'Tis the season of local and regional events for both the Cleveland tech community and the Microsoft Heartland region. I've already posted what I'm looking forward to in the next couple months, but wait... there's more! Some events have already announced their summer dates - so save the dates on your calendars and check these out!

CodeStock (June 26-27, 2009)

Michael Neel and his team down in Knoxville, TN are putting together CodeStock once again. This year, they're opening the event even more for the community - they're having their attendees vote on what talks they want to hear. They've received around 185 submissions and need the help in deciding who to bring in. They've also added more rooms for Open Spaces sessions.

For $25, you get conference content, the chance to networking with a great group of developers (and DBAs and sysadmins and whoever else shows up), lunch, and a T-shirt. Although that doesn't cover hotel or transportation, that's still a lot cheaper than a lot of conferences that have this material. If you register before May 15th, you too can vote on the sessions. But register today, because after June 1, that CodeStock clown will get ugly and up the price to $45. (And I heard rumors that if you sign up after June 27th that they're charging $250... but that might be another conference's deal.)

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it down there, but I hope to catch up with the TN crew at devLink later this summer.

For more information about CodeStock, check out their site at http://www.codestock.org/

PyOhio (July 25-26, 2009)

After experiencing the gathering of the Python community at PyCon 09, I've agreed to help out with planning this year's PyOhio. Expect to hear about it more as we get closer to the date, as I'm in charge of publicity this year.

This year, they've changed their venue from Columbus Metropolitan Library to Ohio State University. There will be planned talks, lightning talks, poster sessions, and Open Spaces all related to the Python community - including all implementations of Python.

Stay tuned to the PyOhio website at http://www.pyohio.org/ or follow us on Twitter as @pyohio.

devLink (August 13-15, 2009)

This is one of the least expensive conferences with of its size in this area. For $75, you get 3 days of content - covering a wide span of topics related to or concerning developers. You get keynotes, planned talks, and Open Spaces. You get a chance to network with some of the region's most talented developers.

A friend had recommended that I attend devLink, and last year was my first year. I met an amazing amount of people - some from nearby and some from Arkansas, Alabama, and even further away. I enjoyed the planned talks, but my favorite parts hands down were the Open Spaces on Microsoft and Open Source (with Sara Ford's funny drawings on the notes) and on Creating Community (with so many active people in their local communities and regional communities).

I will be debuting my "Going Cross-Platform with C#" talk this year at devLink. I'm a C# developer by day, and I tinker with the .NET cross-platform awesomeness known as Mono after work. I tend to talk about Mono more in my IronPython talks, but this time around I'll be using my day language to show how to take advantage of Mono for cross-platform support. I also plan on showing MonoDevelop, which allows you to develop in C# from a non-Windows platform.

devLink is being held in Nashville, TN this year. For more details, check out their site at: http://www.devlink.net/

Conclusion

There are a lot of events going on, and it's hard to pick and choose among all of them. If you get a chance to learn more and network with a community, I'd highly recommend it. I will be attending a few of them, and I hope to see you out there!

Labels: Cleveland tech events, CodeStock, devLink, events, PyOhio

As some of you may have noticed, I've updated my blog badges for some of the upcoming events. However, there are also other events going on that I will not be attending due to other commitments, but I want to get the word out about them as well. So what's happening over the next few months? (Note: There are a lot of events going on, so I am splitting this into two posts.)

Central Ohio Day of .NET (April 18, 2009)

The Day of .NET season opens this year with Central Ohio Day of .NET, down in Wilmington, OH. For those of you not familiar with a Day of .NET, it's typically a day-long event covering various topics that would interest .NET developers and those getting started with .NET.

This year's topics include Lean with Kanban, CSS, XAML, SQL 2008, Powershell, object-oriented programming, patterns, Javascript, WPF, dependency injection, testing, Ruby and Rails for the .NET developer, Office development, and Sharepoint.

I will be giving my "Intro to the New Data Types in SQL 2008" talk.

For more information on Central Ohio Day of .NET, check out their site at: http://www.cinnug.org/cododn.

Kalamazoo X Conference (April 25, 2009)

As developers, we tend to go to conferences to learn about new technologies and languages - like Silverlight, MVC, WPF, and F#. But there's more to being a developer besides writing programs, and most developers tend to forget this.

My friends up in Kalamazoo have put together a conference called the Kalamazoo X Conference that address these other things tha we forget as a developer. There is a track for Soft Skills - including branding, measured innoveation, social networking, and the famous Soft Skills talk. Another track focuses on architecture/design/process - including unit testing, Kanban and Lean, patterns, and how to improve your development process. One of the things I get asked about by some of my colleagues is how to improve their UI and UX, and yes, these guys included a track for UX/design - which includes the process of designing, the art of simplicity, and tips for improving UX. Finally, there's the career development track - including change, organizational dynamics, effective customer communication, and leadership 101.

So take a break from the languages and techniques, and come out and see these other skills that we need to have and hone as developers.

I will be giving the talk on social networking and how to use the various sites effectively.

For more information on the Kalamazoo X Conference, check out their site at: http://www.kalamazoox.org/.

Stir Trek (May 8, 2009)

A few of my friends had the opportunity to attend MIX09, and now they're bringing the MIX content to our region. Some things that are getting covered include Silverlight 3, ASP.NET 4.0, Internet Explorer 8, Azure, SketchFlow, and WPF 4. Topics are being covered by both nationally-known and regionally-known speakers (including Tim Heuer, Matt Casto, Michael Eaton, Brian Prince, and Steve Smith).

For $25, you get MIX09 content, lunch, a raffle, and a private screening of the new Star Trek movie that opens on May 8. Need to convince your employer to give you the day off? It's a shorter period than MIX, cheaper than MIX, and you'll come back with a look at some of the new technologies that you can use to get ahead of the competition.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up at: http://www.stirtrek.com/

Ignite Cleveland (May 16, 2009)

The challenge - 20 slides, automatically advancing at 15 seconds each, giving you a total of 5 minutes to get your point across. Are you up to the challenge?

I took the challenge at the inaugural event this past February, and I delivered my "Marketing Your Event Online" pitch. Other talks given included "How to Winterize Your Business", "5 Steps to a Personal Brand", and "Things We Should Do For Our Clients (Even Though We Aren't Getting Paid for Them)".

Once again, Andrew Kavanaugh and Jon Stahl are putting this event together, and it'll be held at LeanDog. After seeing the success of the inaugural event, I have high hopes for this next event. If I didn't have prior commitments, I would definitely be at Ignite Cleveland 2. So what are you waiting for? Got a talk idea? Or maybe not brave enough to talk but want to purchase a ticket and attend? Check out their site for more information at: http://ignitecle.com/.

These are just some of the events that I'm looking forward to in the next couple months. Stay tuned for the next post, where I cover a few more events that are happening this summer!

Labels: Central Ohio Day of .NET, events, Ignite Cleveland, Kalamazoo X