Developing For .NET

Well, December is here and another Community Year is almost over.  Fortunately for me, there are a high number of quality events and user groups within reasonable driving distance, so for 2009 I thought I could swing a presentation a month. It turns out I was mistaken: while I did not present in every month, I actually ended up speaking at 15 events!

1. Feb: RVNUG – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together
2. Mar: Roanoke Code Camp – Templating and Data Binding in Blend
3. April: RVNUG – Styling a WPF/EF Application (with Tolga Balci)
4. April: Richmond Code Camp 2009.1 – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together
5. May: HRNUG – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together
6. May: Nova Code Camp – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together
7. June: Blue Ridge Community College – Application Design Careers for Graphic Artists
8. August: CHODOTNET – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together
9. September: Raleigh Code Camp – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together
10. September: Richmond NUG – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together (unscheduled)
11. October: Richmond Code Camp 2009.2 – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together & Data Binding in Blend (2 presentations)
12. October: Philly Code Camp – Data Binding in Blend
13. October: CapArea Silverlight SIG – Silverlight 3 & Blend 3 Launch
14. November: CMAP Code Camp – Using Blend and Visual Studio Together & Data Binding in Blend (2 presentations)
15. November: RVNUG – Silverlight 3 & Blend 3 Launch

I also had the chance to attend several other events, most for the first time:

1. Spring: Roanoke MSDN Road Show
2. July: CodeStock
3. August: DevLink
4. October: Richmond Java User Group (to see Andy Hunt speak)
5. November: PDC09
6. December: Roanoke MSDN Road Show

And of course, about 20 regular RVNUG and CHODOTNET User Group meetings. I’ve been taking it easy in December, but I’m already looking forward to hitting the road again next year.  Here are events I already have on my calendar:

1. Jan 12th: HRNUG – Presenting on Silverlight 4
2. Jan 30th: Richmond SQL Saturday
3. March 13th: Roanoke Code Camp
4. March 18th: CHODOTNET (topic TBA)
5. April 6th: CMAP NUG (topic TBA)
6. May 22nd: Richmond Code Camp 2010.1
7. May 19th: Innsbrook NUG (topic TBA)
8. June 3rd: Richmond NUG (topic TBA)
9. June 24-26: CodeStock
10. October 2nd: Richmond Code Camp 2010.2

I’ll be adding more as the year goes.  There are a bunch of great Code Camps I don’t have on here yet: Raliegh, NoVa, CMAP, Philly, and more.  If you have a User Group and would like to schedule a presentation for the second half of the year, just email me (link is in the right hand sidebar) or hit me up on Twitter (@joelcochran).

No really, Thanks!

I want to say thanks to all of you out there, it’s been a great year for the for the community, and the people make it all worthwhile.  Have a great holiday season, and I’ll see you next year!