Yes, you’re still recovering from Fourth of July festivities, and, no, I didn’t get too much sun over the long weekend.   July 1st indeed starts a new year, a new fiscal year, at Microsoft, and with that comes some intense planning for the coming 12 months – budgets, sales quotas, annual reviews, etc.  For us, the Developer Platform and Evangelism team (DPE), specifically it’s a time for planning out our various events and road shows as well as fostering community activities like code camps and ‘firestarters.’

So what’s the best way to keep on top of all these happenings during the upcoming year?

• MSDN Flash – subscribe here and enter your ZIP code to get localized content from Chris Bowen and myself in the Northeast.  Our colleagues in other regions likewise add their own local flair to the bi-weekly newsletter.

   

• Community Megaphone – on my blog’s sidebar is a feed showing the events in the Northeast district, but you can visit the main site and see what’s going on around the country.

   

• Follow your evangelists’ blogs.  Well, you found mine and the rest of the members of the East region developer evangelist family are listed in my blog’s sidebar.

   

• Get involved in a User Group.  In the Northeast, we have nearly three-dozen active groups focused on various aspects of Microsoft technologies, and there’s many more independent groups focused on complementary topics like JavaScript, Web technologies, and user experience as well.  There’s no better way to hear about activities than being part of those activities yourself.  It’s a double-win: you stay abreast of technology, and you meet some great people in the process.