Duane and I are doing a mini (one day) Code Camp in Waltham in late March focused on security.
We already have a pretty good list signed up so if you really want to come, register today.
We are running it on Saturday, March 25th starting first thing in the morning. See you there.
Category Archives: Speaking
Creating Presentations
I recently did something I do quite often, namely created a series of PowerPoints for a presentation. I try to use graphics where appropriate or more accurately, pictures consisting of drawn boxes with arrows and other lines.
I find that in some ways my presentations are better for lack of slick, overdone graphics, but I still cling to the bulleted points formula. If someone other than me has to present the slides I don’t see much of a way out of this, but an article on the zen of presentations pointed out by my friend and tech idol Scott Hanselman really drives home the right way to think about this task.
If you ever have to create presentation or training slides and have any of the story teller in your blood then use the advice provided to focus on the story and not the points. I will be working on this in the future (a little at a time perhaps).
Boston Launch of VS 2005 and SQL 2005
Microsoft held the Boston Launch event at the new Convention Center on Thursday and by all accounts it was very successful. Duane Laflotte and I delivered the Web Development session to a pretty packed room. Overall the event surpassed the 3,000 mark and everyone I talked to seemed very pleased with the information provided in both the data and development tracks.
I wish I had posted before the event, but travel and things being so busy at CriticalSites have put me behind lately. I plan to be more proactive going forward.
TechEd Hong Kong Wrap-up
I have been out of it for about a week due to travel to present 7 sessions at TechEd Hong Kong, but now I am back. It was a great event and as usual was characterized by very high energy keynotes!
The highlight for Bruce Backa and I in our presentations was our last session on Server Control Development for ASP.Net 2.0. The demo of a control that leverages AJAX style updating to the content really churned the audience and opened some eyes. I have been asked to provide the source code to that particular demo (for session WEB428) so here it is: WEB428Done.zip (51.22 KB)
I have to thank everyone who got us to go over there (for our fourth time!) and to Andres Sanabria from Microsoft for the slides and the framework for this particular demo.
My Demo on MSDN
Microsoft’s Channel 9 web site is putting up demos like mine on Looking at Server Controls with ASP.Net 2.0 (with an AJAX demo) and I must say it is a cool idea. They are like video blog posts. Duane Laflotte also posted like 3 of them on subjects Exploring the Crypto API in .Net. I hope they keep it up and many more people contribute. If they do we will need a really good way to seach.
My spot was a quick walk through of a control that is part of a session I am delivering at TechEd Hong Kong next week. I gave the presentation at Code Camp 4 and Thom Robbins accosted me to record it.
Code Camp 4 is Upon Us
New England is where the whole Code Camp phenomenon began and than God that I am not doing 12 sessions in 2 days the way I did for the first one!
But I am doing 3 sessions this weekend at the 4th Code Camp themed “Developers Gone Wild”.
Thom Robbins has the details posted as well as a link to register here.
It should be great! While I will only be there on Saturday due to a conflict on Sunday, I am very glad to be going.
See you there;)
See you at PDC
I am off to Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) this weekend. I expect that I will see many of the people who read this at the event in Los Angeles. While there I will be involved in quite a few activities including speaking at the So Cal .Net User Group’s PDC Underground event. If you are there and looking for me, I will be hanging out (and handling the scheduling) for the PDC TV Booth much of the time. This is a booth that lets attendees have up to 3 minutes to say whatever they want on a topic of their choice and have it broadcast throughout the conference center. Wish me luck!
Code Camp 4
In New England we are holding our fourth Code Camp in late September (24th and 25th) in the Waltham, MA offices of Microsoft. This is where it all began and the fourth will likely be bigger than those before it.
I wanted to not only remind people of the date, but also tell about a special meeting that will help us deliver better and better community content by fostering the develop of our technical speakers. The local (and newly formed) MCT User Goup is focusing their meetings on helping sharpen technical presentation skills and their September 1st meeting (6:00 PM I think in the Waltham MS Office) is dedicated to what can only be called a Code Camp speaker casting call. We are hoping to educated and recruit the next generation of Code Camp presenters and establish a best practice of actually caring about the quality of local technical presentations.
Hope to see you there if you are interested in being a technical presenter, are already a technical presenter or just like / are good at heckling technical presenters!
TechEd 2005 GrokTalks
For those of you going to TechEd this year, I hope we see you at the RD GrokTalks. I would define them here, but Scott Hanselman has already put it so well than I imagine I am best off linking to his post here.
Let me know what you think of the idea.
Demos from TechEd Hong Kong Sessions
As promised I am posting all the demos from TechEd Hong Kong last week.
DEV370: Developing Applications Under Windows XP Service Pack 2
Special thanks to Jon Box and Dan Fox of Quilogy for developing and presenting this session for TechEd US. This is the only one of the sessions I presented in Hong Kong that I actually got a chance to attend.
DEV413: Server Control Tips & Tricks
DEV413 Blackbelt_Controls_Demos.zip (719.44 KB)
Session originally done by Rob Howard of Telligent Systems at TechEd US
DEV414: Black-belt ASP.NET – Tips And Tricks For Your ASP.NET Applications
DEV414 Blackbelt_AspNet_Demos.zip (228.42 KB)
Session originally done by Rob Howard of Telligent Systems at TechEd US
DEV462: Windows Forms – Tips And Tricks To Improve Your Performance
DEV462 PerfTalk Demos.zip (216.04 KB)
Session originally done by Mike Henderlight of Microsoft at TechEd US
DEV463: Windows Forms: Controls Tips And Tricks
DEV463.WinFormsTips.zip (700.28 KB)
Session originally done by Ken Getz of MCW Technologies TechEd US
Thanks to everyone who attended the sessions. Thanks again to the original TechEd presenters of these sessions for their help since it is always a challenge to do well presenting content developed by others that matches their particular style and strength.
I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see any of these people present to take the opportunity as you will learn alot and come away enlightened and entertained.