Chris Bowen's Blog : Vermont

Northeast MSDN Roadshow - “Don’t Fear the Coder” Tour

cbowen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:17:05 GMT

As in 2007 and 2008, we like to run a pre-winter Roadshow series before the really deep snow blankets the roads. I’m glad to say everything’s lined up for us to to get the word out for the next series!

These are free events, running 9:30 to 3:30, featuring five sessions for developers and architects. Topics include Expression/Silverlight MVVM, ASP.NET Webforms/AJAX, LINQ, finding developer help, and WCF. The full agenda (in all of its themed glory) is below.

We’ll be piling into whatever vehicle we can find (that has plenty of cup holders for coffee) to visit seven cities in November and December:

November 10 - Burlington, VT [Register] New Venue
November 12 - Troy, NY [Register]
November 13 - Rochester, NY [Register]
December 3 - Farmington, CT [Register]
December 8 - Waltham, MA [Register]
December 9 - Providence, RI [Register] New City!
December 15 - Augusta, ME [Register]

P.S. There’s now a directions/parking/updates page to help with any venue updates before each event.

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And now the full agenda (prior Roadshow attendees know we just love a theme). Read on if you dare, but you’ve been warned…

MSDN Events Presents

The MSDN Northeast Roadshow:
"Don't Fear the Coder" Tour

It was a dark and stormy night. Your heart races as you wonder how you'll survive the looming deadline. Technology questions abound. A cat jumps at you for no reason. The stack of unread developer magazines casts a threatening shadow. What to use? When? How?

Worried? Don't be. Road and code warriors Jim O’Neil and Chris Bowen will clear up the fog surrounding key developer technologies. From current practices and tools, to glimpses of the near future, you'll escape with new insights and many stories to tell.

The Northeast MSDN Roadshow is a free series of deep technology sessions for developers and architects. Join Chris and Jim for these relaxed events to gain practical insights (and of course they’ll use their wits to transform “horrors” into “har hars”).

Registration is required, and seating is limited, so register today and join the Roadshow!

The Agenda: Clever Hacking, Slashed Efforts, and Killer Applications

Something WCF This Way Comes

The mysterious figure of Windows Communication Foundation approaches from the swirling mist, but are its intentions good? Rumors abound that it can be complex and not for the faint of heart. We'll take a renewed look at WCF, discovering a practical tale of services, connectivity, integration, and more. Our focus will be on WCF’s current nature, but we'll briefly preview what’s in store for us with .NET 4.0. WCF turns out to be a great ally, so you’ll be glad you stood your ground.

RIA Window – Expression, Silverlight, and MVVM

You’ll code your next Silverlight application with grace after you catch this session, which presents the primary motives for using the MVVM pattern. Focusing on the use of Expression Blend, we’ll cast a designer’s lens on Silverlight development enabling you to plot a hitch-free course for your future projects.

"Help!" – Grasping at Lifelines

In the fight to slay invading bugs and put fearsome requirements to rest, sometimes you need a helping hand. In this brief lunchtime session, we'll review options for finding assistance – ways to report and view issues you find, help systems, websites, team options, communities, and more. Breathe easy, there’s no need to wander alone in the dark.

LINQ De-crypted

Although it’s part of the foundation of the .NET 3.5 release, many developers have yet to uncover the amazing power buried in LINQ (Language Integrated Query). This session will bring to light important concepts found lurking in the shadows of the technology: the IEnumerable and IQueryable interfaces, extension methods, lambda expressions, and more. With LINQ’s defining components unearthed, you’ll vault to new heights in your development efforts.

Tales from the Webside - ASP.NET WebForms, AJAX, and More

Your journey through web development may at times seem like a montage of foreboding images. There are many paths to consider, but in this session we return to the main roads of essential ASP.NET development. From WebForms and server options, to scripting, AJAX, and other tools, we’ll catch up with the latest developments and take a quick glimpse down the road at what awaits us ahead. Until next time, enjoy trying your new web development options.

Vermont’s First Code Camp a Success!

cbowen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:54:17 GMT

Having helped to run the New England Code Camps for a while now, I know that organizing one is no easy task. It’s especially challenging to run the first one – finding a venue, raising awareness, encouraging people to speak, reaching out to companies for support, etc.

So I’m confident when I say job well done to everyone who organized and volunteered for Vermont’s first Code Camp this weekend!

In particular, thanks to Rob Hale, who did an outstanding job stepping up to take point for organizing the event, and to Julie Lerman, who for many years has worked to drive and improve the Vermont developer community.

Of course, a Code Camp simply couldn’t happen without the support of the speakers (local and out of state), volunteers, and contributors/sponsors – all of whom deserve many thanks! And finally, thanks to the over 80 attendees who invested their Saturday to gather to share, learn, and network.

It would have been a success for any Code Camp, but to see the diverse tech community presence, support by local and national companies, a perfect venue (thanks to UVM), and excellent presentations all at a first attempt is a great accomplishment.

As a bonus, my wife and I were able to a weekend of the visit to Vermont and enjoyed revisiting our favorite Burlington places (we used to live there, so I’m always happy to make the trip.)

Code Camp season is upon us (MA, NH, and NY each have Camps in the works), and it’s off to a great start!

-Chris

Upcoming Northeast Developer Events – August, September, October

cbowen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:30:42 GMT

Though we’re still enjoying the warm weather, and groups often take it easy in July and August, there are plenty of events starting to appear on the radar, so I’m rounding them up here.

September promises to be very busy - with Vermont’s very first Code Camp, our Fall Northeast MSDN Roadshow series, and user groups returning to regular meetings. Then October will feature the 12th of immensely popular New England Code Camps.

Also, scroll down to the bottom for some online events, that don’t care where you live (or that you’re attending in your jammies.)

Know of any other events? Please comment or let me know.

Connecticut

September 29 – 1-6PM
Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Farmington, CT
Join Jim and me for Roadshow series #10 – free events featuring deep dives into Silverlight 3, Windows 7, Patterns, and .NET programming tips.

Bonus Event! Same Location, Same Day – A morning TechNet Unleashed event from 8:30 to 12:00, with great content for IT Pros.

Schedule TBD
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT
Agile Project Leader Network - Microsoft, Farmington, CT
Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group – Stamford, CT
Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server UG - UConn, Stamford, CT

Massachusetts

August 6
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"Silverlight Application Development" – John Garland

August 6
The Agile Bazaar – Cambridge, MA
”A Practical Roadmap to a Great Scrum” - Jeff Sutherland

August 7
North Shore Web Geeks – Newburyport, MA

August 11
Build Guild – Salem, MA

August 12
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
5:00 - "ASP.NET MVC Discussion" – Bob Goodearl
6:00 - “On a Clear Day You Can See Cloud Computing” – Michael Stiefel

August 13
Boston Cloud Services – Waltham, MA

August 19
New England ASP.NET Professionals – Waltham, MA
"ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC)" – Chris Bowen

August 19
New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Group - Waltham, MA
"State of the Union: Mobile Application Development”

August 19
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

August 20
Refresh Boston – Cambridge, MA

August 21
Virtualization Summer Camp – Waltham, MA
Special free all-day event by the Virtualization Group - Boston

August 26
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA

September 1
Western Mass Microsoft Technology Users Group - Chicopee, MA
”Prototyping and Designing in Expression Blend 3” – Pete Brown

September 7
New England F# User Group – Cambridge, MA
Robert Pickering

September 9
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
“Best Practices for Using Virtualization in Development Environments” – Liz Hatch & Chuck Duncan

September 10
Beantown .NET User Group - Cambridge, MA
Richard Hale Shaw

September 16
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

September 22
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA

September 23 – 1-6PM
Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Waltham, MA
Join Jim and me for Roadshow series #10 – free events featuring deep dives into Silverlight 3, Windows 7, Patterns, and .NET programming tips.

September 23
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA

September 23
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Hyannis, MA
"Best Practices for Working with SQL Server Execution Plans" – Grant Fritchey

September 23
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA
Johanna Rothman

October 5
New England F# User Group – Cambridge, MA
Chance Coble

October 17
New England Code Camp 12 – Waltham, MA Join hundreds of fellow developers for this free, full day of community-driven content and networking!

October 28
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA
Pollyanna Pixton

October 28
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA

Schedule TBD
IASA New England - Boston, MA
Boston JavaScript Meetup Group – Cambridge, MA
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA

Maine

August 25
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
“jQuery and XML” – Jeff Hall and Greg Howe

September 24 – 1-6PM
Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Augusta, ME
Join Jim and me for Roadshow series #10 – free events featuring deep dives into Silverlight 3, Windows 7, Patterns, and .NET programming tips.

Bonus Event! Same Location, Same Day – A morning TechNet Unleashed event from 8:30 to 12:00, with great content for IT Pros.

September 29
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
“T4” – Mark Blomsma

October 27
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
TBD

Schedule TBD
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME
Maine Developer Network - Augusta, ME
Maine Microsoft Certification Study Group – Online!

New Hampshire

September 10 – 1-6PM
Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Manchester, NH
Join Jim and me for Roadshow series #10 – free events featuring deep dives into Silverlight 3, Windows 7, Patterns, and .NET programming tips.

September 24
Nashua Scrum Club – Nashua, NH
6:00 – Roundtable: “Converting a waterfall software project to Agile”
7:15 – David Spann on Agile Leadership

Schedule TBD
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH
NH SQL Users Group - Nashua, NH

New York (Upstate)

August 20
Western New York .NET Users Group - Amherst, NY
"History of Microsoft Programming, Part I" – Jesse Smith

August 26
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY

September 2
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
“Full Text Search in SQL Server” – Michael Coles

September 17
Western New York .NET Users Group – Buffalo Area (TBD), NY
"VSTO" – Shaun Hayward

September 18 – 10 AM – 3:30 PM
Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Rochester, NY
Join Jim and me for Roadshow series #10 – free events featuring deep dives into Silverlight 3, Windows 7, Patterns, and .NET programming tips.

September 22 – 1-6PM
Fall 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Troy, NY
Join Jim and me for Roadshow series #10 – free events featuring deep dives into Silverlight 3, Windows 7, Patterns, and .NET programming tips.

Bonus Event! Same Location, Same Day – A morning TechNet Unleashed event from 8:30 to 12:00, with great content for IT Pros.
September 23
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY

Schedule TBD
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY
Rochester SharePoint User Group - Rochester, NY

Rhode Island

August 12
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI

September 9
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI

October 14
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI

Schedule TBD
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI

Vermont

August 10
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
“Don’t Fear the XAML: How Silverlight and WPF development can make you a better developer” – Zac Morris

September 12
Vermont Code Camp – Burlington, VT
Vermont’s first Code Camp is going to be great! Join fellow developers for a full day of community-driven content and networking!

October 14
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
Topic TBA – Jeff Hall & Greg Howe (leaders of the BAND)

Schedule TBD
Vermont SQL Server User Group - Burlington, VT

Online

August 13
Linked .NET Users Group – LiveMeeting
”Life Inside the Big Blue Monster” – Scott Hanselman, Microsoft

August 25
Linked .NET Users Group – LiveMeeting
”Talking Shop with Developers II” – Scott Guthrie, Microsoft

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

Save the Date – Vermont’s First Code Camp on September 12th!

cbowen — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:29:07 GMT

I’m very happy to pass along word (via Rob Hale and Julie Lerman) that the first Vermont Code Camp will be on September 12th in Burlington!

The University of Vermont’s School of Business has generously offered to host this event – thank you!

More is coming soon, so for now, just save the date.

It’s going to be a great event (what is a Code Camp?), open to the entire technology community and, with the added bonus of being in Burlington with it’s fall beauty, it will be fantastic. I’m planning to make a weekend of it.

-Chris

P.S. Rob is happy to hear from anyone interested in speaking, but I’m not sure he intended his email to be published to the world, so until the “formal” Call for Speakers is posted, if you’re interested in helping, send me a note and I’ll connect you.

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!

Upcoming Northeast Developer Events: April-June 2009

cbowen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:24:55 GMT

Here’s the latest roundup of upcoming events to help you expand your knowledge and connect with other developers.

Another good way to find events and groups is to check out the Boston User Groups site.

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

[Update 4/30/09 – Added Summer Northeast MSDN Roadshow]
[Update 5/26/09 – Added IASA June Meeting (MA), Architect Factory (MA) and XAMLFest (Online), Cape Cod .NET Second June Meeting (MA)]

Connecticut

May 5
Agile Project Leader Network - Microsoft, Farmington, CT
”Effective Agile Adoptions” - Amr Elssamadisy

May 12
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT

June 2
Agile Project Leader Network - Microsoft, Farmington, CT
”Boundary, Authority, Role and Task: Scrum’s Secret Sauce” – Dan Mezick

June 13
Hartford Code Camp 2 – Hartford, CT
Join fellow CT-area developers for this free, full day of community-driven content and networking!

June 24
Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Farmington, CT
Join Bob, Jim, and Chris for a free day of Windows 7, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight 2 & 3, Developing for IE8, and Data Access Guidance.

Schedule TBD
Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group – Stamford, CT
Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server UG - UConn, Stamford, CT

Massachusetts

April 28
Microsoft TechNet IT Pro Tiki Hut Tour – Microsoft, Waltham, MA
Three sessions: “Moving to the Modern OS Roadmap”, “Windows Security and Application/Driver Compatibility”, and “Windows 7 Beta Sneak Peek”

April 28
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA
"Sizing and Scaling Options for Large MOSS Document Management Implementations” – Jeff Borghoff

April 28
Tallan Presents “Adopting ALM with Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server” – Microsoft, Waltham, MA

April 29
Beantown .NET User Group - Cambridge, MA
”CSLA .NET as the ‘M’ in MVC/MPV/MVVM” – Rocky Lhotka

April 29
Refresh Boston – Cambridge, MA
”Making Agile Work for Design” – Dan Pickett & Jon Follett

April 29
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA
”Requirements by Collaboration” – Ellen Gottesdiener

April 30
Boston JavaScript Meetup Group – Cambridge, MA
”JavaScript Library Comparisons”

April 30
No Excuses Boston Geek Dinner – Waltham, MA
With Shawn Wildermuth

May 4
New England F# User Group – Cambridge, MA
”Introduction to F#” – Antonio Cisternino

May 6
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA
“Windows 7” – Paul Thurrott

May 6
Western Mass .NET Users Group - Chicopee, MA
”Introduction to Build Automation using NAnt and Cruise Control”

May 7
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"Beyond the Core Concepts of OOP" – Claudio Lassala

May 7
Beantown .NET User Group - Cambridge, MA
Joseph Hill

May 8
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA
Windows 2008 Load and Lab Event

May 12
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Plymouth, MA
"At Your Break(ing) Poing?: .NET Debugging Techniques" – Jim O’Neil

May 13
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Load and Performance Testing: How to do Transactional Root-Cause Analysis with Visual Studio Team System for Testers" – Andreas Grabner

May 14
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"Managing SQL 2000/2005 with SQL 2008 Policy Based Management" – Chad Gronbach

May 18-19
Microsoft’s Business Action World Tour – Microsoft, Waltham, MA
2 day training where you’ll learn the developer fundamentals for building on Dynamics CRM and numerous other Microsoft technologies.

May 20
New England ASP.NET Professionals – Waltham, MA
"Preparing your ASP.NET sites for Globalization and Localization" – Phil Denoncourt

May 20
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

May 27
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA

May 27
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA

May 27
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA
”Learning Agile via Agile Games” – Michael de la Maza"

May 28
Boston JavaScript Meetup Group – Cambridge, MA
”GenevaJS Demo – An Extension to the Prototype Library”

June 1
New England F# User Group – Cambridge, MA
Richard Hale Shaw

June 2
The Architect Factory – Cambridge, MA
A great (and free) event at the Microsoft Cambridge office (NERD) for experienced developers to learn the fundamentals for making transitions into architect roles!

June 3
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA

June 4
Beantown .NET User Group - Cambridge, MA

June 4
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"Visual Studio Report Control" – Walt Crosby

June 10
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Using Web Expresssion and Visual Studio 2008" – Viatcheslav (Slava) Kokaev

June 11
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"MDM on the Microsoft Stack" – Larry Barnes

June 12
Western Mass .NET Users Group - Chicopee, MA
”Reflection, with Custom Attributes” – Dan Mezick

June 16
Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Farmington, CT
Join Bob, Jim, and Chris for a free day of Windows 7, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight 2 & 3, Developing for IE8, and Data Access Guidance.

June 16
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Plymouth, MA
”T-SQL Power! Learning to Harness the Under-Used OVER Clause” - Adam Machanic

June 17
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

June 23
IASA New England - Boston, MA
Roundtable on Cloud Computing, hosted by Michael Stiefel

June 24
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA

June 24
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA

June 24
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA

June 25
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Hyannis, MA
Special Presentation: How to think about your Future and your Career - William J. Fallon

Schedule TBD
New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Group - Waltham, MA

Maine

April 28
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
“Introducing jQuery!” – Greg Howe

May 14
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME
”.NET and Java Integration” – Stuart Jones

May 26
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
“SQL 2005 XML” – Jeff Hall

June 11
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME

June 18
Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Augusta, ME
Join Bob, Jim, and Chris for a free day of Windows 7, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight 2 & 3, Developing for IE8, and Data Access Guidance.

June 23
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
“Test-Driven Development (TDD)”

Schedule TBD
Maine Developer Network - Augusta, ME
Maine Microsoft Certification Study Group – Online!

New Hampshire

May 20
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH

June 17
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH

Schedule TBD
NH SQL Users Group - Nashua, NH

New York (Upstate)

April 29
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY
”Code Analysis, Metrics, and Style” – Kyle Korndoerfer

May 4
Western New York .NET Users Group - Buffalo, NY
"Refactoring with Generics" – Kathleen Dollard

May 5
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY
”Your Application in Pieces – MEF and MAF” – Kathleen Dollard

May 6
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
"Your Application in Pieces – MEF and MAF" – Kathleen Dollard

May 7
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY
”Your Application in Pieces – MEF and MAF” – Kathleen Dollard

June 1
Western New York .NET Users Group - Buffalo, NY

June 9
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY

June 10
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY

June 12
Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Farmington, CT
Join Bob, Jim, and Chris for a free day of Windows 7, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight 2 & 3, Developing for IE8, and Data Access Guidance.

June 24
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY

Schedule TBD
Rochester SharePoint User Group - Rochester, NY

Rhode Island

May 13
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI

June 10
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI

Schedule TBD
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI

Vermont

May 18
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
“What’s LINQ for, Anyway?” – Rick Martin

June 8
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT

June 10
Summer 2009 Northeast MSDN Roadshow – Farmington, CT
Join Bob, Jim, and Chris for a free day of Windows 7, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight 2 & 3, Developing for IE8, and Data Access Guidance.

Schedule TBD
Vermont SQL Server User Group - Burlington, VT

Online

April 30
Linked .NET Users Group – LiveMeeting
”Visual Studio Team System 2010” – Brian Harry, Microsoft

May 7
Linked .NET Users Group – LiveMeeting
”.NET Parallel Extensions” – Stephen Toub, Microsoft

May 11
Linked .NET Users Group – LiveMeeting
”The Gu Talks Shop with Developers” – Scott Guthrie, Microsoft

June 1-4
XAMLFest Online – LiveMeeting and Recorded
Learn about XAML, Silverlight, WPF, and Expression with a full syllabus of live and recorded content

Upcoming Developer Events – March & April

cbowen — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:33:44 GMT

Here’s the latest roundup of upcoming Northeast developer events! March and April are almost ridiculously packed with opportunities for developers, from Code Camp 11 and a new MSDN Northeast Roadshow, to many user groups and much more.

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

Connecticut

March 10
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT
"PowerShell 2.0 for Developers" – Allan da Costa Pinto

March 11
MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow – Stamford, CT
Join our NYC/NJ colleagues, Peter Laudati and Bill Zack for this great (and free) half-day event!

March 11
Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group – Stamford, CT
”T4: Code Generation with Visual Studio 2008” - Steve Andrews

March 18
MSDN Northeast Roadshow – Hartford, CT
Join Bob, Chris, and Jim for a free, full day on Windows Azure, Effective Dev Practices, F#, SQL Server, XNA, and .NET Debugging.

April 8
Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group – Stamford, CT

April 14
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT

Schedule TBD
Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server UG - UConn, Stamford, CT
Agile Project Leader Network - Microsoft, Farmington, CT

Massachusetts

March 11
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Interfacing .NET and Java" - Stuart Jones

March 12
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"INETA Event: Understanding LINQ to SQL: Is it a Better ADO.NET?" – Richard Hale Shaw

March 14
SharePoint Saturday – Waltham, MA
A free, Code Code style event focused on SharePoint, featuring sessions great SharePoint experts!

March 16 *NEW GROUP*
New England ASP.NET Professionals – Waltham, MA
”The Changing Face of ASP.NET Development” – Fritz Onion

March 18
Access Day - Waltham, MA
Afternoon through evening sessions for professionals working with Access.

March 18
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

March 23
MSDN Northeast Roadshow – Waltham, MA
Join Bob, Chris, and Jim for a free, full day on Windows Azure, Effective Dev Practices, F#, SQL Server, XNA, and .NET Debugging.

March 24
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA

March 25
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA
”Effective Agile Adoptions” - Amr Elssamadisy

March 25
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA
Group hands-on game coding! All are welcome, novice to expert. Bring those laptops!

March 25
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Plymouth, MA
"A Lap Around Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform" – Mike Cramer

March 26
IASA New England - Boston, MA
"The Event Driven Business" – Hub Vandervoort

March 27, 9 AM – 5 PM
SQL Server 2008 LoadFest - Waltham, MA
A full day to work with and learn about all that's new with SQL Server 2008!

March 28, 8 AM – 7 PM
New England Code Camp 11 – Waltham, MA
The event that started them all! Join hundreds of your fellow New England developers for this full day of community-driven technology content!

April 1
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA
“All About PowerShell” – Igor Moochnick

April 2
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"Geographic Information Systems in .NET" – Tom Schwartzman

April 7
Western Mass .NET Users Group - Chicopee, MA

April 8
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Mono 2.0 and More" – Miguel de Icaza

April 9
Beantown .NET User Group - Boston, MA
”Unit Testing Throwdown!”

April 9
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"Using Resource Governor in SQL Server 2008" – Aaron Bertrand

April 15
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

April 15
Access Day - Waltham, MA
Afternoon through evening sessions for professionals working with Access.

April 22
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA
Group hands-on game coding! All are welcome, novice to expert. Bring those laptops!

April 22
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Plymouth, MA
"LINQ" – Bob Depin

April 25-26
BarCamp Boston 4 – Cambridge, MA
Similar to a Code Camp (driven by fellow developers in the community), but following the “unconference” style of dynamic, attendee-driven content. Definitely worth checking out!

April 28
New England ASP.NET Professionals – Waltham, MA

April 28
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA

April 29
Agile Boston User Group - Waltham, MA
“Agile Requirements” - Ellen Gottesdiener

Schedule TBD
New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Group - Waltham, MA

Maine

March 19
MSDN Northeast Roadshow – Augusta, ME
Join Bob, Chris, and Jim for a free, full day on Windows Azure, Effective Dev Practices, F#, SQL Server, XNA, and .NET Debugging.

March 24
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
INETA Event with Steve Andrews

April 9
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME

April 28
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
"SQL2005 XML"

Schedule TBD
Maine Developer Network - Augusta, ME

New Hampshire

March 19
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH

April 16
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH

Schedule TBD
NH SQL Users Group - Nashua, NH

New York (Upstate)

March 10
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY

March 11
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
"Silverlight Design and Animation" – Andy Beaulieu

March 12
MSDN Northeast Roadshow – Rochester, NY
Join Bob, Chris, and Jim for a free, full day on Windows Azure, Effective Dev Practices, F#, SQL Server, XNA, and .NET Debugging.

March 18
Western New York .NET Users Group - Buffalo, NY
"What About Windows Presentation Foundation?" – Dan Martin

March 25
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY
”LINQ To Objects, Method Syntax, and Enumerable Class A-Z” – David Stevenson

April 8
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY

April 14
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY

April 15
Western New York .NET Users Group - Buffalo, NY

April 22
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY

Rhode Island

March 11
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI
“Microsoft and PASS Energy Event: SQL Server Virtualization” – Chris Peterson

March 11
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI
“Analyzing and Manipulating Geospatial Information Using ArcObjects with .NET” – Sam Berg

April 8
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI

April 8
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI

Vermont

March 9
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
The Roadshow guys join Vermont .NET for a special “Stump the Chumps” evening of Q&A about Microsoft, development, and anything else!

March 10
MSDN Northeast Roadshow – Williston, VT
Join Bob, Chris, and Jim for a free, full day on Windows Azure, Effective Dev Practices, F#, SQL Server, XNA, and .NET Debugging.

April 13
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
“A Glimpse into the Parallel Universe” - Eric de Carfuel

Schedule TBD
Vermont SQL Server User Group - Burlington, VT

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

Upcoming Northeast Developer Events - Jan/Feb 2009

cbowen — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:07:58 GMT

The new year is upon us, and so is a large list of upcoming user group meetings and other events for developers in the Northeast.

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

Connecticut

February 10
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT
"SharePoint Development" - Travis Falls

March 10
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT

Schedule TBD
Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server UG - UConn, Stamford, CT
Agile Project Leader Network - Microsoft, Farmington, CT
South CT .NET SIG - Shelton, CT

Massachusetts

January 13
Cape Cod .NET User Group - Plymouth, MA
"An Introduction to F#" - Chris Bowen

January 14
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Parallel Programming in .NET" - Richard Hale Shaw

January 21
Access Day - Waltham, MA
Afternoon through evening sessions for professionals working with Access.

January 21
IASA New England - Boston, MA
"Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises" - Roger Sessions

January 21
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

January 22
MSDN Developer Conference - Boston, MA
This conference will be a great way to hear about the cutting edge of developer technology right here in the northeast. 12 sessions, a keynote by Amanda Silver, a WomenBuild feature, Community Courtyard and more!

January 24, 8-30 AM - 5:00 PM
New England Data Camp v1.0 - Waltham, MA
A Code Camp style community event for anyone who works with data (and who doesn't?) Developers, DBAs, BI pros will all find something interesting here!

January 28
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA
Group hands-on game coding! All are welcome, novice to expert. Bring those laptops!

February 3
Western Mass .NET Users Group - Chicopee, MA
Topic TBD

February 4
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA
Joint Meeting with Exchange Users Group

February 5
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"VB.Net on Linux/Mono Boo... and other open source languages" - Joe Hill

February 5
Beantown .NET User Group - Boston, MA

February 11
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"A First Look at Windows Azure" - Michael Stiefel

February 12
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"Incremental Loads, Change Data Capture, and SSIS 2008" - Andy Leonard

February 18
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA

February 25
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA
Group hands-on game coding! All are welcome, novice to expert. Bring those laptops!

March 5
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"ASP.NET Data Services (Astoria)" - Igor Moochnick

March 11
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Interfacing .NET and Java" - Stuart Jones

March 27, 9 AM-5PM
SQL Server 2008 LoadFest - Waltham, MA
A full day to work with and learn about all that's new with SQL Server 2008!

Schedule TBD
New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Group - Waltham, MA
Agile Boston - Waltham, MA
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA

Maine

January 27
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
"Entity Framework" - Daniel Pratt

February 24
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
"Tips and Techniques"

March 24
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
"SQL2005 XML"

Schedule TBD
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME
Maine Developer Network - Augusta, ME

New Hampshire

January 15
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH
2 Sessions: SQL 2008 with Rick Lemon and LINQ with Pat Tormey

February 28
New Hampshire Code Camp - Nashua, NH
Join fellow New England developers for a full day of technology, sharing and networking! Registration is open as is the Call for Speakers (Code Camp needs you!)

Schedule TBD
NH SQL Users Group - Nashua, NH

New York (Upstate)

January 13
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY
"Windows Workflow Steals the Show" - Jim O'Neil

January 22
Western New York .NET Users Group - Buffalo, NY
"LINQ to SQL" - David Stevenson

February 10
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY

February 11
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
"Developing Applications Using Data Services" - Jim O'Neil

Schedule TBD
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY

Rhode Island

Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI
January meeting is the New England Data Camp v1.0 (listed under MA above)

Schedule TBD
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI

Vermont

January 12
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
"Best practices to design a modular architecture" - Mario Cardinal

February 9
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
February will mark the seventh year for Vermont .NET! Congratulations!

Schedule TBD
Vermont SQL Server User Group - Burlington, VT

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

Upcoming Northeast Developer Events - October / November

cbowen — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:02:45 GMT

Here's the latest (and large!) set of activities and events for developers in the Northeast.

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

Connecticut

October 14
The Fall Northeast Roadshow - Farmington, CT
Entity Framework, REST, Dynamic Data, IE8, Unit Testing, UI Technology, and even Robotics! - Chris Bowen & Jim O'Neil

October 28
Connecticut .NET User Group - Microsoft Offices, Farmington, CT
"BizTalk Server for Developers" - Mario Harik

November 5
MSDN Event - Waterbury, CT
Silverlight 2, SQL Server 2008, and VSTO

November 8
Fairfield/Westchester Code Camp - Stamford, CT
Spend the day sharing knowledge and networking with fellow developers!

November 12
Fairfield/Westchester SQL Server UG - UConn, Stamford, CT
Topic TBD

Schedule TBD
Agile Project Leader Network - Microsoft, Farmington, CT
South CT .NET SIG - Shelton, CT
Fairfield/Westchester .NET User Group - UConn, Stamford, CT

Massachusetts

October 8
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"LINQ Demystified" - Dan Mezick

October 9
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
"Performance Monitoring Tips for SQL Server 2008 Using Performance Studio" - Jeremy Gaige

October 15
The Fall Northeast Roadshow - Waltham, MA
Entity Framework, REST, Dynamic Data, IE8, Unit Testing, UI Technology, and even Robotics! - Chris Bowen & Jim O'Neil

October 15
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA
Topic TBD

October 15
New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Group - Waltham, MA
Topic TBD

October 15
Access Day - Waltham, MA
Afternoon through evening sessions for professionals working with Access. Schedule.

October 17
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA
Windows Server 2008 Training Event II ($35/$25 members)

October 20
Cape Cod .NET User Group - West Barnstable, MA
"Architect Applications End-to-End with LINQ to SQL" - Ben Day

October 22
Boston XNA Developers Group - Waltham, MA
Game Coding Time! Bring those laptops!

October 22
Agile Boston - Waltham, MA
"Agile Adoptions" - Ray Scot

October 28
New England SharePoint User Group - Waltham, MA
"Impact of Business Productivity Infrastructure Optimization on SharePoint Deployment" - Gene Rodgers

November 5
Boston Area Windows Server User Group - Waltham, MA
Scripting 101 - Clyde Johnson and Ted Vahey

November 5
Western Mass .NET Users Group - Chicopee, MA
Topic TBD

November 6
New England Visual Basic Professionals - Waltham, MA
"Stupid Hacker Tricks - and How to Defend Against Them" - Joe Stagner

November 6
Beantown .NET User Group - Boston, MA
A variety of 30-minute talks given by group members

November 12
SQL Server 2008 Roadshow (not to be confused with our MSDN Northeast Roadshow, however) - Boston, MA
"Security and database management, how to best manage your data, and what’s new in business intelligence with SQL Server 2008"

November 12
Boston .NET User Group - Waltham, MA
"Mobile .NET Development" - Don Sorcinelli

November 13
MSDN Event - Boston, MA
Silverlight 2, SQL Server 2008, and VSTO

November 13
New England SQL Server User Group - Waltham, MA
Topic TBD

November 19
Boston .NET Architecture Study Group - Waltham, MA
Topic TBD

November 25
Agile Boston - Waltham, MA
Special Event - Jeff Sutherland, Scrum co-creator and pioneer. RSVP here.

Schedule TBD
IASA New England - Waltham, MA

Maine

October 28
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
Topic TBD

November 13
Maine Bytes User Group - Portland, ME
"Understanding ADO.NET Entity Framework" - Chris Bowen

November 25
Bangor Area .Net Developers (BAND) - Bangor, ME
Topic TBD

Schedule TBD
Maine Developer Network - Augusta, ME

New Hampshire

October 16
New Hampshire .NET User Group - Nashua, NH
Sessions on Silverlight 2 and VSTO - Russ Fustino

Schedule TBD
NH SQL Users Group - Nashua, NH

New York (Upstate)

October 14
Tech Valley .NET Users Group - Latham, NY
"Developer Duct Tape: XML Support in SQL Server" - Alex Silverstein

October 15
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
"LINQ to SQL and the Object/Relational Designer" - David Stevenson

November 5
Central New York .NET Developer Group - East Syracuse, NY
"Introduction to Server Virtualization" - Jim Spignardo

November 19
Western New York .NET Users Group - Buffalo, NY
Topic TBD

Schedule TBD
VDUNY - Visual Developers of Upstate NY - Rochester, NY

Rhode Island

October 8
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI
"Back Button Support with MS Ajax 3.5 SP1" - Scott Cate

October 8
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI
"Deploying DB Pro to Multiple Environments" - Grant Fritchey

November 11
Rhode Island .NET User Group - Bristol, RI
"ASP.NET Dynamic Data" - Jim O'Neil

November 12
Southern New England SQL Server User Group, Warwick, RI
Topic TBD

Vermont

October 8
Vermont SQL Server User Group - Burlington, VT
"Upgrading to SQL 2008: Notes from Early Adopters and Best Practices" - Rob Walters

October 20
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
"Silverlight for Business Developers" - Rod Paddock

November 17
Vermont SQL Server User Group - Burlington, VT
Topic TBD

December 1
Vermont .NET User Group - S. Burlington, VT
Joint Meeting with VT SQL User Group. Topic TBA - Klaus Aschenbrenner

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