Announcing the MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow

Next month, Bill Zack and I are going to be kicking off a new series of live events throughout the tri-state area! Many of the great developer events you read about here take place in NYC. Does that leave you with the Lincoln Tunnel blues?  Worry about getting caught on the LIE in Queens as you curse the guy cutting you off as you wait to get into the midtown tunnel?  Or dreading the New England Thruway through Westchester?!  Sick of getting angry when the traffic guy on 1010 WINS doesn’t cover the mess you’re stuck in?  Fughettaboutit!!

We know that getting into Manhattan isn’t always a picnic for us bridge & tunnel types (trust me, Bill and I know!). So, we’re going to take things on the road with our new MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow.  So if you’re whether you’re working in an office in Parsippany, Stamford, or Princeton forget the long schlep into Manhattan.  We’re coming to you!

What should you expect at the MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow?  Expect to learn about the newest developer technologies being offered by Microsoft.  The Roadshows will be half-day events, scheduled in the afternoons at most locations.  Usually 1-5pm, but that may vary. 

In some locations, we’re looking to team up with the local user groups to schedule Roadshows on the same day as the monthly user group meeting. This will give attendees the opportunity to network with peers in the community, as well as get a full day of learning in with an extra evening session as part of the user group!

The MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow will be making stops in Stamford, CT (11/10), Parsippany, NJ (11/13), and yes, we’re even visiting the big city on 12/5. Plans are underway for a stop in central Jersey in East Windsor, NJ.  For all you Long Islanders, don’t worry - we’re looking to add a stop out there too. 

Sign up at the links below to register for our first series of events in November & December:

The MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow is kicking off with two great topics that are surely to be of interest for developers on the Microsoft platform:

Session 1: Cloud Computing

Hear about key problems that cloud computing is solving and how these services fit into the Microsoft cloud computing initiatives. Learn about the pillars of the platform, its service lifecycle, and see how they fit with both Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies.  See what a Day in the Life of a Cloud Service Developer is like.  This session explores common tasks for service developers. These tasks include logging, debugging, deployment, management, and maintenance of individual cloud-based services.

Session 2: Silverlight 2 Application Development

You’ve probably been hearing about Silverlight for a while now. And for most of that time, it’s had the “beta” label after it. When something has the “beta” label appended to it, it’s easy to shrug it off and say “I’ll worry about that later when it’s ‘real’.”  Well, the “beta” label has been shed!  Silverlight 2, with its .NET Framework programming model, is here now and it’s real!  On October 14^th, Microsoft officially released Silverlight 2. 

Now it’s time for you to get ready to build next generation rich Internet applications with Silverlight!  In this session, we’ll quickly review what the Silverlight 2 platform is, and then move into the bits and bytes.  Some of the questions you might be having are: What are the tools I need to get going? What is this stuff called XAML?    Hello world?  Forget “Hello World”… I want to see a real application with controls and data binding!  How do I talk back to the server to interact with services in the cloud? 

We’ll be covering the answers to all of these questions.  So don’t miss the MSDN “Suburban” Roadshow with Bill & Peter!

A special thanks in advance goes out to our partners who will be making the Suburban Roadshow possible: 

Set Focus 

Set Focus is the global leader in selecting, training, placing, and supporting Microsoft professionals worldwide. Through strategic relationships, SetFocus develops programs that directly source skilled professionals to meet the immediate hiring needs of its partners.

A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Learning Solutions, SetFocus utilizes a unique combination of services to help organizations grow allowing them to meet marketplace opportunities with speed and agility. SetFocus has won semi-finalist awards for both the 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year as well as the 2004 New Jersey Family Business of the Year.

For more information, SetFocus can be reached at +1-886-91-TRAIN and through its website, www.setfocus.com.

The University of Connecticut at Stamford

The Stamford Campus of the University of Connecticut was founded in 1951, to provide education for GIs returning from the Korean War. It is currently located at One University Place, at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Broad Street in downtown Stamford and is easily accessible by car, train, or bus.

The campus offers four-year undergraduate degrees in ten majors: American Studies, Business and Technology, Economics, English, General Studies, Human Development and Family Studies, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology.

At the graduate level, the campus offers the Master of Business Administration (MBA), and the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degrees. The Stamford campus' location in lower Fairfield County provides access to internships, field placements and jobs with Fortune 500 companies, investment and banking institutions, non-profit organizations, and civic, education and community agencies.