Chris Bowen's Blog : Roadshow

Friends, Books, and Roadshows

cbowen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:16:21 GMT

With three cities done, Jim and I have four more stops remaining on our “Don’t Fear the Coder” Northeast MSDN Roadshow:

In an attempt to maximize the amount of stuff we need to carry from place to place, we’re testing out a new idea, “Bring a friend, get a book”.

For any of these remaining events, if you bring along a friend to the Roadshow, we’ll give you both a copy of Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 3.

How? When registering online (with the above links), you’ll be asked for a Referral Code…

Just enter the name of your attending friend (or they can list you if you’ve already registered), and you’ll each get copies of the book when you both sign in at the event.

Can it be that easy? Pretty much, but here are The Official Rules:

Government employees are not eligible for promotion
Both parties must be present to win
If onsite supply runs out, books will be mailed to recipients

See you on the road!

-Chris

Five MSDN Roadshows Touring the East Coast

cbowen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:07:58 GMT

Back in February of 2007, we kicked off the Northeast MSDN Roadshow with a tour of five cities to wax poetic about the then sparking-new .NET Framework 3.0. We drove many miles, threw things at audience members, showed a lot of code, and had a blast.

Fast forward 2 years 8 months and we’re nearing the start of our eleventh Roadshow series, the “Dont’ Fear the Coder” Tour, but what’s equally cool is that there are five MSDN Roadshows reaching audiences up and down the east coast (each with a spiffy new logo as well.)

Here’s the full list (painstakingly CTRL+C and CTRL+V’ed from my New Jersey based teammate Peter Laudati's blog. Thanks, Peter!)

Register for any of these at http://www.msdnevents.com

	MSDN “Northeast” Roadshow with Chris Bowen & Jim O’Neil Cities & Dates: 11/10/2009 – Burlington, VT 11/12/2009 – Albany (Troy), NY 11/13/2009 – Rochester, NY 12/3/2009 – Farmington, CT 12/8/2009 – Waltham, MA 12/9/2009 – Providence, RI 12/15/2009 – Augusta, ME
	MSDN “Metro” Roadshow with Peter Laudati & Asli Bilgin Cities & Dates: 11/12/2009 – Parsippany, NJ 12/10/2009 – East Windsor, NJ 12/15/2009 – New York, NY
	MSDN “Mid-Atlantic” Roadshow with G. Andrew Duthie, Dani Diaz, and Dave Isbitski Cities & Dates: 11/12/2009 – Pittsburgh, PA 12/1/2009 – Harrisburg, PA 12/3/2009 – Reston, VA 12/8/2009 – Roanoke, VA 12/10/2009 – Malvern, PA
	MSDN “Southern Fried” Roadshow with Brian Hitney & Glen Gordon Cities & Dates: 11/4/2009 – Greensboro, NC 11/5/2009 – Raleigh, NC 11/6/2009 – Columbia, SC 12/8/2009 – Atlanta, GA 12/9/2009 – Montgomery, AL
	MSDN “Tiki Hut” Roadshow with Joe Healy & Russ Fustino Cities & Dates: 11/30/2009 – Tampa, FL 12/2/2009 – Fort Lauderdale, FL 12/14/2009 – Orlando, FL

I hope you enjoy the next Roadshow, wherever you may be*! (*As long as it’s somewhere along the east coast.)

-Chris

The Northeast Roadshow Rides to Cambridge on 9/28

cbowen — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:39:32 GMT

We’re glad to announce that we’ve partnered with the Beantown .NET User Group to add an extra stop to our upcoming Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow series!

This free event for developers and architects will be from 1-6 PM (doors open at 12:30) at the Microsoft New England Research & Development (NERD) Center’s first floor conference center.

http://beantownroadshow.eventbrite.com

See the registration page for descriptions, but we’ll be covering these topics:

Essential Patterns, Practically Served
7 Up(grade) Your Applications
Silverlight Snacks that Satisfy
Chips off the .NET Block

The Fall 2009 Series

This brings the series to seven cities:

Sept 10 - Manchester, NH, 1 PM–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]

Sept 18 – Rochester, NY, 10 AM–3:30 PM [Roadshow Reg.]

Sept 22 – Troy, NY, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]

Sept 23 – Waltham, MA, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]

Sept 24 – Augusta, ME, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]

Sept 28 – Cambridge, MA, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]

Sept 29 – Farmington, CT, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]

Morning TechNet Events

As you see in the list, Cambridge is one of the four cities where there’s also a separate TechNet event for IT pros that same morning from 8:30 to 12:00 (doors at 8:00).

Separate registration is required at:

http://technetboston.eventbrite.com

Beantown .NET Meetings

In addition to the Roadshow, the Beantown .NET Group has some great meetings coming up:

9/10 - Richard Hale Shaw on “.NET on MultiCore Systems: Programming the .NET 4.0 Parallel Extensions”
10/1 – James Phillips on ‘SCRUM and Team Foundation Server”

Each of these meetings are also at NERD in Cambridge.

See you on the road!

-Chris

Announcing the Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow!

cbowen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:36:54 GMT

September seems a long time from these warm days of July, but we’ve set the dates and locations for the next Northeast MSDN Roadshow and wanted to tell you about it now!

Join Jim O’Neil and me for one of our stops of the Fall 2009 series as we bring developer goodness to a town near you, including our first Roadshow stop in Rhode Island*.

*Update – 7/31: Sorry for the inconvenience, but we couldn’t get the timing to work in Warwick, RI. Signs are excellent that we’ll make a stop there for our Winter series, though!

Update 8/31: Thanks to the Beantown .NET User Group and the Microsoft New England R&D Center, we’ve just added a new stop on September 28th in Cambridge, MA!

But there’s something else new as well - four of our events will be in partnership with morning TechNet IT Pro events! (The TechNet events are separate events you’ll need to additionally register for if you wish to attend both.)

Sept 10 - Manchester, NH, 1 PM–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
Sept 18 – Rochester, NY, 10 AM–3:30 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
Sept 22 – Troy, NY, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]
Sept 23 – Waltham, MA, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
Sept 24 – Augusta, ME, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]
Sept 28 – Cambridge, MA, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.] NEW!
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.] NEW!
Sept 29 – Farmington, CT, 1–6 PM [Roadshow Reg.]
w/ morning TechNet event [TechNet Reg.]
Oct 6 – Warwick, RI, 1–6 PM [Canceled]
w/ morning TechNet event [Canceled]

Please note of the times of each event, because they’re not all the same and not the usual times of previous Roadshows.

For those of you in Burlington, VT, while won’t have a Roadshow there this time, we will be in town on September 12th as part of the VT Code Camp and hope to see you there!

Here’s our agenda, the humor of which will provide you countless minutes of enjoyment:

The Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow: Food for Thoughts Tour

After a long summer, you’re probably hungry for more tools and techniques to feed your development efforts. Touring the northeast this fall for the tenth Roadshow, road and code warriors Jim O’Neil and Chris Bowen have cooked up a select menu of sessions that are sure to please the heartiest of appetites. From current tools and technologies to practical insights, there is plenty to digest!

Reservations are required, so register today for a seating at these free and relaxed technology events.

You’ll see how Chris and Jim handle the heat of the demo kitchen, dish out knowledge, and pepper guests with half-baked humor, all the while being grilled by audience questions.

The Agenda – A Four Course Meal for the Mind:

1:00 - Essential Patterns, Practically Served

Design patterns, they’re important but often presented with unappetizing formality, like getting only the oat bits from a box of marshmallow cereal. We’ll sample a small set of key patterns, but also show you how free frameworks and tools (such as Enterprise Library, Prism, Unity, Velocity, and others) put each of those patterns directly into practice – so you can too. You’ll leave with a mind full of practical technology and a healthy understanding of how to turn underlying patterns into recipes for success.

2:15 - 7-Up(grade) Your Applications

Refresh your existing applications by pouring in some the new features of Windows 7 via the managed-code Windows API Code Pack. We’ll quench your thirst for how to incorporate the Taskbar, jumplists, and Libraries by taking the cap off an existing Windows Forms application and adding new capabilities, all the while retaining compatibility for your XP and Vista users. We’ll have you bubbling with excitement, able to give your applications that extra pop.

3:30 - Silverlight Snacks that Satisfy

There’s a generous amount of delicious ingredients in Silverlight 3 and we’re going to focus deeply on some of the most enriching. We’re going beyond the standard fare in this code-heavy session to create an application that leverages the new out-of-browser and offline execution features, local and remote connections, local data storage, and more. You’ll see that Silverlight 3 applications can be fortified with features so they can go well beyond being eye candy.

4:45 - Chips off the .NET Block

As seasoned developers, we know there’s a mix of options on the trail to implementing requirements. From staples like value types vs. reference types, interfaces vs. classes, Strings vs. StringBuilder, to other more exotic ingredients you may have yet tried, this session will dip into ways to leverage .NET, offering a taste of the impact they have on code execution, performance, and extensibility.

5:50 – “Check Please!” – We’ll box any leftovers, collect your comment cards, and distribute an array of giveaways.

-Chris

Summer Northeast Roadshow Resources and Wrapup

cbowen — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:18:51 GMT

Our Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow is done and was an absolute blast! Bob, Jim, and I returned to many (oh so many) miles of open road to bring six sessions to five northeastern cities in June.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to attend in each city!

Roadshow Resources

As promised, we’ve posted the materials from each of the sessions on the Northeast Roadshow Code Gallery, but here are quick links to each:

We’re also working on recording screencasts for each of the sessions, which we’ll post to the Northeast Channel 9 Site in the coming weeks.

The Fall 2009 Series

We’re already hard at work on the next set of events! Things are shaping up for a September/October series, and we’re hoping to mix things up a bit this time (I’ll be purposefully vague here), so keep an eye on our blogs for news.

Thanks

This time, we had extra help with our (very large!) Waltham event. Thanks to both Sybase and Burntsand for providing the food for the show!

Special thanks to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the State of Maine Office of the Fire Marshal for again generously donating use of their facilities for our stops in Rochester, NY and Augusta, ME respectively.

Sincere thanks to coffee and chocolate-covered espresso beans (which melt in a car surprisingly quickly) for keeping us (or at least Bob who was the driver) awake for our travels.

And again, thanks to you for attending and investing your time with us!

-Chris

Announcing the Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow!

cbowen — Fri, 01 May 2009 01:20:29 GMT

The Roadshow returns for tour #9 in June! The full agenda is below, but in summary, these are free, full-day events for developers and architects, covering Windows 7, ASP.NET MVC, WPF, Silverlight 2 & 3, Developing for IE8, and Data Access Guidance.

Our (late Spring slash early) Summer Tour will feature stops in five cities in June:

June 10 – Williston, VT [register]
June 12 – Rochester, NY [register]
June 16 – Waltham, MA [register]
June 18 – Augusta, ME [register]
June 24 – Farmington, CT [register]

Okay, so maybe we went a little overboard with the theme (you’ll see what I mean) this time, but we enjoy doing these so much, it’s easy to get carried away.

Also, you can check out the Northeast Channel 9 home and Northeast Code Gallery for resources from past Roadshows and more.

-Chris

The Summer 2009
Northeast MSDN Roadshow:
“Technology Blockbuster Tour”

Coming this June to a city near you…

In a world where technology changes can be quick and dramatic, developers need reliable sources of knowledge, and the Roadshow Guys are here to answer the call, featuring a style and wit the critics call “unique”. Join us (Chris Bowen, Jim O’Neil, and Bob Familiar – three amigos who just love a theme) as we travel by planes, trains, and automobiles to cross the northeast to bring you a full day of deep content for developers and architects, all with the amazing ticket price of zero.

Register today and join us for our 9^th series of these free, relaxed days where we'll dive into the latest technology, tools, and practices for developers and architects.

3-D glasses are optional, but as you’ll discover, we’re frighteningly real enough.
[Rated PG – “Practical Guidance”]

The Agenda – Jim, Bob, and Chris in “Client Side Story”:
Tales of Browser, OS, and Application Technologies

8:00 – Bypass the ticket booth, grab a coffee and a seat (but of course you’ll only need the edge…)

8:30 – Windows 7: A “Dev Story”
“Windows 7 means never having to say you’re sorry…” There’s a lot to love in Windows 7, and in this session we’ll take a look at the foundation of any enduring relationship – compatibility. As you move on from your days with Vista, you may be surprised at how comfortable Windows 7 is; you don’t have to completely reinvent yourself (or your applications) just to get along. Of course, the newest OS on the block also brings with it the allure and excitement of new features – multi-touch, jump lists, and the scenic ribbon – and who doesn’t want to show that off! Leave your tissues at home, we promise a happy ending to this one.

9:50 – “Desperately Seeking Silverlight” – Developing with Silverlight, Today and Tomorrow
Searching the newspapers for something new to spice up the day-to-day life of your applications? Silverlight is that cool jacket your applications can wear to attract a new world of interest. In this session, we’ll take a brief look at what you can accomplish in today’s world with Silverlight 2 development using .NET and XAML for a great client experience. Then, it’s time for a sneak preview of the coming attractions of Silverlight 3, including out-of-browser support, new graphics to video options, productivity and performance improvements. We’ll also take a look at the very cool features coming in Expression Blend 3. Answer your customers’ want ads with Silverlight, and get ready for a mob of new followers!

11:10 – “Data Quest” – Pinning Down Approaches to Data Access
Your applications are growing up, and it’s time to graduate from DataReaders and DataSets. Want to get your applications in shape, but wrestling with the concepts of multiple data access options like ADO.NET, LINQ to SQL, and Entity Framework? This match session will pull you back from the lunatic fringe by going to the mat with these data technologies and helping focus a vision for your application’s data requirements

12:00 – “Nightmare on IE Street” – Adding IE8 Web Slices and Accelerators to Your Web Site
The reality is that supporting multiple browsers can be a nightmare. In this session, we will review how to handle browser compatibility and how to take advantage of IE8 Web Slices and Accelerators. A Web Slice enables users to subscribe to content directly within a Web page, without requiring a separate RSS feed file. Accelerators are contextual menu options that can quickly access applications or Web services from any Web page. Not all slicing needs to be the stuff of terror, and understanding IE8 will make your web pages a dream for your users, while striking fear into your competition.

1:00 – “20,000 Leagues under the MVC” – Diving into ASP.NET MVC
Setting sail on the web can be an uncertain proposition. Tales of peril abound of sites that have sunk and never been seen since. ASP.NET with WebForms has always been a trusty vessel, worthy of the voyage, but a new design has just left dry dock. Now officially released, ASP.NET MVC 1.0 is a new option for creating web applications that makes it easy to have fine-grained control over how pages in your web application are generated, encourages separation of concerns, and fosters testability. In this session, we’ll focus on learning to build a new site with ASP.NET MVC, while sharing advice to help you decide when to choose MVC or WebForms. MVC’s fine-grained control and implementation flexibility can be keys to navigating what can be a turbulent sea of changing requirements and market demands. Captain a site with ASP.NET MVC, and you may find that it’s not monsters under the surface, but hidden treasure instead.

2:10 – “The Coding of WPF 1 2 3” – Ribbons, Grids, Threads, and More
When the stakes are high, you don’t need to be held hostage by the old ways of doing things. Jump on the WPF train and break free of those UI bonds. In this code-heavy session, we will demonstrate the power of WPF with the new Office/Windows 7 Ribbon Control, the new WPF Grid Control, and how to leverage background threads to make your user interface scream. When having the richest client experience is a non-negotiable requirement, you can be the hero, saving the day with WPF.

3:30 – Wrap-up, giveaways, and the mad dash for the exits!

The Northeast Roadshow Rides to Channel 9

cbowen — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:13:49 GMT

Jim, Bob and I are very excited to announce that we have a brand new home for northeastern US developers on Microsoft’s developer site Channel 9!

What will you find there?

Pictures of our smiling faces (no extra charge)
Posts from our blogs
Screencasts of past sessions
Links to presentations and code
Links to other resources

Check it out at http://channel9.msdn.com/northeast

We’re in the process of recording screencasts from our recent Northeast MSDN Roadshow events (Spring ‘09, Winter ‘08, Fall ‘08) and will have them listed for you there at the bottom of the page.

We also have a Northeast Code Gallery, where you can download the presentations and, if you’re daring, code samples from our events. Links to screencasts are here as well:

Whether your a regular attendee or not, we hope these sites give you the content you need, whenever you need it.

Immense and sincere thanks to our teammate Brian Johnson for the great work he’s done to get us going (his help is why you’ll see his name as publisher of the screencasts we’ve posted). Thanks also go to Jim for tuning the sites to make sure the water was fine before we all jumped in.

Please let me know if you have any questions about either site, and enjoy!

-Chris

Northeast MSDN Roadshow Schedule Update

cbowen — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:27:38 GMT

Only a few more days until we pile in the car and begin cruising the roads of the great Northeast for our March 2009 Northeast Roadshow!

I need to share one update, however. We unfortunately need to cancel our March 11th stop in the Albany, NY area. (The ol’ “circumstances beyond our control” at work, I’m afraid.) Sincere apologies to folks hoping to partake of our “wit and wisdom”, but the good news is that we’re creating screencasts for each session and will post the slides and other content to our blogs. So keep an eye here and on Jim’s and Bob’s blogs for more.

In other news, we’re now planning a visit with the Vermont .NET User Group on March 9th at 6PM! Join us the evening before the Roadshow for “Stump the Chumps” as we face your Q&A on Microsoft, developer technologies, and anything else you’d like to throw at us (put those rocks away, that’s in a figurative sense!)

So, here’s our updated schedule:

March 9 – VT .NET User Group Special Event
March 10 - Burlington, VT
~~March 11 – Albany, NY~~ (Canceled)
March 12 – Rochester, NY
March 18 – Hartford, CT New, larger venue!
March 19 – Augusta, ME
March 23 – Waltham, MA

There’s still room to register for these free all-day events for architects and developers, so register now and we’ll see you in the coming weeks!

-Chris

The March 2009 Northeast Roadshow

cbowen — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:16:17 GMT

It’s time again to pack the car with our laptops, giveaways, staggeringly unhealthy travel snacks, and dangerous quantities of coffee as we set off across the northeast for the March 2009 Northeast Roadshow.

The Roadshow is a series of free, full day events where we deeply focus on topics for developers and architects, sprinkled with our “unbelievable” senses of humor, demos that usually work, and plenty of giveaways to keep unruly audiences at bay in case they don’t.

In welcome news - after a brief Roadshow hiatus to focus on the MSDN Developer Conference series, Bob Familiar will again be joining Jim O’Neil and me as we sweep through these cities, on this our eighth series:

March 10 - Burlington, VT
~~March 11 - Albany, NY~~ Canceled (update post)
March 12 – Rochester, NY
March 18 – Hartford, CT New, larger venue!
March 19 – Augusta, ME
March 23 – Waltham, MA

Join us as we cover Windows Azure, .NET Debugging, Programming with F#, Game Development with XNA, SQL Server for Developers, and Effective .NET Practices. Click the above registration links to read the full agenda.

Sincere thanks to the companies and organizations who make the Roadshow possible by hosting us in various cities, including KnowledgeWave, Autotask, Rochester Institute of Technology, The Hartford, and the State of Maine Government Offices.

-Chris

2008 Winter Northeast Roadshow - Resources and Summary

cbowen — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:28:23 GMT

The Winter Northeast Roadshow series has run its course! Jim and I traveled about 2,000 miles to deliver seven events for nearly 600 people across the Northeast, and had a great time bringing developer technology and practices to you.

The Goods

As promised, we're posting the content and resources from each of our sessions.

Look for the content from Jim's sessions, "Windows Workflow Steals the Show" and "Adventures in Data with Silverlight, WCF REST, and ADO.NET Data Services" on his blog.

SESSION: "Tech Update"

Resources

SESSION: "ASP.NET AJAX 3.5 and jQuery"

Slides & Demos

Presentation and Demo Content (via SkyDrive)
Downloadable samples from the book "jQuery in Action"
jQuery UI Demos
- Effects sampler
PhotoGallery Application - Stephen Walther

Resources

SESSION: "Deeper into Windows Presentation Foundation"

Demos (no slides used)

Session Demo Content (via SkyDrive)
Logon Screen Demo
UIElement3D Sphere Sample
3D Solids Sample
WPF Toolkit & Ribbon Preview - Hands On Lab

Resources

SESSION: "Lunch in the Lab - A Look at Microsoft Research"

Slides

Presentation Slides (via SkyDrive)

Resources

Thank You!

Thanks to everyone who invested the time to join us for these events. Special thanks to the each of the following companies and organizations who helped us along the way:

Rochester Institute of Technology
AutoTask
Vermont Technical College
State of Maine - Central Maine Commerce Center
Daniel Webster College

We couldn't have delivered the Roadshow without your fantastic support!

Next Time

We're going into hibernation for a little while to reacquaint ourselves with family and friends, but early 2009 will see many events, including our Spring Roadshow, likely in the later February into March timeframe.

Keep an eye on our blogs and sign up for MSDN Flash to hear updates on that and other events as they emerge.

Thanks again, and we'll see you again on the road!

-Chris

Winter Northeast Roadshow Update

cbowen — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:50:57 GMT

Jim and I are on the home stretch for the 2008 Winter Northeast Roadshow! After four stops over the prior two weeks, we're heading into a three-event week at the following locations:

Mon. 12/15 - Waltham, MA [Register]

Geek Gathering 4:30-6:30+

Tue. 12/16 - Augusta, ME [Register]
Thur. 12/18 - Nashua, NH [Register]

We're going to have a blast with these remaining stops - with some of our biggest audiences yet. (And, after Thursday, I'm looking forward to a little vacation time as well!)

Look for the slides, demos, and resources from our presentations to be posted on our blogs by the end of this week.

See you on the road,
-Chris

The Roadshow Comes to New Hampshire on 12/18!

cbowen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:05:03 GMT

Breaking news! We've been able to arrange a visit to New Hampshire for the Winter Northeast Roadshow! We'll be spending the day at Daniel Webster College on December 18th, talking about jQuery & ASP.NET, Workflow, WPF, Silverlight, WCF, and a bunch more:

Register here!

Northeast Roadshow, December 18th

Daniel Webster College
Collings Auditorium
20 University Place
Nashua, NH 03063

Jim and I ask that if you're switching to NH from another location, please cancel your other registration (via the My Events page). Thanks!

Many thanks to Genevieve Baudin and Daniel Webster College for arranging to host us! We're looking forward to adding New Hampshire into the Roadshow tour!

-Chris

Join Us for The Winter Northeast MSDN Roadshow!

cbowen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:19:29 GMT

[UPDATE 11/19 - We've added New Hampshire to our tour for December 18th!]

We just couldn't take not being out on the road, talking about tech, so we're heading back out again in December for the Winter Northeast Roadshow!

This, our seventh Roadshow, will feature a ton of great stuff like jQuery and ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX, WPF, WF, Silverlight and WCF/REST, and even some interesting things from Microsoft Research!

Join my fellow road and code warrior, Jim O'Neil and me for a relaxed day of deep content for developers and architects. Oh, and it's free.

We're heading to six cities in December:

Rochester, NY: December 2nd [registration] Venue Change
Albany, NY: December 3rd [registration] Venue Change
Burlington, VT: December 4th [registration] Venue Change
Farmington, CT: December 9th [registration]
Waltham, MA: December 15th [registration]
Augusta, ME: December 16th [registration] Venue Change
Nashua, NH: December 18th [registration] NEWLY ADDED!

Most of our stops for the Fall Northeast Roadshow filled up, so if you're interested, register early.

THE AGENDA

[Times are for all events except Rochester, NY, which starts 30 minutes earlier.]

8:30 – Register, Grab Some Coffee, and Pull Up A Chair

9:00 - Morning TechUpdate

Before we dive into the sessions, we’ll take some time to update you on the latest news, tools and technology from the developer world.

9:15 - Turbo Boosting for Web Developers: Using jQuery and ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX

Like things that help you go faster? Of course! That’s why we’re focusing this session on the powerful set of features that jQuery and ASP.NET 3.5 offer web developers. We’ll get up to speed with jQuery, a popular open source JavaScript library with powerful features, a concise syntax with chained commands, but at the same time is fully extensible via a plugin-based architecture. Microsoft will be distributing jQuery (as-is) with Visual Studio going forward, and offers IntelliSense support for jQuery as well. We’ll complement that with a look at the latest in ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX with Visual Studio 2008 to provide extra code-writing acceleration along the way. Like hitting “Boost” in your favorite racing game, jQuery and ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX will have you speeding toward great rich internet applications in no time!

10:45 - Workflow Foundation (WF) Steals the Show

As Shakespeare put it, “All the world’s a stage”, and WPF and WCF love to bask in the limelight, but now it’s time for their cousin, Windows Workflow Foundation, to assume the leading role. We’ll go beyond the usual introductory demos to show that, despite lacking a third letter in its acronym, WF is a very powerful environment for building robust and scalable applications that capture complex and real-world business processes. From dashing good looks (a visual designer which you can even host in your own applications) to dazzling abilities such as new options for integration with WCF (both as a service provider and consumer), resumable programmable activities as building blocks, and built-in services for persistence, transactions, scheduling and tracking, WF is a standout performer for any application. We’ll have Hamlet saying, “The Workflow’s the thing!”

12:00 - Lunch in the Lab: A Look at Tools & Tech from Microsoft Research

Grab some lunch, get out your Bunsen burners and microscopes, and join us as we don lab coats and take a tour of the latest and greatest tools and technology from Microsoft Research. From developer tools that you can use today like CHESS and Pex, future tech like DryadLINQ, to the just plain cool of AutoCollage, Boku, and SecondLight, there’s a lot for us to experiment on. We promise not to set anything on fire in this lab, well, unless you ask nicely…

1:00 - Deeper into Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) has a rich set of features to create visually appealing, high-performance applications on the .NET Framework with declarative markup. And perhaps you’ve seen the “hello world” demos and get the general idea. But you say “Great! What else can I do with it?” Funny you should ask, because that’s exactly what this session is about. After a brief introduction to WPF, we’ll dive into the host of new features that .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 has brought – enhanced 3D capabilities, Visual Studio designer improvements, and more. We’ll cover important WPF topics such as interoperability with WinForms and achieving reuse via resources, templates, and user controls. Finally, we’ll round out the talk by showing the new WPF Toolkit, including new WPF controls like Calendar, DatePicker, and DataGrid. Now, aren’t you glad you asked?

2:30 - Adventures in Data with Silverlight, WCF REST, and ADO.NET Data Services

You’ve heard that REST is the talk of the town (well, the really geeky part of town) these days, but what does it mean to you, someone who needs to get work DONE? Get ready to improve your Silverlight skills, because this session features a practical, code-based focus on the use of the new WCF REST Starter Kit, ADO.NET Data Services (formerly Astoria), and databinding techniques to tap the power of RESTful services. A from-scratch implementation will be created, using Silverlight to build a data-centric application covering concepts such as the WebClient and HTTPWebRequest objects, syndication formats, cross domain policy, and data binding in XAML.

3:50 – Wrapup, Evals, and Giveaways

Geek Gatherings

It's always nice to unwind after a Roadshow, and we'd love to chat with other developers in the community, we're looking at our options for informal gatherings at local brewpubs and the like after each event (except Rochester, which will need to be the night before on 12/1).

Let us know if you have the "perfect place" to be social (and my personal preference, has good beer) in your city and we'll help get the word out!

Thanks!

A huge thanks goes to the companies and organizations who volunteer their space for the Roadshow visits!

This time, we return to two venues that have been great hosts for previous Roadshows. In Rochester, NY, we again descend upon Rochester Institute of Technology's Golisano Auditorium. In Burlington, VT (well, Williston, actually), we return to Vermont Technical College.

In the Albany, NY area, Autotask has graciously offered their meeting facilities for the event.

Last, but by no means least, thanks to great support by the developer community in Maine (and a 100% packed room last time!), we're running the Roadshow in the much larger Florian Auditorium at the Central Maine Commerce Center.

Every Roadshow we do quite honestly is a blast for us (well, once we're ready and out on the road,) and we hope you'll enjoy it too.

We’ll see you soon!

-Chris

Fall Northeast Roadshow Summary and Resources

cbowen — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:10:40 GMT

Thank You!

Another Northeast Roadshow is done! Thanks to all of you who joined us as we visited six venues across the Northeast - we had our largest total audience ever. Your interest and support makes this possible, and keeps us heading back out for more.

Speaking of which, Jim and I are busy planning the Winter Northeast Roadshow. It's shaping up to be in early- to mid-December, so keep an eye on our blogs for announcements and registration (sometime in November.)

Thanks to the gracious support of our hosts throughout the Northeast, especially KnowledgeWave in Vermont, RPI and the Rochester Public Library in New York, and the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Maine!

A special thanks to Brian Johnson, who was able to join us for our visits to Albany and Rochester to give great presentations on Robotics.

Presentations and Other Content

As promised, we've gathered our presentations, resources, and demos together for you, should you wish to take a closer look.

Here are the links to my presentations, stored on (Live's SkyDrive service):

Check out Jim's recap post for the resources from the following sessions:

"ASP.NET Dynamic Data"
"UI, UX, U Confused?"
"A RESTed Development"

Session Resources

Finally, here are the resources from each of my sessions:

"Understanding ADO.NET Entity Framework"

"Exploring Internet Explorer 8"

"RoboLunch"

Microsoft Robotics Home

"Befriending Unit Testing"

MSDN: Working with Unit Tests
“Achieving And Recognizing Testable Software Designs” - Roy Osherove
“Tame Your Software Dependencies for More Flexible Apps” - James Kovacs
“IoC Containers and the Dep. Injection Pattern” - Martin Fowler
Blogs:

We'll see you next time!

-Chris

Fall Northeast Roadshow Update

cbowen — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:54:03 GMT

After driving approximately 975 miles and downing 1.28 gazillion gallons of coffee (probably each) since Monday, Jim and I made it back from the first leg of the Falll Northeast Roadshow. Thanks to everyone who took the time to join us for our first three stops!

Special thanks to our Florida-based teammate Brian Johnson, who was able to join us for the Troy and Rochester stops to share his experience with Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio!

Thanks to KnowledgeWave in South Burlington, VT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and the Rochester (NY) Public Library for hosting us! Each of these locations was a new venue for us, and we were very pleased with each.

We'll be posting our content toward the end of the Roadshow. And speaking of which - our remaining stops:

Augusta, ME: October 3rd [registration] New Venue
Farmington, CT: October 14th [registration] FULL!
Waltham, MA: October 15th [registration] NEARLY FULL

We're "sold out" in Connecticut, and there are very few seats left for the Waltham event.

We're looking forward to completing the Fall Roadshow in the coming weeks and hope you'll be able to join us!

As always, please Let me know if you have any Roadshow suggestions (content, locations, logistics, etc.).

-Chris