Lots of EF Fun at TechEd Next Week

I’m off to TechEd North America in LA next week where I’ll be presenting a 400-level session titled “Applied Entity Framework”.  The session will mostly be focused on helping folks be more successful using EF3.5sp1 but also with some info about features coming in EF4 and how to prepare for them.  If you are going to be at TechEd, you might want to check out DTL401. 

There are quite a few other sessions that are either completely about the EF or contain EF content.  So I created the following I-Cal file which makes it real easy to view them all in Outlook or your favorite calendar system: www.the-simmons.net/teched-2009-ef.ics  In addition to the break out sessions, there are some birds-of-a-feather sessions that sound like they will be very interesting.  A helpful resource for folks unable to make the conference in person or who want TechEd info before or after the conference is TechEd Online.

While I’m there, I’ll also be spending plenty of time in the technical learning center and just generally hanging out trying to meet with folks to hear about what you are doing with the EF, to help solve any dilemmas you may be struggling with, and to help folks start getting excited about EF4.  While I’m on the topic of EF4 the first beta is coming pretty soon, but if you are at TechEd there will be a hands-on-lab where you can get an even earlier preview of the bits.  I know I’m biased, but I think EF4 is really cool.  I’m hoping it will really blow your socks off!

One last thing…  Julie Lerman recently posted about the fact that we have been referring to the next release of the EF as EF4 to help people keep straight the fact that this is the version of EF going out with .net 4, and that led to an email thread where she suggested that we get some t-shirts made which sounded like lots of fun to me.  I would have loved to get a whole bunch of these to give away at TechEd but given tight budgets that wasn’t in the cards (and make no mistake, I’d rather see Microsoft funds going into people and products than shirts).  So I did some hunting on the web and found a place that will make custom shirts in small lots and ordered a few to commemorate the fact that EF4 feels like a lot more than the average second release (in spite of the fact that we didn’t have a full release worth of time to devote).  The shirts look something like this:

In the off chance that you are crazy like me and interested in such a shirt, you can get your own here: www.zazzle.com/v2_squared_ef4_tshirt-235150309421493680

The way this site works, if you buy one of these, they give me a 10% kick-back, but I’m certainly not trying to make any money off of these shirts.  So any royalties that come my way from folks buying these will be donated to a local worthy cause: Seattle Union Gospel Mission which does a lot for the homeless and others dealing with hard times in the Seattle area.

In any case, here’s hoping to see you next week!

- Danny