The session list for Tulsa TechFest 2009 have been posted to the event website.  I’ve got 2 sessions, one on cloud (that I’m not sure what I’ll be presenting on yet – any suggestions?) and one on C# 4.0 / VS2010. 

Agenda: http://techfests.com/Tulsa/2009/Agenda/default.aspx

Tulsa TechFest is one of the premier cross-platform, cross-discipline conferences in South Central.  Over the past 2 years, we’ve hit over 1000 attendees per event, and are looking to really make a big splash again this year.  Following the trend from last year, registration will be “two cans or two bucks”.  Food collected will be donated to the Community FoodBank of Eastern Oklahoma, and all money will be donated to the Family & Children’s Services.

You can keep up with what’s going on with Tulsa TechFest by following @TulsaTechFest on Twitter, or subscribing to newsletter-request@tulsatechfest.com. 

I’m thrilled to announce a new partnership with GiveCamp!  Our good friends at DiscountASP.NET have agreed to start partnering with GiveCamp to offer FREE WEBSITE HOSTING to all charities and non-profits that participate in a GiveCamp event!  This is great news, as many of these groups don’t have a website presence at all.  I’m really looking forward to working with DiscountASP.NET in future GiveCamps!

Check out our Partner Page to see who else we value as partners of GiveCamp!

We’ve got a couple of simulcast events to share coming up about Windows Azure – so mark your calendars today:

TechNet Events Present:  Real World Azure

Come spend a morning with us on September 29th to explore Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – from a real world point of view!  During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure™.  What is Windows Azure™? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job?  Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address your top of mind questions about cloud computing.

TechNet LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>

MSDN Events Present:  Real World Azure

Come spend an afternoon with us on September 29th to explore Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications – from a real world point of view!  During this event, we’ll review critical lessons Microsoft IT has learned migrating internal line-of-business applications to Windows Azure™.  What is Windows Azure™? When should I use it? How does it apply to my job?  Whether you’re an IT Professional, Developer or Architect, we’ll address your top of mind questions about cloud computing.

MSDN LIVE Webcast | REGISTER >>

There’s a new GiveCamp in town, and it’s located in Southern Maryland…

Southern Maryland GiveCamp Announced! : GiveCamp.org

Here ye here ye – Tulsa TechFest is coming, and you should be there!  Jam packed with tons of sessions across multiple tracks, Tulsa TechFest is the premier ABSOLUTELY FREE community-led developer event in South Central.  Tracks are in the planning stages, but you can count on seeing sessions on development, infrastructure, systems management, project management and more!  I’ve submitted a couple of topics, as have many of my teammates, so I’m sure it will once again be an awesome experience!

To get up-to-date information as the conference evolves tune in to their twitter account at @tulsatechfest or join the mailing list at newsletter-request@tulsatechfest.com!

As soon as the speakers are selected and the sessions announced, I’ll post a followu.p with all the latest information.  If you want to help promote Tulsa TechFest, you can include this graphic on your blog or website and link back to http://tulsatechfest.com

Looking for some fully detailed examples of how to get the most out of Microsoft development technologies?  the guys over at CodeFx have exactly the solution you’re looking for!  CodeFx is written by Microsoft Support Engineers based on the most common scenario-based questions they get asked about developing with Microsoft technology.  From the CodeFx web site:

All-In-One Code Framework code-name CodeFx delineates the framework and skeleton of most Microsoft development techniques (e.g. COM, Data Access, IPC) using typical sample codes in different programming languages (e.g. Visual C#, VB.NET, Visual C++). For instance, the code example ATLDllCOMServer shows the skeleton of an ATL in-process COM server as its name implies. Each example is elaborately selected, composed, and documented to demonstrate one frequently-asked, tested or used scenario based on our experience as support engineers. If you are a software developer, you can fill the skeleton with blood, muscle and soul. If you are a software tester or a support engineer like us, you may extend the sample codes a little to fit your specific test scenario or refer your customer to this project if the customer’s question coincides with what we collected.

As of July 30th, 2009, there were over 200 samples in the download, and they said they are averaging about 6 new samples per week.  I downloaded and looked at a couple of the samples, and they look really well done – well documented, typical scenarios in both C# and VB.NET that all developers can relate to.

A couple of years ago, I had this crazy idea to get a bunch of developers together over a weekend to build web applications for local area charities.  Thanks to the hard work of Toi Wright (ASP.NET MVP, President of the Dallas ASP.NET User Group and Geeks in Pink) and several of our local community champions, we’re pleased to announce the latest installment of the GiveCamp effort – The We Are Microsoft Charity Challenge Weekend is alive and kicking! 

Scheduled for the weekend before the Martin Luther King national holiday, this event is a weekend-long gathering of geeks of all shapes and sizes that come together to build web applications for local area charities.  Registration now open for developers, volunteers and (most importantly) non-profits – so get out to www.wearemicrosoft.com and register today. If you would like to advertise the event on your website, please go to http://www.wearemicrosoft.com/WAM/AboutUs.aspx to view the available links.

Join cloud experts David Chappell, Paddy Srinivasan and Ranjith Ramakrishnan for an evening diving into Windows Azure™ – Microsoft’s platform for building and deploying cloud based applications.  David will talk about the Cloud Computing environments available today, specifically focusing on Windows Azure™, while Paddy and Ranjith will provide many demonstrations of Windows Azure™ including:

• The fundamentals of building and deploying applications to Windows Azure™
• When to use Windows Azure™ Table and Blob storage vs. SQL Azure Database
• How to reuse your existing SQL Server skills and programming approaches with SQL Azure
• How to expose data SQL Azure in a RESTful manner using  Windows Azure™ + ADO.NET Data Services
• How to connect on-premise and cloud applications using .NET Services

And much more! 

No prior knowledge of cloud computing or experience using Windows Azure™ is required, and this *free* event is open to the public.

Date & Time

Monday, September 28, 2009

6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Location

Microsoft Office
7000 N. State Hwy. 161 (George Bush Turnpike)
Irving Texas 75039

MPR 1200 (first floor)

Registration Options

By web – http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032424706&Culture=en-US

By phone – 1-877-673-8368 and reference Event ID: 1032424706

Pizza and refreshments will be provided.

We hope you’ll join us!

I’ve decided to move my blog site off of MSDN, where it’s been since I started at Microsoft, over to a self-hosted version of Wordpress.  This will give me a chance to play a bit with running PHP on Windows, as well as give me some additional flexibility around site customization.  I don’t have a lot of customization here yet, but I’ve got some ideas on what I’ll be putting together over the next couple of weeks.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions, compliments, or criticisms, leave me a comment here on this post.  I would appreciate any feedback you might supply to help me make this blog better (and yes, I know, post more often and post some decent technical content!)

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