The Bus To DevLink
Thursday, June 26, 2008
We (and by we I primarily mean Amanda Laucher) are organizing a bus trip to Nashville for DevLink. This might be one of the single greatest ways to get to know your fellow developers in the community.
The bus will start in Grand Rapids, MI, heading down through Detroit to Columbus, OH, through Cincinnati, and down to Nashville, TN. If all works out, we should have Wi-Fi, xboxes, and perhaps even LAN gaming if we can pull it off.
I will almost definitely be on this bus. Many of the people you have seen speaking at Day of .NET events will be there. And so should you. We are also looking for sponsorship, so if your company would like an opportunity to get their names and products in front of some of the best, most influential software developers in this region of the country, please contact Amanda.
On top of that, the bus actually takes you someplace. In Nashville, there's an amazing technical conference called DevLink. It's two full days of technical sessions, and after my attendance last year, I wanted to make sure I was speaking there this year.
I'll be presenting a session on Next Generation Web Applications in Visual Studio 2008. I'm really looking forward to this trip. And I hope I can share this bus trip with you.
Who is going to DevLink?
Labels: amanda laucher, devlink, devlink bus tour
DevLink 2007 Recap
Sunday, October 14, 2007
So I got home from DevLink in Nashville, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. John Kellar and his team put together a spectacular event.
It was well organized, it was entertaining, and it was as if every single detail had been considered. Here's a list of the ways I was wowed.
1) The VIP/Speaker Dinner the night before. I had an opportunity to mingle with the who's who attending DevLink I devoured a delicious Filet before being presented with excellent dessert. I was given a thoughtful, handwritten card and gift. I was not only given the agenda, but inserted was a sheet that listed the specific times I would be speaking, and where. A brilliant way to make me feel valued as a speaker.
2) The facilities. Hosted at Lipscomb University (yes, the Bison), we were primarily in a state-of-the-art technology center. Wireless internet throughout, projectors (sometimes multiple) in every room, and a polished looking, professional interior. Overall, an excellent facility.
3) The attendees. I have never felt more accepted and embraced yet in this role as Developer Evangelist for the Heartland District as I did this week. Everyone I met seemed to have passion just oozing from them. I'm not going to name names, because singling out some excludes others...but I really connected with many of the people at this conference. It was a great place to just sit and talk tech.
4) The organizers. John Kellar and his team gave their all at this event. They were always walking around with a smile on their face (no matter how tired they were on the inside). They were always available to answer questions, no matter how stupid the questions (namely, mine) happened to be. Even as the event was wrapping up, I needed to move all the XBox 360 equipment to Jon Box's car. John Kellar caught us in the hallway and offered to take some time to help me out. He's got an entire event running, and he still took the time to help me load my equipment. That's the kind of crew that was running DevLink this year. Absolutely awesome.
That's my short story on DevLink 2007. I'm looking forward to great things in Nashville in '08.
It was well organized, it was entertaining, and it was as if every single detail had been considered. Here's a list of the ways I was wowed.
1) The VIP/Speaker Dinner the night before. I had an opportunity to mingle with the who's who attending DevLink I devoured a delicious Filet before being presented with excellent dessert. I was given a thoughtful, handwritten card and gift. I was not only given the agenda, but inserted was a sheet that listed the specific times I would be speaking, and where. A brilliant way to make me feel valued as a speaker.
2) The facilities. Hosted at Lipscomb University (yes, the Bison), we were primarily in a state-of-the-art technology center. Wireless internet throughout, projectors (sometimes multiple) in every room, and a polished looking, professional interior. Overall, an excellent facility.
3) The attendees. I have never felt more accepted and embraced yet in this role as Developer Evangelist for the Heartland District as I did this week. Everyone I met seemed to have passion just oozing from them. I'm not going to name names, because singling out some excludes others...but I really connected with many of the people at this conference. It was a great place to just sit and talk tech.
4) The organizers. John Kellar and his team gave their all at this event. They were always walking around with a smile on their face (no matter how tired they were on the inside). They were always available to answer questions, no matter how stupid the questions (namely, mine) happened to be. Even as the event was wrapping up, I needed to move all the XBox 360 equipment to Jon Box's car. John Kellar caught us in the hallway and offered to take some time to help me out. He's got an entire event running, and he still took the time to help me load my equipment. That's the kind of crew that was running DevLink this year. Absolutely awesome.
That's my short story on DevLink 2007. I'm looking forward to great things in Nashville in '08.
ReMix or DevLink? Anyone?
Thursday, October 04, 2007
I'm going to be starting another week-long adventure on Sunday, and I'm looking to meet you. I'm starting to put together a series of webcasts on developing effective UI, UX, and the interface technologies that are used to create them.
If you have thoughts on any of these subjects, or if I just haven't met you yet, please introduce yourself. I want to meet passionate developers.
Here are my expected locations for the next week:
Sunday, 10/7, 1:00 PM - Browns vs. Patriots game
Monday, 10/8, All Day - ReMix07 Boston
Tuesday, 10/9, All Day - ReMix07 Boston
Wednesday, 10/10, 5:00 PM - Cleveland for potential Game #5
Thursday, 10/11, All Day - DevLink Nashville
Friday, 10/12, All Day - DevLink Nashville
Saturday, 10/13, All Day - DevLink Nashville
My Upcoming Travels...and a new, cool Night of AJAX
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
In case you're terribly interested in where I'll be over the next month, here's the short list (I'm sure this will be added to).
September 24 - Halo 3 Pre-Launch Party in Detroit, MI
September 25 - Halo 3 Launch Party in Columbus, OH
September 26 - Halo 3 Launch Party in Cincinnati, OH
September 27 - Columbus .NET Developer's Group Meeting
October 8 - ReMix07 Boston
October 9 - ReMix07 Boston
October 11 - Nashville .NET User's Group
October 12 - DevLink
October 13 - DevLink
October 15 - The Night of AJAX in Cleveland, OH (at the Microsoft office)
October 20 - Day of .NET in Ann Arbor, MI
26 days, 7 cities. Not bad. Where should I go next? Anyone have some great events coming up that I'm not aware of?
Also, in case you're curious, the Night of AJAX is a public event in Cleveland. We are going to be welcoming Jay Kimble of Codebetter.com fame and AJAX guru from Florida. It is planned to be a two hour event in which Jay will present an Intro to AJAX followed up with AJAX best practices and a discussion of Javascript Alternatives (eg. Script#/Silverlight). Please plan to check it out. Be sure to check back for more information as it becomes available. Please leave a comment or email me if you'd like more information. Special thanks to Dave Balzer for getting this great idea put together.
Labels: AJAX, devlink, halo 3, microsoft, Mix07, night of AJAX
Jeff Blankenburg is a Developer Evangelist for the Microsoft Corporation. I have a passion for user interface technologies, including CSS,