Ben H Blog - Keep it Simple, Then Refactor.

We all know that PDC… I mean BUILD is coming up in a couple weeks in Anaheim, California.  Microsoft is keeping all the announcements (Including a real agenda) for BUILD really close to the vest.  One thing is for sure, there will be some fallout after BUILD.  Many questions, rumors and suspicions will be debated out there in cyberspace.  What better place to get the real answers than at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond?  VS Live in Redmond includes sessions from some of the top names in the industry, including many Microsoft Product\Program Managers.  No one knows what will come out at BUILD (Or no one can talk about it until after BUILD).  In the short time between BUILD and VS Live the speakers will undoubtedly be up to speed on what is going on in the Microsoft world.  Join us at VS Live and have access to all the speakers to get your questions answered by real world software engineers.

Early bird rates are available until Sept. 7th.  Click on the image below to register for VS Live in Redmond and get a special speaker discount.

By the way I will be presenting on HTML 5 and MEF at VS Live in Redmond.  I sincerely hope to see you there.

I am happy to say I am presenting at the Spring ‘09 SSWUG.ORG .NET vConference on April 22, 23, 24.  I recorded my sessions earlier and I’m please with the results.  If you are not familiar with the vConference format you can get a 10 minute sample of one of my presentations here.  The cost of the conference is only $125 and since it is a virtual conference there are no additional expenses.  There really is some great content presented by outstanding presenters.  Here is the link to check out all the SSWUG vConferences going on:

https://www.vconferenceonline.com/upcoming.asp

I also wanted to point out a free event that is going on Friday, April 17th.  Here is the link to the free event:

https://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sql/s09event.asp

I will keep this blog updated with my content and slides once the conference begins.

I know January is almost over, but to me the year is still new.  I wanted to inform everyone about all the awesome User Groups and Community events in Colorado.

One of the most exciting upcoming events is the first ever Rocky Mountain Tech Tri-Fecta on Saturday, Feb. 21.  I cannot explain how cool this event is going to be!  It’s basically an all day geek fix.  There will be sessions related to .NET development, SQL Server and Windows Server.  So, if you work with MS products or know someone who does this is the event for you.  We have tons of speakers (Scott Hanselman is coming!) from all over the country and many who work for Microsoft and have inside info you cannot get anywhere else.  If you like what you are hearing please be sure visit the www.rmtechtrifecta.com site to register for the event to reserve your spot.

Next I wanted to let people know about the South Colorado .NET User Group.  I have taken over the leadership of this group from Julie Yack.  Julie Yack, David Yack and David Milner round out the leadership team for this group.  Next Tuesday we have Kathleen Dollard coming down from Ft. Collins to talk about rethinking Object Orientation.  SHould be great!  Please check out the link above to get more details.

Here are the links to all the MS related user groups I can think of in Colorado.

Denver Visual Studio User Group

North Colorado .NET User Group

Boulder .Net User Group

Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group

Denver SQL Server User Group

Colorado Springs Windows User Group

Rocky Mountain Windows Technology User Group

Please let me know if I missed a group.

Today was another great day at the vConference.  I attended some great sessions over the course of these three days and now I'm excited to go back and watch the ones I missed on demand.  I hope everyone had as much fun as I did with the conference!

I did finally get my hosting situation figured out.  That means I can get my slides and demos out here for people to download.  I do believe that the vConference site will have this stuff posted eventually, but in case they don't here you go:

SharePoint:

Business Data Catalog Part I

Business Data Catalog part II

KeyNote - SharePoint and SilverLight

.NET:

Beginning WPF Databinding

Advanced WPF Databinding

Design Patterns

KeyNote - Data Services

KeyNote - SilverLight and Cross Domain Calls

KeyNote - LINQ vs. ADO

Day 2 of the conference was just as good as day 1.  We had great sessions all day long.  I attended a bunch of the sessions and had some great conversations with many of the attendees.  One of the issues we ran into today was the demos where not available.  I was going to post them here, but I'm having some issues with my ISV and getting the files to the server.  I will post them ASAP.

In the mean time, enjoy the rest of the conference.

Day one of the Virtual Conference is over.  It was a good day.  We had dueling Dynamic Data Presentation going on from David Yack and Rachel Appel.  If you missed one go to the on demand section of the conference and watch the other.  After  watching both of these sessions you can become an expert on Dynamic Data.

I also attended many of the other session.  Rob Bagby did a great Rest session and Scott Golightley did an awesome WCF session.  Kathleen Dollard gave two great sessions and Tim Heuer got us started with SilverLight.  Not to mention a killer Keynote delivered by yours truly.

And all this was just the .NET Conference. 

I also delivered my two sessions on SharePoint and Line of Business applications.  These were with the SharePoint conference.  Again, if you missed it please check it out on demand.  If you have any questions please direct them to me.  I'd be happy to help.

Tomorrow I deliver my two sessions on WPF data binding.  Please  check them out.  It's also not too late register and attend.  You would also get access to all the on demand sessions from day one.  Here is the link to the registration and my discount code.

Enjoy!

The PDC is a great place to get the latest news related to Microsoft Technologies.  It's a good idea to keep up to date with what is going on in the world of Microsoft.  However, most of the stuff released and demoed there is bleeding edge stuff that won't be available for live deploys for months or even years.  That's where the SSWUG.org Virtual Conferences being held next week come in.  Three days of great content, most of which can be used in the applications you are building right now and can be deployed TODAY!!!  Four conferences are being held that include: SQL Server, SharePoint, .NET and BI.  Not only is it great content, but's it's only $100!!!  Or if you use my discount code you can get it for $90.  My discount code is:

SPVIPBH

Please use this code to save yourself $10 and go have a burrito at Chipotle on me.  Mmmmm Chipotle.......

I have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier from Zur and the Kodan Armada.  (Let me know if you can name the movie that is from)

Actually, I have been recruited to do a couple SharePoint sessions at the SharePoint Virtual Conference.  My main exposure to SharePoint has been using the Business Data Catalog.  So, I'm doing a two part session on the topic.  If you are a SharePoint user, administrator and\or developer you can't miss this conference.  Some awesome content for only $100.  Here is the link to the conference home page:

SharePoint Virtual Conference