DevConnections Blog

Call for Abstracts for VS Connections Fall 2009 Conference in Las Vegas

We would like to extend you an invitation to present at the Fall 2009 DevConnections conference in Las Vegas, November 9-13^th 2009. All abstracts are due on April 5. 2009.

For submitting session, please use this URL: http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts

If you have an issue with the site, please follow up with emails as well.

Please keep the abstracts under 200 words each and in one paragraph. No bulleted items and line breaks, and please use a spell-checker.

Please submit at least 3 abstracts, but it would help your chances of being selected if you submitted 5 or 6 abstracts.

As for the content and conference theme, we expect the event to be post Beta 1 of .NET 4.0, and quite possibly to coincide with the release of Beta 2. Talks on the new CLR, the new Visual Studio, the new tools (such as the profilers), new frameworks (such as Kitty Hawk) are all welcomed.

Of special interest is anything to do with the cloud. In times of hardship, companies will look for ways for cutting costs, and the cloud is a great way of doing that.

Another theme will be quality. The businesses that will survive the recession will be those that maintain their standards and customer base, and offer the highest quality.

It remains to be seen (based on number of rooms) if we have a .NET 3.0/4.0 fundamentals track.

Additional Points:

·         We welcome Windows 7-specific sessions, preferably from a managed environment.

·         If you want to talk about SQL Server 2008, then it should be done in the context of data access from VS 2010. Anything more than that should go in the SQL track.

·         Web services, AJAX and the like should go to the ASP.NET track.

·         Silverlight sessions (but not WPF) should go to the ASP.NET track. Sessions that cater to both WPF and Silverlight will be in the VS track.

Thanks,

Juval and Carl
VS-Connections Conference Chairs

Call for Abstracts for April 2008 DevConnections Shows

The call for abstacts are out for Microsoft ASP.NET Connections, SQL Server Magazine Connections, and Visual Studio Connections.

You can find the abstact calls at the following links:

• Microsoft ASP.NET Connections April 2008 Call for Abstracts
• Visual Studio Connections April 2008 Call for Abstracts
• SQL Server Magazine Connections April 2008 Call For Abstracts

All abstacts are due by October 26, 2008, so get cracking!

Call for Abstracts for Visual Studio Connections April 2008

Dear Fellow Speaker,
This is an invitation to submit abstracts for the Spring 2008 VS-Connections conference, to be held in Orlando, April 20-24^th.  The conference will take place shortly after the VS 2008 release, and will focus on the tools and techniques for using .NET 3.5 (which would be released probably by the end of this year).  We would like to cover the widest range of topics, from client side to system programming, from data access to architecture. We may or may not factor it further into separate tracks as we did with the November conference.

The theme of the conference will be .NET 3.5 and it’s supporting tools. You can assume beginner to intermediate level of knowledge in .NET 3.0, that is, it is fair to assume the attendees know the basics of .NET 3.0 but mostly are not experts. You should aim for the intermediate to advance audience. We also welcome Vista or Windows 2008-specific sessions, preferably from a managed environment. Sessions about migration, compatibility (or lack there of) and interop between .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.0 are encouraged.

All sessions should use VS 2008 RTM. In addition, if a feature is available via VS designer or Wizard, you should use that, instead of the underlying config file, text editor Window, or command line utility. For example, adding a WCF reference should be done via VS 2008, not SvcUtil, editing a WPF control should be done through the visual designer or Expression, not raw XAML.

If we are to have a fundamentals track, it will introduce .NET 2.0-3.0. If you want to submit for that track, please state “(Fundamentals)” in the session subject. If you want to talk about SQL Server 2008, then it should be done in the context of data access from VS 2008. Anything more than that should go in the SQL track. Same goes for web services, AJAX and the ASP.NET track.

For submitting session, please use this URL:  
http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts

Please keep the abstracts under 200 words each and in one paragraph. No bulleted items and line breaks, and please use a spell-checker. If you have an issue with the site, please follow up with emails as well.
Please submit at least 3 abstracts, but it would help your chances of being selected if you submitted 5 or 6 abstracts. We need to have all your abstracts by October 26^th. 

And while we are in your inbox, please mark your calendar for the Fall event, November 10-13 ^to 2008 - Mandalay Bay - Las Vegas.

Finally, please see below a note from conference president Shirley:

=========================================================================
I would like to thank each and every one of our Connections speakers for helping us make this event so successful. Last year in Vegas we had just over 4,700 attendees; we hope to do that or better this fall. By the end of September we had over 3,000 registrations for our Fall show.

A successful show happens when you have a combination of things come together: great speakers, good venue, great partners, fun events, and ongoing relationship building. I hope we can all continue to work together to make Connections the very best event outside of Tech Ed, for years to come. As a more successful show, our competitors are trying to compete by moving their shows closer to our dates and in some cases, to the same cities.

It’s very disheartening for me to see our speakers presenting similar topics at competing shows that are scheduled so close to our own shows. So I want to make a small change in how we handle speakers. Essentially, I don’t want to schedule a speaker at a Connections show who is also presenting at one of our competitor’s shows, in the same state, within 30 days of a Connections show. Many of you have known me for years and you know that I would never discourage a speaker from doing something that is good for his/her career and company. I have never asked a speaker not to speak for a competitor and I am NOT saying that now. I am saying that if another show sits within 30 days of ours in the same state, that the speaker should choose to speak at one or the other conference, but not both. If for whatever reason a speaker does not choose Connections during that time period, there will NOT be hard feelings and they can speak for one of our shows at another time.

I want Connections conferences to be different and unique in the minds of our attendees, our sponsors, and our speakers. I have given this a lot of thought and I think the best way to produce our Connections shows is not to have any of our speakers presenting at our show and at a competitor’s show a few weeks earlier or later in the same place.

Shirley.
=========================================================================

Thanks,

Juval and Carl
VS-Connections Conference Chairs

Call for Abstracts for Microsoft ASP.NET Connections, Visual Studio Connections, SQL Server Magazine Connections, and Mobile Connections

We are now accepting abstracts for the Fall DevConnections shows being held in Las Vegas in November 5-8, 2007. Abstracts will be accepted through the end of February.

If you are interested in submitting abstracts, please goto

http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts/

create a new speaker record and submit at least 3 abstracts. Actually, the more you submit the better. However, if you submit less than 3, you will guarantee that you will not be selected.

If selected, the conference will pay your travel expenses, plus $500 per session.

Good luck.

Paul

Getting on the List to Hear About the Next Call for Abstracts

As one of my jobs as Conference Chair, twice a year, I put out a "call for abstracts" for people looking to apply to be a speaker at a Microsoft ASP.NET Connections. In the past, people just emailed me to let me know they were interested but I finally have put up a page where you can go to put yourself on the list to be contacted when the next "call" goes out. If you are interested, simply go to:

http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts/

and sign up. We won't use your email address for any other purposes. And expect the next "call" to go out within a few weeks! So put your name up real soon if you wish to have a chance at speaking at the Fall event in Las Vegas.

Thanks,

Paul

The Vegas 2006 Numbers

Just in case you were curious,...

DevConnections Fall 2006 featured over 4,700+ attendees, over 325 sessions, 190+ speakers (including about 100 from Microsoft), hands-on labs chalk talks, and over 20 pre-conference and post-conference workshops.

The main exhibition hall sold out with over 100 exhibitors. One lucky attendee won a 2006 Harley-Davidson motorcycle while another won a 7-day Caribbean cruise.

More Blog Posts on DevConnections

Let's not forget to get the English perspecitve on things at DevConnections (like light bulbs and restrooms) from Software Legend Alex Homer.

Vegas 2006 Wrap-Up Posts

A number of speakers and attendees wrote about their experiences at the recent November 2006 DevConnections conferences in Las Vegas.

Web Services guru Dan Wahlin wrote a great wrap-up post of his DevConnections experience.
The ever bloggative Julie Lerman had a number of posts on DevSource including this and this.
Scott Guthrie wrote this post that talks about the show and includes links to his slides and demos.
The Microsoft Visual Studio Team System team posted all their slides as well.
Brian Noyes posted his slides and demos.
Attendee and voracious blogger Adnan Mashood had this to say for his wrap-up
SharePoint guru Bill Sismer had a nice wrap-up post as well as some photos he posted on Flickr.

Abstracts Being Accepted for Microsoft ASP.NET Connections

This is to let everyone know that we are currently accepting abstracts to speak at the next Microsoft ASP.NET Connections. The event will be held in Orlando, FL, USA from March 25-29.

Here's the deal:

• It's pretty competitive but you won't ever have the chance to speak unless you try.
• If selected, your airfare and hotel accomodations will be paid for by the conference. In addtion, you will be paid $500 per talk.
• In order to be selected, you must have three (3) talks selected. If you submit less than three talks, you will automatically be rejected.
• Since a lot of speakers submit similar talks, it's best to submit 6 or more abstracts to be safe.
  
• If you don't get accepted this time, keep trying.
  
• Deadline for abstracts is end of the day on Friday, November 17th.
  

In order to submit abstracts, you must go to http://www.deeptraining.com/devconnections/abstracts/
and enter speaker info and then info on each abstract using the web pages. To get started, click on the New Speaker button. I will not be accepting abstracts via any other means.

Thanks and good luck,

Another Fabulous Conference

Wow. 4,700 attendees came down to Vegas and learned a lot of great information. And many of them managed to have some fun and network with speakers and their peers to boot. This was the biggest and best DevConnections ever. Thank you to everyone who helped run the show, speak at the show, blog about the show, and/or attend the show.

Regards,

Paul Litwin

Microsoft ASP.NET Connections Conference Chair 

Keynote Announcements

The opening keynotes at DevConnections/WinConnections had a seemingly endless wall of people in attendance. The topic was Vista, Exchange, Office, and Atlas. This is by far the biggest Connections crowd ever. A few Microsoft announcements were made at the keynotes, including:

• Office 12 has shipped to manufacturing.

   

• .NET 3.0 Framework for Windows XP released to manufacturing

   

• ASP.NET Ajax Extensions announced and Beta 2 is now released.

   

• .NET 2005 Tools for Office 2007 released. And it’s now free.

Excitement is definitely in there. More keynotes this morning on Atlas, etc. Followed by drill-down sessions by Microsoft all today.

More bloggers are on board, including:

• Vlad Mazek, an Exchange Connections speaker

Are You Attending?

If you are attending one of the DevConnecitons events this week in Las Vegas and blog, please let me know (by commenting or contacting me) and I will cross-link to your blog from here.

Okay, I need to board my connecting flight to Vegas departing from Portland in a few. Here's to free airport wireless access thanks to Portland Airport!

Paul

Look Who's Bloggin'

With Las Vegas 2006 DevConnections show set to begin, here is a list of bloggers who have agreed to blog about the event:

• Adnan Masood
• Bill Simser
• Joel Oleson
• Julie Lerman
• me
• Steven Smith

More bloggers to come.

Paul

DevConnections Set to Explode in Las Vegas on Monday

Another DevConnections is here. This time we are back for the 3rd straight year in Las Vegas at the luxurious Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort on the Las Vegas strip. This is the hotel that was featured in Oceans 7. 5-star all the way. And this is by far the biggest DevConnections ever with eight co-located events and just under 5,000 attendees! Wow.

The eight co-located events:

• Microsoft ASP.NET Connections
• Visual Studio Connections
• SQL Server Magazine Connections
• SharePoint Connections
• Mobile Connections
• Office Connections
• Windows Connections
• Exchange Connections

The events in Vegas all begin on Monday, November 6th. The basic schedule:

• Monday, 9-5: Pre-conference workshops
• Monday, 6:30 pm: Microsoft keynotes on Office, Vista, Exchange and ASP.NET
• Tuesday, 8:00 am: Additional keynotes
• Tuesday, 9:30 - 5:15: Microsoft Day sessions
• Tuesday, 7:15pm: Microsoft Unplugged
• Wednesday, 8-5:30: Sessions
• Wednesday, 5:45-6:45: Vendor sessions
• Thursday, 8-3:15: Sessions
• Thursday, 3:45-4:30: Closing session
• Friday, 9-5: Post-conference workshops

Some of the individual events might depart a bit from the above, but this is the basic schedule. The individual conference site schedules (on the conference web sites) for more details.

Yes, I haven't blogged since the Spring events. (Sorry.) But I am ready to fire up the collective blog engines for this event. I will post in a short while links to other bloggers.

Paul

DevConnections Europe Set to Begin

The first DevConnections Europe is set to begin tomorrow, Monday, April 24 with several excellent preconference workshops by Dave Sussman and Alex Homer, Juval Lowy, and Benard Wong. On Tuesday, the Microsoft Day sessions begin followed by third-party sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. The complete schedule can be found at conference schedule.

The weather in Nice is sunny, around 70 F (21 C). A little windy today and overcast, but otherwise wonderful.

Bye for now,

Paul Litwin