Free 1-Day Microsoft Developer Event Coming to a Town Near You!!!

The Northeast Roadshow

We're at it again!  It's time to pack our laptops and gear to head out across the northeast for our fifthRoadshow!  Only this time, you're getting three of us for the price of, well, zero - the events are free after all...  Jim O'Neil, our new colleague here in the northeast, is joining Bob and me as we set out to tour various cities, bringing you deep developer and architect content.  And some giveaways as well, of course. 

What's the Roadshow?

Starting with our first one in March of 2007, the Roadshow is our chance to head out to various parts of the northeast to reach the broader community.  In these free full-day events, we bring you deep technical content including not just the "how to", but also discussion of why and when you may consider technology and practices.  We're also hugely entertaining, especially when failing to hit our marks as we throw things into the audience.

Where?  When?

• May 22 - Williston, VT

• May 28 - Westbrook, ME

• May 29 - Waltham, MA

• June 10 - Rochester, NY

• June 12 - Farmington, CT**

How?

Register today (venue details and links below) - it's free - and join us for a relaxed day of low-fluff, high-signal content for developers and architects!

Note that some cities consistently hit capacity, so don't wait to register.

The Agenda:

8:30-9:00 AM - Registration

9:00-10:25 AM - The Strongest LINQ - The Sequel (SQL and Entities)

Our story began with the previous Roadshow, where a tale of C# and VB language enhancements led us to an appreciation for how LINQ works.  Now another story  unfolds, featuring practical details of how LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities can make your life better as a developer and architect.  We'll quickly get you up to speed with the foundations of LINQ, then dive deeply into the specific applications of LINQ for use with databases.  Besides the how-to details of LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework, we'll also share practical insights for adoption strategies, performance optimization, and maintainability.  The slide-and-code-based equivalent of a real page turner!

10:25-10:35 AM - We'll put a bookmark in the content so you can take a break

10:35 AM -12:00 PM - Leveraging .NET in the Office

In this overview of Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) with Visual Studio 2008, Jim will show how you can leverage your .NET skills to bring additional customized functionality to the Microsoft Office suite of products.   We'll look at integrating custom actions in the Microsoft Word Ribbon control , creating form regions in Outlook, and extending existing VBA investments in Excel.  With sample code galore, you can be a hero in your own office as you integrate and standardize your business's unique processes and requirements into those very familiar Office applications your colleagues and staff use day in and day out.

12:00-12:45 PM - All this talk has made us hungry. Lunch!

12:45-2:10 PM - The Architecture of RIA - The Silverlight 2 Story

In this session, we'll take a look at the current state of RIA (Rich Internet Application) development leveraging Silverlight 2.0.  We'll focus on the architecture of RIA's, using XAML for user interface layout and design, WCF (Windows Communication Foundation) for Web Services, Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend for the design/development environment and Windows Server 2008/IIS 7 as the deployment environment.  Hmm, all of that in one session?  Even we aren't sure it's going to fit... pre reading for this session is here.

2:10-2:20 PM - Time to relax and consider your architecture options

2:20-3:45 PM - ASP.NET's Model View Controller (MVC) - What's All the Fuss About?

It's everywhere you look: blogs, magazines, the backs of cereal boxes.  You may recall reading something about it in that "Gang of Four" book, but you're not entirely sure.  What is it?  MVC!  In this session, we'll dive into the world of ASP.NET's Model View Controller (MVC) implementation.  What the MVC pattern is, how it can clearly separate concerns, improve control over published URLs and HTML, where it might make your life easier, and of course, plenty of code showing how to use it with your websites.  You'll end the day with the background necessary to confidently stride into technology discussions and boldly say "M-V-C".

3:45-4:00 PM - Wrap-up, giveaways, and a fond farewell

Register

See you on the road!

-Bob

Technorati Tags: MSDN,Silverlight,ASP.NET,MVC