Joe Cleaver's Blog

Innovation Showcase Headlines – 11/16/2009

jcleaver — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:16:34 GMT

Innovation Showcase Headlines – 11/16/2009

The Innovation Showcase does not fail to deliver on this weeks top headlines. Check out the stories below…

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Innovation Showcase Headlines – 11/9/2009

jcleaver — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:09:09 GMT

Lots of terrific articles posted this week on the Innovation Showcase news site. Read about new features in Visual Studio 2010, check out David Chappells’ whitepaper on the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform and see video interviews with Don Box and Dave Thompson.

Visit the Innovation Showcase Site

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The Latest Innovation Showcase Headlines….

jcleaver — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:14:59 GMT

Innovation Showcase Headlines 10/26/2009

Here are the latest headlines form the Innovation Showcase site:

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Innovation/Showcase on Windows 7

jcleaver — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:49:54 GMT

“Windows 7 is what a modern managed desktop should be. It helps us increase productivity, reduce costs, and provide enhanced desktop security”

- Doug Miller, Practice Architect, CDW

Join us at Microsoft’s Windows 7 Innovation Showcase where you can explore how Windows 7 delivers ‘the new efficiency” by growing your business through cost savings, productivity and innovation! Register today to see what Innovation can do for you!

Areas covered include:

· Address top seven business values of Windows 7 that enterprise customers care about

· Take advantage of the advancements in the Windows 7 user experience to make your application more compelling to users

and your users more productive in the tasks they care about

· Dive into the business scenarios and technical details of Multi-Touch and the Sensor and Location API on Windows 7

· Ease of Migrating to Windows 7

City/State	Date	Microsoft Location	Registration Link
Farmington, CT	October 15, 2009	Farmington Directions	Farmington Registration Link
Waltham, MA	October 20, 2009	Waltham Directions	Waltham Registration Link
Reston, VA	October 20, 2009	Reston Directions	Reston Registration Link
New York, NY	October 21, 2009	New York Directions	NY Registration Link
Rochester, NY	October 22, 2009	Rochester Directions	Rochester Registration Link
Alpharetta, GA	October 22, 2009	Alpharetta Directions	Alpharetta Registration Link
Ft Lauderdale, FL	October 26, 2009	Ft Lauderdale Directions	Ft Lauderdale Registration Link
Malvern, PA	October 29, 2009	Malvern Directions	Malvern Registration Link

Innovation/Showcase on Internet Explorer 8 and Silverlight 3

jcleaver — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:41:25 GMT

Join us at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 and Silverlight 3 Innovation Showcase where you can learn how IE8 & SL3

features deliver the best web experience for your users. Register today to see what Innovation can do for you!

During this showcase we will discuss how you can Expand your Business Reach with Internet Explorer 8 and

Build a Line-of-Business Applications with Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3.

Who Should Attend:

Solution Architects, CIO’s, CTO’s, Development Managers, Lead Developers, Business Decision Makers

City/State	Date	Microsoft Location	Registration Link
Charlotte, NC	September 15, 2009	Charlotte Directions	Charlotte Registration Link
New York, NY	September 16, 2009	New York Directions	NY Registration Link
Farmington, CT	September 17, 2009	Farmington Directions	Farmington Registration Link
Reston, VA	September 17, 2009	Reston Directions	Reston Registration Link
Waltham, MA	September 22, 2009	Waltham Directions	Waltham Registration Link
Ft Lauderdale, FL	September 22, 2009	Ft Lauderdale Directions	Ft Lauderdale Registration Link

Learn new skills and differentiate yourself in today’s tough job market. Learn more.

jcleaver — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:30:53 GMT

This week Microsoft is launching Thrive for developers.
(www.microsoft.com/thrivedev) . Although the economic news is looking a little brighter, we know it’s still tough out there…. to help Microsoft has put together Thrive - a website all about helping developers survive the recession and manage their careers in this tough economy. Thrive pulls together a ton of great resources to help you learn new tasks faster, get access to discounted training, and certification and connect you with your local community. Thrive has lots of interesting insights from members of our own developer community who are sharing their stories and advice about what they are doing to manage their career in the downturn. Some interesting content points (for your editing purposes)

.NET Rocks “Development in a Downturn” podcast series – 10 part podcast series focusing on developers in the community sharing their stories of how they have handled the recession, what they have learned and advice they have to share to others based on their personal experiences
Step by step resources to help devs ramp quickly on new tasks. Developers are being asked to take on more with fewer resources and limited training, these step by step scenarios help save time and money.
“How to be a better Developer” series – everything from community MVP’s weighing in with their advice, to how to leverage social networks to benefit your career, to “Driving your Career Forward” , a 32 part screen cast series on how to develop key soft skills that can help you be more successful on the job.
Job search functionality on thousands of development job openings across the country
Industry resources and articles on how to land a job; including a 4 part webcast series on “Getting a Development Job in the Current Economy”
Community Connection to find local developer events and user groups

Innovation through Industry Solutions – Financial Services

jcleaver — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:42:09 GMT

Are you frustrated with all the conflicting information out there when it comes to investments, mortgages, insurance, etc? Well, soon you'll be able to walk into your bank and sit in front of a Microsoft Surface table and have it all displayed for you neatly with outstanding visual clarity. An in depth demonstration will be offered at the upcoming 7^th annual Microsoft Enterprise Developer and Industry Solutions Conference 2009 where you will learn about solutions in Microsoft technologies relevant to the Financial Services and Health & Life Sciences industries, as well as hear about the latest advancements in major industries such as media, communications, retail and hospitality. This two day event will be held in New York City on May 5^th and 6^th.

We will be announcing the winners of the 3rd annual Windows in Financial Services Developer Awards, and Cloud Innovation Awards. Excellence in development involves an awareness of the latest technology and the initiative to adopt and deploy it. But it also involves the creativity and inventiveness to find new ways to integrate, extend and tailor advanced technologies to support the increasingly high-powered demands of today’s business environment. These will go to key teams who have built the most cutting edge solutions on the latest best of breed Microsoft developer platforms. In 2007, the winners were Merrill Lynch, AllState Insurance Company, Credit Suisse, and Wachovia. In 2008, the awards included the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Bank Of America, and Merrill Lynch for an unprecedented double year win! The awards are not limited to US solutions only – last year the winners went beyond US borders to include Piraeus Bank and MAAKL MUTUAL Berhad. The Cloud Innovation Awards are new to 2009, and will focus on emerging solutions using Microsoft Azure, Live Services, Virtual Earth and Business Productivity Online Suite.

For those of you who cannot attend the conference in person in New York City, we have the proud pleasure of our first ever live streamed event, in full robust quality, from the company who covered the presidential election in Silverlight & Steve Ballmer’s keynote at the Computer Electronics Show earlier this year.

In addition, we will host syndication of content for 1 year beyond the event. Microsoft customers and partners will be holding “Watch it Live” sessions in their local offices to watch the two day event, as part of developer briefings and readiness. Schedule your event now!

This year you will get multiple conferences in one, as we will be co-locating the Financial Services Developer Conference & the Health and Life Sciences Conference as part of the annual Microsoft Enterprise Developer and Industry Solutions Conference 2009.

The sessions are tailored for developers, architects, business decision makers, and technology decision makers in large enterprise organizations a clear roadmap of the Microsoft development platform. We will give specific examples of real world solutions using the best of breed technology to bring you from where you are today, to where you will be tomorrow. This is the only conference that will show case enterprise customer solutions directly from the mouth of developers that work in the enterprise industry space as well hear from Microsoft and their partners on topics such as Cloud Computing, Application Lifecycle Management and User Experience (REGISTER HERE) and you can see a quick over-view in this clip.

Windows 7 Beta 1 for MDC Attendees

jcleaver — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:59:12 GMT

Breaking news!!!

Attend an upcoming MSDN Developer Conference and you will receive a Windows 7 Beta 1 DVD.

Register today and you’ll get the best of the PDC in your own backyard and hear all of the exciting announcements around the Azure Services Platform and Windows 7.

Experience Windows Azure
Create applications that seamlessly bridge the gaps between PC, Web, and phone
Be among the first to see Windows 7
See the latest advances in Multi-Touch Application Development
Take your .NET skills to the next level
See sessions on WPF 4.0, Silverlight 2, The Future of C# and VB, ASP.NET 4.0, Live Mesh and more

The Cost? Just $99.
And, did we mention that attendees will get some cool giveaways?

Check out the session line up…

Azure Services Platform	Client and Presentation	Tools, Languages and Framework
A Lap Around Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform	Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) Roadmap	The Future of Managed Languages: F#, C#, and Visual Basic
Developing and Deploying Your First Azure Service	Developing Data-centric Applications Using the WPF DataGrid and Ribbon Controls	A Lap Around "Oslo"
A Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services	Building Business Focused Applications using Silverlight 2	A Lap Around Visual Studio 2010
Developing Applications Using Microsoft SQL Data Services	ASP.NET 4.0 Roadmap	Parallel Programming for Managed Code Developers

Register for a city near you…

Date	City
12/9/08	Houston, TX
12/11/08	Orlando, FL
12/16/08	Atlanta, GA
1/13/09	Chicago, IL
1/13/09	Minneapolis, MN
1/16/09	Washington, DC
1/20/09	New York, NY
1/22/09	Boston, MA
1/22/09	Detroit, MI
1/26/09	Dallas, TX
2/19/90	San Francisco, CA

Cool Giveaways

The MSDN Developer Conference will not only WOW you with the coolest sessions from the PDC but you will also be in the running to win one of 3 Lego NXT Robotics Kits and the WROX Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio book. Other giveaways include a Gamer Backpack filled with the latest XBox games and a Mobility Backpack full of cool hardware.

Community Courtyard

As good as the sessions are, there's always more to explore and discuss. At MDC, you'll have a chance to step into the Community Courtyard and choose what to talk about, based on your interest and passion for the subject.

Running in tandem with the presentations is an open discussion area where you will choose the subjects and the participants. Whether you want to mingle with the presenters, talk about an MDC session, a related subject or something else you have the opportunity. Borrowing from Open Space Technology and other forms of open, community-driven discussion, using fishbowls and free-for-alls, this area is yours.

Online Community

Find our tag cloud under #MSDNDevCon. Join the buzz!

MSDN Social

Facebook - Join the group

Twitter - follow the feed

Flickr - post your MDC pictures

del.icio.us - share your bookmarks

Twemes - global twitter tags

Technorati Tags: MDC,Windows Azure,Azure Services Platform,Cloud Computing,Windows 7,ASP.NET,WPF,Silverlight,Visual Studio,Parallel Programming,C#,VB,F#,Data Services

The MSDN Developer Conference is coming…Are you ready?

jcleaver — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 22:32:00 GMT

The nature of software development is radically changing... Are you ready?

Prepare yourself for a demanding future. Attend the MSDN Developer Conference.

Experience Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Platform
Create applications that seamlessly bridge the gaps between PC, Web, and phone
Be among the first to see Windows 7
See the latest advances in Multi-Touch Application Development
Take your .NET skills to the next level
See sessions on WPF 4.0, Silverlight 2, ASP.NET 4.0, Parallel Programming, Live Mesh and more

The Cost? Just $99.
And, did we mention that attendees will get some cool giveaways?

Check out the session line up…

Cloud Services	Client and Presentation	Tools, Languages and Framework
Lap Around Cloud Services	Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) Roadmap	The Future of Managed Languages: F#, C#, and Visual Basic
Developing and Deploying Your First Cloud Services	Developing Data-centric Applications Using the WPF DataGrid and Ribbon Controls	A Lap Around "Oslo"
A Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services	Building Business Focused Applications using Silverlight 2	"Rosario": A Sprint with the Next Version of Microsoft Visual Studio Team System
Developing Applications Using Data Services	ASP.NET 4.0 Roadmap	Parallel Programming for Managed Code Developers

Date	City
12/9/08	Houston, TX
12/11/08	Orlando, FL
12/16/08	Atlanta, GA
1/13/09	Chicago, IL
1/13/09	Minneapolis, MN
1/16/09	Washington, DC
1/20/09	New York, NY
1/22/09	Boston, MA
1/22/09	Detroit, MI
1/26/09	Dallas, TX
2/19/90	San Francisco, CA

Online Community

Find our tag cloud under #MSDNDevCon. Join the buzz!

MSDN Social

Facebook - Join the group

Twitter - follow the feed

Flickr - post your MDC pictures

del.icio.us - share your bookmarks

Twemes - global twitter tags

Technorati Tags: MDC,Cloud Computing,Windows 7,ASP.NET,WPF,Silverlight,Visual Studio,Parallel Programming,C#,VB,F#,Data Services

Industry Chat #3 - "Distributed Caching" (Lab49 & ScaleOut Software) - LIVE!!

jcleaver — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:24:00 GMT

Join myself and Joe Rubino for our really fascinating discussion with Marc Jacobs from Lab49 and Bill Bain from ScaleOut Software where we discuss "Distributed Caching for Server Farms"...what it is and why you should care.

The total length is just around 17 minutes and it covers what Lab49 and ScaleOut Software do as companies, how they work together with each other and with Microsoft, what distributed caching for server farms is and a few examples of where distributed caching takes place today (hint: EVERYWHERE).

I will be writing back soon about an upcoming Architect Roundtable event happening in May.

Stay Tuned, Stay Informed, Stay Connected.

Joe

ANNOUNCING...Retail Financial Services Silverlight Demo!!

jcleaver — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:40:00 GMT

In my last post, I mentioned that we recently completed our 6th Annual Financial Services Developer Conference in NYC. While the conference theme was HPC and Software plus Services (S+S), we did have another announcement that we made, the availability of the Retail Financial Services Silverlight Demo. What is that you ask? Keep reading!!

The Silverlight 2 Retail Financial Services Demonstrator provides essential resources to help customers and ISV's to create their own demo or proof of concept based on the Silverlight 2 platform. Included in the kit are:

Functional Silverlight 2 Website (Woodgrove Financial)
Installation, customization and demo script that provides step by step instructions for installing the demo, customizing the data shown in the demo as well has how to step through the site with talking points.
Source Code – that is right, you also get to see and use the source code to see what is going on under the covers and use as a foundation for your own POC!

Why use Silverlight 2 and the Demonstrator?

Immersive, cross-platform/cross-browser user experience
Insightful visualizations, improved end user experience that can be personalized and branded
Great performance, reuse of .NET code on the web (cross platform!!)
Great examples of using visualizations to help sell and service financial products including cause and effect, multiple scenarios, unified communications, etc…

Jaime Rodriguez wrote a great blog about it here..he describes other places where you can see the demo via video, download the bits and/or the script.

If you're interested in downloading the entire application, along with installation and walk through script, then go to http://www.financialdevelopers.com. There, you'll find everything you need!

We're very much looking forward to any feedback you may have on this, and we're anxiously awaiting that first email from a customer saying they've used it to build a proof of concept!!

More to come...

Stay tuned, stay informed, stay connected.

Joe

Whew...another one down...BUT..

jcleaver — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:39:00 GMT

Wow, what an amazing week last week. If you've been reading my blog in the past, you'll know that most of our team's time has been spent on getting ready for the 6th Annual Financial Services Developer Conference, that was held March 12, 13th at the Marriott Marquis in NYC. WHAT AN EVENT!! I really feel it was our best yet. We had over 1000 register and over 500 attend (for anyone out there who has done big conferences, 40-50% drop-off is expected. The theme was HPC and we had all sorts of folks attend to present, to showcase partner expertise and to just network.

Kyril Faenov, General Manager - HPC for Microsoft, took part in the opening keynote, and the invitation only Architect Breakfast prior to the keynote. He shared Microsoft's vision on HPC and we received a TON of great feedback. I need to thank Kyril and his entire team for really going the extra mile to make this event a success.

But the fun didn't stop there, we had Mike Walker - Architect/Technical Evangelist, in from Redmond, who did a phenomenal piece on the OBA (Office Business Applications) Component Library. Our customers who attended loved it...and you will too. I've provided a link to Mike's blog via his name above, so please go ahead and check it out. He's got some really great stuff to say. And my colleague Joe Rubino and I will be conducting one of our 'Industry Chats' with him soon, so stay tuned.

Speaking of Industry Chats, Joe and I had the opportunity to sit down with Marc Jacobs of Lab49, and Bill Bain from ScaleOut Software for a chat on distributed caching for server farms. Now, if you're like me and thinking...HUH?...then this is the right session for you. Marc and Bill did a great job of not only explaining what they and their firms do, but also why it's important and how large scale enterprises can benefit. A really great session that's in post-production now, so look back here for the link when it's ready.

We also had some great customer presenters including Wachovia, Unum, and Merrill Lynch to name a few. It's nice to hear from us folks at Microsoft, but sooo much better when our partners and CUSTOMERS are able to get on stage and talk about their solutions including challenges and successes.

FINALLY, I wanted to announce the availability of our Retail Financial Services Silverlight Demo. This was a collaboration between a few of us folks in Microsoft, and our great partner Infusion Development Corporation. The purpose of the demo was to showcase not only the Silverlight technology, as phenomenal as that is, but also to put that technology into the context of real-world financial services applications. We took it a step further making the source code available externally to our customers. That means you can look at it, download it, tweak it, and create your own proof of concept!! HOW GREAT IS THAT??? The bits, along with a script on how to install and how to work your way through the application can be found on http://www.financialdevelopers.com.

I know I'm missing a TON of stuff (and yes, this all happened in 2 days!), so I will definitely write more as it comes to me. Also, in the spirit of 'cross team collaboration', I will be posting details about our Health and Life Sciences Developer and Solutions Conference coming up April 22 and 23rd in Atlantic City.

So, stay tuned, stay informed, and stay connected!

Joe

6th Annual Financial Services Developer Conference - DON'T MISS IT

jcleaver — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:51:53 GMT

This is ONE event you don't want to miss....it's free, it's valuable and there's a ton of opportunities to meet and speak with Microsoft folks, our partners and other customers!

March 12-13, 2008

Marriott Marquis Hotel

New York, NY

As always, conference attendance is FREE. Breakfast and lunch for both days is provided as well as a welcome reception on the first night of the event. You are responsible for all other travel and hotel expenses.

6th Annual Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference

Please join us as we celebrate the sixth year of the Financial Services Developer Conference! This year promises to be one you will not want to miss!! Come listen to presenters across a wide spectrum of organizations – including Microsoft Product Managers, key partners and your industry peers. In addition, we will be hosting the 2^nd Annual Windows in Financial Services Developer Innovator Awards as we recognize industry leading solutions leveraging the Microsoft development platform. In honor of National Women’s History Month in March, we will be celebrating the accomplishments of female leaders and pioneers in Financial Services and Technology via a live panel with our 2008 Women Leaders of Wall Street (“Willows”).

The 2008 Microsoft Financial Services Developer Conference will focus on providing developers and architects in Financial Services a clear roadmap of the Microsoft development platform with a focus on High Performance Computing (HPC).

In celebration of the conference’s 6^th year, we are building on the momentum of years past. We will be highlighting trends and best practices in the HPC space, including:

· A strong roadmap that will empower customers and partners to leverage Microsoft’s current and next wave of technologies to ensure that they are operating with optimal efficiency and performance.

Upcoming Events...

jcleaver — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:18:56 GMT

In my last post, I posted a link to our upcoming Financial Services Industry Council and Architect Roundtable. Thank you to all of you that have registered. It should be a great event and I really think you'll get a lot out of it. To that end, I'm going to be posting more events over the next couple of weeks. We're in an interesting time of the year this year as we have events almost EVERY WEEK between now and mid-March.

So this next event is a bit of shameless self-promotion. Next week, on February 11th, I'll be speaking at the SOA on Wall St. Conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. My session is entitled 'Technology Insight - Microsoft Silverlight – A Compelling User Experience for the Web' and I'm really looking forward to presenting it. Silverlight is a phenomenal technology and I really feel holds ALOT of promise for creating truly compelling, immersive, next generation user experiences on the web. I'll be doing a high-level overview of what Silverlight is and specific examples of how it can be used. We showed a '360 Degree Retail Banking' demo that was fairly futuristic in its approach, but really shows how Silverlight can be used in the Financial Services arena. If you are in attendance at the event, please feel free to look me up and say hello. I'll be presenting on Monday, 2/11 at 4:00 p.m.

My next post will include a write up of our Financial Services Developer Conference and Mix. STAY TUNED....

2008 - What's Next?? Many, Many Things...

jcleaver — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:01:21 GMT

OK, so in previous posts, I promised to be better about keeping my blog up-to-date, and I actually kept that promise for a while. But, like many New Year's resolutions (thankfully this wasn't one last year), I neglected to be consistent for a long time. However, the good news this calendar year is that we have a ton, and I mean a TON of events coming up in the next several weeks and months that will keep me busy posting.

The first item of note, is that Joe Rubino and I are getting ready to record our 3rd Financial Services Industry Cast. You know 'em, you love 'em...and they can be found linked off of our blogs. Stay tuned for future posts on guests and topics.

The next item I want to mention is my next Financial Services Industry Conference. I'm combining this one with another group this time around and we'll be presenting SQL2008 and Visual Studio 2008. This is very timely because our big launch is coming up at the end of February! Please see the invite and registration information below...

-------------------------------------------------------------

You're Invited...

Microsoft invites you to register for a combined group session of:

Architect Roundtable & Financial Services Industry Council

February 20, 2008

Please join us for session III of our ARCHITECT ROUNDTABLE series:

SQL Server 2008 Release Vision: Your Data - Any Place, Any Time

The discussion will also include details and demos from the following release themes:
Enterprise Data Platform

· Dynamic Development
· Beyond Relational
· Pervasive Insight

Visual Studio 2008 – What, Where and How?
With release of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 several new technologies and updates were introduced into the Microsoft platform. This session will give an overview of what has been updated for Windows Communications Foundation (WCF), Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) and ASP.NET Ajax Development. We will also look at some of the new technologies such as LINQ, Multi-Targetting, new GUI Designer (Silverlight and WPF) as well as enhancements to the Visual Studio Team System (VSTS/TFS).

Light breakfast refreshments will be served.

This session will be held on the 5^th floor in our new Microsoft Technology Center – and will include a tour of our state of the art facility!

RSVP: This special event will fill quickly and space is limited, so be sure to register as soon as possible to reserve your seat.

Location

Microsoft Office
1290 Ave of the Americas New York, NY 10104
Phone: (212) 245-2100

February 20, 2008

8:30 AM to 12:30 AM

Click here to register or call 877.673.8368 with event code 1032363901.

Participants will include Enterprise, Software and Infrastructure Architects.

Please feel free to invite other architects from your team.

We look forward to your participation!