving a talk about the Patterns & Practices group and Enterprise Library for the Beantown .NET User Group.  If you're in the Boston area and are interested in learning about how Enterprise Library can help with your development efforts, drop by for a listen!

The meeting runs from 6-8:00 PM.

More details and directions are at http://www.beantowndotnet.org

See you there!

-Chris

Big news again from Scott Guthrie.  We're announcing coming availability of the source code for the .NET Base Class Libraries!

From Scott's post:

"One of the things my team has been working to enable has been the ability for .NET developers to download and browse the source code of the .NET Framework libraries, and to easily enable debugging support in them.

Today I'm excited to announce that we'll be providing this with the .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 release later this year.

We'll begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows).  We'll then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ).  The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL)."

So, how is this different from what we as developers have been doing to date (firing up Reflector and having a look through the code)? 

First, this code has comments and original variable names to aid readability.  Second, sometimes there are IL constructs for which Reflector just can't determine what the original code was.  Finally, integration with the debugger means you can step from your application code directly into the .NET BCL code without having to stop, fire up Reflector, and hope to find the right code for your scenario.

Clearly this is going to be good news for developers and developer productivity. 

-Chris

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Great news for the northeast .NET community - We will soon have a new Code Camp option in southern Connecticut!  The Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group is organizing a Code Camp for November 10th at UConn in Stamford, CT.

Registration isn't open just yet, but sessions and speakers are actively being sought.

Been thinking about giving presenting a try?  Code Camps are an excellent way to "break into" the speaking habit.  The atmosphere of a Code Camp is supportive and relaxed - perfect for first-time speakers (and veterans, too!)

For more information, head to http://fwcodecamp.net and volunteer!

-Chris

Thanks to everyone who attended Code Camp 8 this weekend!  I received feedback from many people that the quality of the sessions at this camp was one of the best.

I'll post a more detailed summary later, but I wanted to give a link to the materials from my two sessions:

• Visual Studio 2005 Tips, Tricks, and Hidden Gems
• A Sightseeing Tour of Visual Studio 2008

Like we've done with the September Roadshow materials, I've used the Windows Live SkyDrive service to host my Code Camp materials.

Just head to this link to pull down the content:

http://cid-ec051608865165d5.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Code%20Camp%208/

-Chris

Thanks to everyone who came out for the various stops on our September Roadshow!  We had a blast as always touring through New England and upstate New York.

Roadshow Content

As promised, we've assembled the "visually stunning" slides, "world-class" code, and other resources from the sessions and have made them available for download. 

This time, we're putting the beta of Windows Live SkyDrive through its paces.  SkyDrive is a new Live service where you can post your own content (currently up to 500 MB) to private, shared, or public folders accessible over the web.

You can access the September Roadshow content at:

http://cid-7e4046472a1cd934.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Bob%20|0%20Chris%20Roadshow%20-%20Sep%202007

Roadshow Facebook Group

As we mentioned during the events, we're experimenting with Facebook to see how well it could be leveraged for professional community support.  So, we've create a "Bob & Chris MSDN Roadshow" group and welcome all northeast Roadshow attendees to join!

The group is growing well, with the idea that attendees can interact with other attendees across the northeast, have access to shared content and discussions, and post ideas for future Roadshows and other events in the region.

Have a look and feel free to throw a friend invitation to us as well!

The Next Roadshow...

We're looking toward the first two weeks of December to return to our road warrior ways.  Keep an eye on our blogs for details as we determine dates and locations.

-Chris

We're closing in on another great New England Code Camp this very weekend!  We have 27 presenters giving over 40 sessions on a wide variety of subjects!

Note that I recently posted a Code Camp update with details about the speakers, contributors, and a special Sunday LINQ workshop.

When?  Where?  How?

• Saturday, September 29th:
  • 8:30 -- Registration
  • 9:00 - 6:15 -- Sessions
  • 7:00 (ish) - Late -- Geek Event
• Sunday, September 30th:
  • 8:30 -- Registration
  • 9:00 - 4:30 -- Sessions

Microsoft Offices, 201 Jones Road, 6th Floor, Waltham, MA

It's not too late to Register!  http://TheDevCommunity.org/CodeCamps

The Schedule

Sessions and rooms for both days are below.  We'll have copies of the schedule available at Camp during registration.

You can also see the schedule at TheDevCommunity site.

Don't forget there's also the traditional Saturday evening social gathering over at the Waltham Westin's lobby bar.  So after the sessions end, head over there to unwind and enjoy some good company.

A reminder to speakers - as with last Code Camp, we've blocked off the Providence Room for use by speakers (only) as a green/ready room for your talks.

See you at Camp!
-Chris

We're one week from Code Camp 8 and things are looking great!  We've had a wonderful response from speakers and contributors, helping to make this (free) community event one of the best!

When and Where

• Saturday, September 29th:
• 8:30 -- Registration
• 9:00 - 6:00 -- Sessions
• 7:00 (ish) - Late -- Geek Event
• Sunday, September 30th:
• 8:30 -- Registration
• 9:00 - 4:00 -- Sessions

Microsoft Offices, 201 Jones Road, 6th Floor, Waltham, MA

Register at http://TheDevCommunity.org/CodeCamps

Schedule Coming Tuesday

The detailed room & session schedule will be assembled on Tuesday, so keep an eye on this blog or on TheDevCommunity.org site for details.

In the meantime, you can view the current list of sessions.

Thank You to Our Speakers!

We've had great speaker support from the community.  There are 26 speakers giving about 40 technical sessions.  Thank you to everyone for giving your time and effort to speak! 

Here's the current speaker roster:

• Andy Beaulieu (NY),  Leader – CNY .NET User Group
• Chris Bowen
• Dave Burke (VT)
• Allan da Costa Pinto (CT)
• Michael Cummings
• Ben Day,  Leader – Beantown .NET User Group
• David Edson (WA)
• Bob Familiar
• Bruce Ganek
• Robert Hurlbut, Leader – Boston Arch. Study Group
• Charles Hyman
• Julie Lerman (VT), Leader - VT .NET User Group
• Jesse Liberty, Noted Speaker and Author (of numerous developer titles)
• Anthony Lombardo (NY)
• Adam Machanic, Leader – NE SQL User Group
• Todd Mancini
• Michael de la Maza, Leader – C# Day
• Mark Mullin
• Tim Ng (WA), Sr. Dev. Lead, VB Team, Microsoft
• Andy Novick, Leader - VB Professionals User Group
• Fritz Onion (ME), Trainer, Speaker, and Author of "Essential ASP.NET 2.0"
• Chris Pels (RI), Leader – Boston .NET User Group
• Richard Hale Shaw, MVP and Noted Speaker
• Steve Simon
• Paul Swider
• Max Weber

Again, a huge THANK YOU in advance to everyone for volunteering their time and expertise to the community!

Long-Distance Speaker Travel "Awards"

Sincere thanks to everyone who is speaking.  I'd also like to recognize two people in particular who are making the trip to visit us all the way from the west coast:

• David Edson - David is one of the top Visio developers in the U.S. and is giving a technical session on coding with Visio's object model to automate data visualization.  With David's experience, this session promises to be very interesting!
  
• Timothy Ng - Tim is Senior Dev. Lead on the Visual Basic team with Microsoft and is running two intermediate/advanced sessions on LINQ and VB.  It's not often that we can hook a product team person to visit us in New England, so I hope you'll have a chance to see or speak with Tim.

Saturday Evening Geek Event

I just blogged the details of the traditional Saturday evening Geek Event.  We'll be gathering at the Waltham Westin hotel's lobby bar after Saturday's sessions end for some food, drink, and conversation. 

Everyone is welcome for this informal gathering and I hope you can join us!

Thanks to Our Contributors

Helping make the Code Camp possible, we've had especially strong support from contributors this time around. 

As you may know, Code Camps do not work with sponsors (i.e. putting names up on slides with booths and banners everywhere,) but rather "contributors", who simply give materials or funding to help these community events, with no expectations in return.

The following companies are contributing to Code Camp 8:

• ASP.NET Pro Magazine
• Atalasoft
• Code Magazine
• Infragistics
• Magenic
• Microsoft
• Telerik
• Wiley/WROX

Please join me in thanking them for their community support!

Special Sunday Lunch Session

Richard Hale Shaw is offering to run a lunchtime "workshop" session on Sunday for people interested in practical approaches to LINQ.  Richard will take requests in advance for queries you'd like to see translated into LINQ and will walk through them in this 1/2 hour workshop.  See the session description for details on how to submit your ideas.  (There will be a prize for the best query!)

Looking forward to a great Code Camp this weekend!  See you there!

-Chris