Windows 8 Apps for .NET Developers

If you are experienced with .NET, this session will teach you the first steps you need to know to create a Metro style app for Windows 8 using C# & XAML. This session will cover updates to familiar features and explore concepts that are new for Windows 8. This session will show you how to start turning your skills into money-making Metro style apps.

There will be food and prizes, including a new Samsung Focus Flash Windows 8 Phone!!!!

Click To Register

Presenter Info

Colin Melia is known as an architect, trainer, speaker and author with deep and broad knowledge of the latest Microsoft technologies, proven problem solving skills, hands-on solution creation ingenuity and the ability to communicate rich and complex ideas at both the developer and board level.  He also has the role of Microsoft Regional Director and has received the Microsoft MVP award for several years.

Using his XAML and .NET expertise, his company Ace of Clouds put apps in the Windows Phone Store and Windows Store for Windows 8, and now offers app development and developer training for Windows 8.  In recent years he also developed and delivered the first Windows Phone 7 boot camp tour in North America and has solutions running live on Windows Azure.

Over the last decade he has developed award-winning simulation technology with 3D UI, cloud-based learning portals and workflow-driven BI systems.

Colin has 18 years of hands-on experience delivering solutions across finance, e-learning, telecoms and Internet communications industries in areas of rich UI with Windows Store Apps, WPF & Silverlight, cloud development with Azure and BI with SQL Server, and with in-depth knowledge of core technologies such as .NET, OData, WCF, WF, LINQ and WIF.  His work is used by companies such as O2, HP, Intel, Microsoft & WPP.  He also created the first streaming video community site with Windows Media.

He speaks regularly with his British accent at conferences, events and code camps for Microsoft and community organizations.  His sessions, video tutorials, interviews, articles and reference materials have been featured on .NET Rocks, dnrTV, Microsoft TechDays, DevTeach, Microsoft webcasts, Mobile Developer Magazine, DZone and his blog.

Microsoft Developer Briefing – Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Office 2013, Browser apps and Windows Azure

Event Info

Join Colin Melia, Microsoft Regional Director, Microsoft MVP and Principal Architect at Ace of Clouds, for an evening of Information, Inspiration and Motivation… along with free pizza… and information on how to earn and compete for prizes.

This event is targeted at professional developers, hobbyists, students and/or academic faculty.

At Microsoft’s recent Build conference, Microsoft solidified its plans from the client to the cloud following the launch of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.  It outlined huge opportunities for developers to create applications for Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Office 2013 and Browsers, as well as backend solutions on Windows Azure.

At the evening’s event you can learn about:

• Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 – including hardware options.
• Getting started with development on Windows Store Apps for Windows 8/RT and Windows Phone Store Apps for Windows Phone 8.
• How easy it is to use Windows Azure, for FREE.
• How you can earn prizes for developing apps!
• The new HTML/JS application model and app store for Office 2013!
• The latest strongly-typed language from Microsoft that you may already be using – TypeScript
• How you can compete for a Microsoft Surface by building Office 2013 apps!
• Further in-depth events coming to your community.
• Training opportunities.
• … and last, but not least, how you can get funds for the community group and a gift for yourself too!

Click To Register!!!

Presenter Bio

Colin Melia is known as an architect, trainer, speaker and author with deep and broad knowledge of the latest Microsoft technologies, proven problem solving skills, hands-on solution creation ingenuity and the ability to communicate rich and complex ideas at both the developer and board level.  He also has the role of Microsoft Regional Director and has received the Microsoft MVP award for several years.

Using his XAML and .NET expertise, his company Ace of Clouds put apps in the Windows Phone Store and Windows Store for Windows 8, and now offers app development and developer training for Windows 8.  In recent years he also developed and delivered the first Windows Phone 7 boot camp tour in North America and has solutions running live on Windows Azure.

Over the last decade he has developed award-winning simulation technology with 3D UI, cloud-based learning portals and workflow-driven BI systems.

Colin has 18 years of hands-on experience delivering solutions across finance, e-learning, telecoms and Internet communications industries in areas of rich UI with Windows Store Apps, WPF & Silverlight, cloud development with Azure and BI with SQL Server, and with in-depth knowledge of core technologies such as .NET, OData, WCF, WF, LINQ and WIF.  His work is used by companies such as O2, HP, Intel, Microsoft & WPP.  He also created the first streaming video community site with Windows Media.

He speaks regularly with his British accent at conferences, events and code camps for Microsoft and community organizations.  His sessions, video tutorials, interviews, articles and reference materials have been featured on .NET Rocks, dnrTV, Microsoft TechDays, DevTeach, Microsoft webcasts, Mobile Developer Magazine, DZone and his blog.

Nov 15, 2012 Update

Hi everyone,

I’m working on setting a date for Colin to do a recap of BUILD. Looks like it will be on one of the following dates: Nov 29, Dec 5 or 6. Keep your calendar free if you can.

Major Windows 8 event from Microsoft Canada this weekend online and in-person

Check it out: http://wootstudio.ca/articles/your-invitation-to-pure-imagination

Shawn

Coffee & Code with Windows Phone on Oct 17, 2012

This is going to be an informal, no holds barred discussion on all things Windows Phone. You ask the questions, Atley has the answers. He’s an energetic and engaging speaker, passionate about development, and this should not be missed.

More information and to register: http://deveastwindowsphone.eventbrite.com/

Speaker Info

Atley Hunter is a Windows Phone MVP has been a developer for more than 15 years and a mobile developer since way before it was cool.  With many apps under his belt and numerous talks, blog postings and HackFests, Atley is continually working to expand his development knowledge and share it to anyone who wants to know. Active on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/AtleyHunter), Twitter (http://twitter.com/AtleyHunter) and on his blog (www.atleyhunter.com), Atley is never far from reach and always happy to help.

The Cloud is Real: Using Windows Intune & Office 365 to reduce or eliminate your IT Infrastructure needs.

Presentation Info

Windows Intune is more than a simple cloud-based desktop management tool.  Learn the secrets behind how Intune can reduce the costs of your desktop environment.  Add to that the infrastructure benefits of Office 365, and you may never need to buy another in-house server again!  Two different tools, one great solution!

Registration Info

http://office365intune.eventbrite.com/

Speaker Info

Mitch is an IT Trainer with a passion for community. Having founded and led two major Canadian user groups for IT Professionals he understands both the value and rewards of helping his peers. After several years as a consultant and in-house IT Pro for companies in Canada, he now works with various companies creating and delivering training for Microsoft to its partners and clients around the world.

As a Microsoft Certified Trainer he has worked throughout the US and Canada, as well as internationally, and has been recognized for his community work with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award over time across several different product focus designations. He is a member of Microsoft’s Springboard Technical Experts Panel (STEP) and offers presentations to groups around the world on Windows and other topics of interest. Mitch is an avid writer, and blogs at http://www.garvis.ca. Mitch has one wife, two children, three dogs, and four free minutes to himself per week.  He parks his car in Oakville, Ontario.

Mailing List Change

Effective immediately, the existing mailing list will no longer be available. Many thanks to Derek Hatchard for his use of CrowdSpace over the past few years.

The new mailing list is available here: http://eepurl.com/gQZf5

A Lap Around Mango – Nov 22nd in Halifax

Join us at the Hub on Nov 22nd from 6:30 – 8:30 pm for an evening with Mango.

Presentation Info

A Lap Around Mango:  An overview session going through the high-level features for developers in the Mango release.

Registration is at http://deveastmango.eventbrite.com.

Speaker Info

Atley Hunter has been a developer for more than 15 years and a mobile developer since way before it was cool.  With over 30 apps under his belt and numerous talks, blog postings and HackFests, Atley is continually working to expand his development knowledge and share it to anyone who wants to know. Active on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/AtleyHunter), Twitter (http://twitter.com/AtleyHunter) and on his blog (www.atleyhunter.com), Atley is never far from reach and always happy to help.

Dev East Halifax Speakers Needed

I am now planning our sessions for the fall.  If you or someone you know would like to speak at a meeting please get in touch. Talks don’t have to be fancy or long – remember the more people we have participating the better the group will be.

Lastly, I am looking for volunteers to help with running the group. The time commitment isn’t large, and with your help we can make the group even better.

Halifax AzureFest: Cloud Development Crash Course, May 8, 2011

Finding the time to learn about the Cloud and how to extend your skills to build solutions for the Cloud can be a challenge when your schedule is defined by application build, test, and deployment milestones. With this type of schedule, chances are you find learning new concepts in one condensed sprint much easier than trying to squeeze some learning into an hour here and an hour, between your other tasks. If that’s the case for you, you’ll want to check out AzureFest, a hands-on educational event designed by Canada’s own MVPs Cory Fowler (@SyntaxC4) and Barry Gervin (@bgervin) from ObjectSharp. At AzureFest, you’ll see how developing and deploying applications to Windows Azure is fast and easy, leveraging the skills you already have (.NET, Java, PHP, or Ruby) and the tools you already know (Visual Studio, Eclipse, etc.).

AzureFest sessions are delivered with examples using .NET and Visual Studio, but the concepts are the same regardless of the language and tools. You’ll learn everything to you need to know to get up and running with Windows Azure quickly including:

• Overview of Cloud Computing and Windows Azure
• Setting up the Windows Azure SDK and Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio
• Setting up your Windows Azure account
• Migrating a traditional on-premise ASP.NET MVC application to the Cloud
• Deploying solutions to Windows Azure

AzureFest is a hands-on event. This means that you’ll be following along in your own development environment and actually deploying your solution during the event. In order to get the most out of the experience, you’ll need to bring a laptop with you that is running Windows Vista SP1 or Windows 7 and has the Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio installed.

You’ll also need to bring a credit card. Windows Azure activations require a credit card even for the trial period, but don’t worry, nothing will be charged to your credit card as the last part of the event shows you how to take down all of your Windows Azure instances.

The event is May 8, 2011 from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm.  To register: http://halifaxazurefest.eventbrite.com/.

Speaker Info

Cory Fowler refers to himself as a ‘Developer as a Service’. He is a Technology Community Leader, Mentor and Speaker that enjoys sharing his passion for Software Development with others. Cory has been awarded with a Microsoft MVP award for his Focus on Windows Azure (Microsoft’s Cloud Computing Platform). Even with his head in the Clouds, Cory finds himself developing a wide range of Solutions including but not limited to Websites (with ASP.NET MVC & Silverlight), Windows Phone 7 Applications (with Silverlight & XNA) and other solutions using the C# Programming Language. Even though Cory works primarily on the Microsoft Stack, he has worked with Open Source Languages in the Past and supports a number of Open Source Software Projects.

Windows 7: Haven’t Migrated yet? Virtualize the Barriers!

So Windows 7 has been around for some time.  You know you want to migrate.

There are still some stubborn applications that are not compatible with Windows 7 and MUST remain in Windows XP for the time being…

In this session, we’ll demonstrate a technique called P2V which is a free tool with Software Assurance.  We’ll also show how to deliver a managed virtual WinXP desktop with MED-V.

Now what’s stopping you?

Join us on April 13th as Brad Bird visits us as part of his Atlantic Canada tour.  You can register here: http://win7stephfx.eventbrite.com/ .

Schedule:

Rough schedule for the evening

• 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm :  Social mixer (with pizza and pop if a sponsor can be found)
• 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm :  Windows 7: Haven’t Migrated yet? Virtualize the Barriers! with Brad Bird
• 8:30 pm to 8:45 pm :  Prize giveaways and wrap up

About Brad:

Brad is a lead technical consultant and MCT certified trainer based in Ottawa, ON.  He works with Cistel, a Microsoft GOLD partner based in Ottawa as a System Center and Virtualization architect.  3-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for 2010 and 2011 in the Virtual Machine domain and Management Infrastructure in 2009. He is also a member of the Windows Springboard Technical Expert Panel (STEP) for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 having delivered STEP presentations as an evangelist in Quebec City, QC and St-Johns, Newfoundland.

Brad is a writer for Tech Republic and contributes monthly to the Network Administration and IT Security weblogs.  Brad has authored Microsoft partner training courses for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 which have been delivered around the world.  Brad also authored some webcasts on Data Protection Manager 2007 including 300 level “Protecting Applications with DPM2007” and 400 level “Advanced Features and Capabilities of DPM2007” also used in Microsoft partner training.  Brad is also a Microsoft Certified Trainer having delivered courses in Security+, AD, AD Security, SCOM, SCCM, DPM, VMM, and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Platform.

Brad actively consults to large organizations helping them architect, implement, configure and customize System Center technologies integrating them into their business processes.  He is also an active consultant, and contributor to the support community.  Brad presented in the Architecture, Management and Virtualization Tracks for TechDays 2008, 2009 and 2010 in Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Toronto, Halifax, and Calgary as well as at the 2009 Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas.  He was the Systems Management and Security track co-lead Microsoft Canada representative for TechDays 2009 in Canada and a representative for Canada at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles, CA.

Brad maintains a weblog “Rantings of an IT Pirate” at http://owsug.ca/blogs/brad/default.aspx where content is replicated to the popular MyITForum and “The Lazy Admin” websites.  He has extensive experience with Active Directory Services, virtualization, and Microsoft System Center and Virtualization technologies in the enterprise.