James Kovacs' Weblog

A few days ago, I blogged about the Calgary Code Camp being a huge success based on verbal testimony from quite a number of people, as well as the evals from the event. Unsolicited, written testimony is always better than just taking my word for it, especially given that I was one of the organizers. Justice Gray documents his roadtrip to the Calgary Code Camp along with poetic summaries of the talks he attended. Glad you enjoyed my talk, Justice. I would agree that “ASP.NET Kung-Fu: Intermediate Techniques and Idioms” just doesn’t sound as sexy. So I think I’ll stick to my title. Besides intermediate for you is advanced to most. :^) I’m flattered to hear that I’m your favourite presenter ever. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling all weekend. Now I just have to organize a bunch of Calgarians to come up to your Code Camp in September and win all of your door prizes. :^P (The folks from Edmonton will know what I’m talking about.)

For our first event, the Calgary Code Camp was a huge success, if I do say so myself. We had over 80 developers attend and both tracks were constantly buzzing with great discussions. Thanks to everyone who presented for generously sharing their time and knowledge! Thanks also to everyone who attended and made the day a success. We’ll be posting slidedecks and demos to the Calgary Code Camp website in the coming week. In the meantime you can find mine here. You can find some extra goodies in the zip file that I didn’t have time to demo, such as the DatabaseImageHandler and the SiteAvailabilityModule, which I’ll be blogging about in the next while.

If you’re headed to TechEd 2006 in Boston in a few weeks and are interested in discussing what’s new and happening in data access, drop Jonathan Bruce an email. He’s organizing an informal get together of folks interested in ADO.NET. Sounds like it should be a fun time. Hope to see you there.

I am currently involved in organizing the Calgary Code Camp, which will be held
in downtown Calgary on Saturday, May 27, 2006. You are probaby wondering, “What
is a Code Camp?” Simply put, a Code Camp is a developer event by and for the
developer community. You get a full day of developer-focused content created by
fellow developers, not marketing wonks. You’ll see code, code, and more code. We
are planning sessions on the usual suspects – ASP.NET, Windows Forms, and Web
Services. We’ll also have sessions on upcoming technologies such as WinFX, Windows Workflow Foundation (WinWF),
Windows Communication Foundation
(WCF), and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and the new Microsoft
Command Shell (codename Monad). In addition to technology-focused sessions,
we’ll have sessions on development techniques and tools such as unit testing,
test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration, code coverage, and
more!

You’re wondering how much will all this goodness cost me? Well as Dr. Nick
from the Simpsons would say, “$199.95 and it comes with a free state of Kansas
Jello mould!” Just kidding. This event is COMPLETELY FREE. A
full day of code and fun with cool door prizes for absolutely nothing. We’ll be
posting speakers and sessions on the website as they’re confirmed. Drop by the
Calgary Code Camp Website and
sign-up. See you there!!!

Call for Speakers!

If you would like to speak at the event, please send a brief description of
yourself and your topic to proposals@calgarycodecamp.com.

Call for Sponsors!

If you are interested in sponsoring the Calgary Code Camp, please contact us
at sponsorship@calgarycodecamp.com.

First we had Joel Semeniuk speaking about VSTS in January. Now more Microsoft Regional Directors are descending on our fair city!

Juval Lowy of iDesign will be speaking about Windows Communication Foundation (WCF aka Indigo) at the Calary .NET User Group on March 23, 2006 from 5 to 8pm. You can find details and registration on the Calgary .NET User Group website.

Also in March, Scott Hanselman of Corillian Corporation will be speaking about Anatomy of a Successful ASP.NET Application – Inside DasBlog at the Alberta .NET User Group on March 30, 2006 from 12 to 1pm. You can find details and registration on the Alberta .NET User Group website.

Coming in June, Richard Campbell of Campbell Associates will be speaking about SQL Querying Tips & Techniques at the Alberta .NET User Group on June 1, 2006 from 12 to 1pm. You can find details and registration on the Alberta .NET User Group website, though registration doesn’t appear to be open yet.

Juval, Scott, and Richard are all Microsoft Regional Directors, frequent speakers at conferences and user groups, and prolific authors. You don’t want to miss these opportunities to hear them speak!

The INETA Community Launch Event is coming to Calgary on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 from 11am to 2pm at the Metropolitan Centre! The event is being co-hosted by the Calgary .NET User Group and the Alberta .NET User Group. This 3-hour session will feature two action-packed presentations.

Representing the Calgary .NET User Group, Daniel Carbajal and I will be presenting Building Cutting-Edge Web Solutions with Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0.

Jason Wingfield and Greg Lancaster of the AB.NET UG will be presenting Smart Client Application Development & Deployment.

You can sign up here. (After joining the user group, click on Events… CommLaunch… Add Attendee…) Hope to see you at the event!

The Calgary .NET User Group will be hosting Joel Semuniuk, Regional Director, MVP, and VSTS Blackbelt* on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 from 5 to 8pm where he will be talking about… drum roll please… VSTS. (Bet you guessed that, didn’t you?) The event is generously being sponsored by Allstream. Pre-registration is required and available on the Calgary .NET User Group website. Hope to see you there!

* OK, I made the last one up, but seriously, Joel is the most knowledgeable VSTS guy around outside Redmond.

I’m going to be one of the Cabana Experts at the MSDN Launch Tour 2005 in Calgary on November 24, 2005. So come to the Cabana and geek out with me as we discuss how Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006 are going to change the face of development. Lots of knowledgeable folks will be rotating through the Cabana all day including Microsofties, speakers, and MVPs. For those of you not familiar with the Cabana format, the idea started at TechEd as an informal area where you can sit down and talk tech with the experts. Although the Calgary Launch is now full, Microsoft is putting people on a waiting list. So sign up and keep your fingers crossed.