Come join the NWA .NET User Group on April 7th at 5:30 PM and learn the benefits of Windows Live and Mesh Frameworks!

Lightning Presentation

Title: Continuing Education in Information Technology

Description: In the IT field, you have to keep learning. Whether you keep learning because you want to, or because you have to (if you don’t, someone else will), many options exist for IT professionals to expand the breadth and depth of their skill sets. This presentation will explore several different options for continuing education in the IT field, including self-learning, traditional training, conferences, and a couple of interesting part-time graduate school programs.

Presenter: Jeff Mullins is a faculty member and Associate Director of the Master of Information Systems program for the Information Systems department in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. Prior to his move into academics, Jeff spent more than 10 years playing various roles in the IT department at Tyson Foods, including .NET and Java application development, business analysis, and project management. Jeff also recently founded Windsong Solutions, a small IT consulting, development, and training firm.

Main Presentation

Title: Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services

Description: Learn about the Live Framework, our latest offering for developers programming against our Live Services from any device, platform, runtime, or programming language. See new and future services (such as Mesh Services), protocols, APIs, and tools which enable your web, service, or client applications to access, store, and synchronize user data with Live Services, obtain audience analytics data, and more

Presenter: Chris Koenig is a Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, based in Dallas, TX. Prior to joining Microsoft, Chris worked as a Senior Architect on the Architecture Strategy Team for The Capital Group in San Antonio, and as an Architect, Developer and Development Team Lead for the global solution provider Avanade. As a consultant, Chris worked with a variety of clients from many vertical markets, ISVs and other solution providers on enterprise-class Windows and web-based applications. Today, Chris focuses on building, growing, and enhancing the developer communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas. Chris is a devoted husband and father of four awesome children who keep him very busy. In his spare time, Chris serves as Scoutmaster for his oldest son's Troop, and Committee Chair for his youngest sons' Pack. Chris also enjoys traveling, cooking, camping and playing guitar.

You can contact Chris through his blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/chkoenig, via email at chris.koenig@microsoft.com, or via Windows Live Messenger at chris@koenigweb.com.

Swag:
JetBrains ReSharper License
Infragistics Resource DVD
Infragistics NetAdvantage
Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation
Application = Code + Markup A Guide to the Microsoft Windows
Presentation Foundation
Microsoft 6 Office Business Application for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Programming Microsoft Office Business Application

When:
5:30 PM - 5:45 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
5:45 PM - 6:00 PM - Lighting Presentation
6:00 PM - 6:10 PM - Intermission – Presenter switch over
6:10 PM – 7:30 PM – Main Presentation
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM – Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where:
The Jones Center
922 East Emma Avenue
Springdale, AR 72764
Room 130 (Generations Room)

NetMeeting URL: http://snipr.com/nwadnug
Link RSVP URL: http://snipr.com/epmzx

Main Presentation
Title: A Path to Automated Testing

Description: In this session we will discuss different ways of testing applications and the benefits of having an automated suite of tests.  We'll show you how to start unit testing your applications and techniques and strategies you can use in your application and your test cases to make them both easier to maintain.

Presenter: John Teague is a Co-Founder and Principal Consultant for Next Level Technology, focusing on Agile Software development, coaching and training. He is very active in the .Net community as an organizer of the Austin .Net Users Group CodeCamp conference, Los Techies Day of Test Driven Development and presenting at several .Net user groups.

Lighting Presentation
Title: How To Build A Resume

Description: Megan is going to show how to write a technology resume in a way that is clean and easy for potential employers to read in order to put your best foot forward and be able to get an interview.  This will involve a clean, easy to read format, bullet points with active words, and an eye catching objective that caters to each job opportunity.

Presenter: Megan Coger has 4 years of experience as an IT Recruiter in Northwest Arkansas with TEKsystems, the largest IT staffing company in the nation.  She specializes in helping IT Professionals with their careers; this involves helping with career pathing, career opportunities, and coaching with resumes and interviews.

When:
5:30 PM - 5:45 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
5:45 PM - 6:00 PM - Lighting Presentation
6:00 PM - 6:10 PM - Intermission – Presenter switch over
6:10 PM – 7:30 PM – Main Presentation
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM – Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where:
The Jones Center
922 East Emma Avenue
Springdale, AR 72764
Room 130 (Generations)
NetMeeting URL: http://snipr.com/nwadnug
Link RSVP URL: http://snipr.com/clkm7

Come join the NWA .NET User Group on February 10 at 5:30 PM and learn about Advanced LINQ and Agile Development!

(Please be aware that the NWA .NET User Group meetings have moved to the 2nd Tuesday of the month)

Lightning Presentation

Title: Advanced LINQ

Description: Since its arrival, LINQ has proved its power to me over and over.  I find that it speeds up development and leaves behind code that is more maintainable than ever.  The goal of this presentation is to show you how even the most complicated algorithms can be left dead simple with a little LINQ to help shine some clarity.

Presenter: Rob Tennyson works for Tyson Foods in Springdale, AR where he is a Lead Programmer Analyst.  He has been programming professionally since 2001 and loves all things a good architecture astronaut would love! Sometimes he actually gets real work done too.  For more information, see http://robtennyson.us.

Main Presentation

Title: Introduction to Agile Software Development

Description: In this presentation we will learn about what Agile Software Development.  We will also take a quick look at the Manifesto for Agile Software Development which guides many of the agile practices.   Will wrap up with looking at how an agile team gathers and plans, and accomplishes the work.

Presenter: Jay Smith works for Tyson Foods, Inc. where he is a PMO Architect and Evangelist, and is a former President of the Northwest Arkansas .Net User’s Group.  Jay currently serves on the INETA Speakers Committee and works diligently with others on test bed projects to learn new concepts and designs.  You can read more about Jay on his blog http://www.jaysmith.us or follow his tweets at http://twitter.com/jaysmith.
Jay regularly presents to user groups on various topic including Design Patterns, Visual Studio 2008, Enterprise Library, WPF, and Unit Testing.  He is a registered speaker on Codezone, you can make speaker request through there or contact him directly.

Swag:

• Progamming Linq
• Programming Robotics Studio
• Introduction Silverlight 2
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Infragistics NetAdvantage
• Infragistics Resourse DVD

When:

• Date: Feb 10th
• 5:30 PM - 5:45 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
• 5:45 PM - 6:00 PM - Lighting Presentation
• 6:00 PM - 6:10 PM - Intermission – Presenter switch over
• 6:10 PM – 7:30 PM – Main Presentation
• 7:30 PM – 8:00 PM – Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where:

• The Jones Center
  922 East Emma Avenue
  Springdale, AR 72764
  Room 228 (Memphis Room)
• NetMeeting URL: http://sn.im/b70ve
• Link RSVP URL: http://sn.im/b71fh

Social Networks

Join the NWA .NET User Group groups on the following social networking sites:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook

The next NWA .Net User Group meeting will be on December 9 at 5:30 PM.  INETA will be sponsoring our main speaker, Kate Gregory, who will be presenting on "The Windows Vista Bridge: How Managed Code Developers Can Easily Access Exciting New Vista Features".  I will be presenting a brief 15 minute presentation on Rest in WCF prior to Kate's presentation.

Lightning Presentation

Title: Rest in WCF

Description: This session will describe the new REST features available to developer in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 3.5.

Presenter: John Oswalt (ME!) is a Lead Developer/Analyst for Tyson Foods, Inc. based in Springdale, AR and a Microsoft Certified Professional in ASP.NET. He is currently the Vice-President of the Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group. He has over 10 years experience in developing websites and applications. His passions for language include HTML, CSS, ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, SQL, JavaScript, and many others. He is the owner of a few different types of blogs on the internet (Technology – letsblogabout.net) and (Sports – www.callthehogs.com).

Main Presentation

Title: The Windows Vista Bridge: How Managed Code Developers Can Easily Access Exciting New Vista Features

Description: Accessing new Windows Vista features is a challenge from managed (.NET) code. The level of interoperability required is out of reach for many developers. The Vista Bridge is a sample library you can use in your own projects today that provides access to new user interface features as well as “behind the scenes” power features. Discover a shortcut to Windows Vista for Microsoft Visual Basic and Visual C# programmers and how you can get involved.

Presenter: Kate Gregory is the Microsoft Regional Director for Toronto, a Visual C++ MVP, the author of over a dozen programming books, and a technical speaker. In 1986, she founded Gregory Consulting with her partner, Brian.  Based in rural Ontario, Gregory Consulting provides consulting and development services throughout North America, specializing in software development with leading-edge technologies, integration projects, and technology transfer. They also provide training, mentoring, and technical writing services. Her current specialties include C++ programming,  migration to managed code, and Vista development.

Swag:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard
• 6 Office Business Applications for SharePoint - MSPress
• Introducing LINQ - MSPress
• Programming LINQ - MSPress
• Hunting Security Bugs - MSPress
• Silverlight 2 – MSPress
• Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2008
• JetBrains choice of ReSharper, TeamCity or IntelliJ

When:

Date: Dec 9th

5:30 PM - 5:45 PM -- Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
5:45 PM - 6:00 PM -- Lighting Presentation
6:00 PM - 6:10 PM -- Intermission (Presenter switch over)
6:10 PM - 7:30 PM -- Main Presentation
7:30 PM - 8:00 PM -- Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where:

The Jones Center
922 East Emma Avenue
Springdale, AR 72764
226 Kansas City Room

NetMeeting URL:  http://snipr.com/59eh8

Click here to RSVP on CodeZone!

Social Networks - Join the Nwa .NET User Group groups on the following social networking sites:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook

• Microsoft Outlook
• Windows Live Calendar
• Apple iCal
• Yahoo! Calendar
• Google Calendar

As Jeremy Sharp mentioned, the NWASQL User Group has rescheduled the September meeting from September 10 to September 17.

I thought that I would do my part as well to help get the word out about the meeting be moved to a new date. The group usually meets the second Wednesday of every month.

The September 17th meeting will feature NWASQL member Eric Humphrey who will present SSIS Part II, extending the previous presentation "SSIS Basics".  Eric is an SQL professional, serving WalMart in Bentonville.  As always, the group will meet at 11:30, providing lunch, SWAG, and networking opportunities!
 

As Zach Young has mentioned, Dennis J. Bottjer, a Software Solutions Architect for Microsoft Gold Partner SpringPoint Technologies in Tulsa, OK, will be speaking at the next NWADNUG meeting. The NWADNUG group has been going through some changes over the last few months to try and allow for the group to grow and become a better and larger group.

Our group has now secured the Chapel room at the Jones Center in Springdale which will hold 337 people in theatre style seating. The room also has a large video screen and sound system for the presentations.

We have also been able to sign up a catering service for the meetings that will help give some variety to the food at the meetings. I hope all of these new changes and better venue will help drive more people to come to the meetings.

Here is the information for our next meeting:

You can also track us on twitter at http://www.hashtags.org/tag/nwadnug/

Click here to RSVP on CodeZone

Title: Tips for Improving SharePoint Performance

Description: A discussion for SharePoint Developers, Administrators and Solutions Architects focused on improving internet and intranet performance.  Tips will discuss a wide range of topics from adjusting out of the box settings to identifying memory leaks in custom code.  This discussion will benefit anyone currently design a SharePoint implementation!

Presenter: Dennis J. Bottjer is a Software Solutions Architect, for Microsoft Gold Partner SpringPoint Technologies, in Tulsa, OK.  He is a Microsoft ASP/ASP.NET MVP.  He previously worked for one of the largest US based Financial Services Companies on the FORTUNE 100.  He has an undergraduate degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Oklahoma.  Dennis served for two years as the President of the Jacksonville Developers User Group.

SWAG:

• Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 ($49.99)
• Inside Office SharePoint Server ($44.99)
• Professional Team Foundation Server ($39.99)
• Hunting Security Bugs ($49.99)
• JetBrains ReSharper ($199)
• CodeSmith Studio ($99)
• Infragistics NetAdvantage Suite ($999)
• Windows Vista Ultimate ($319.99)

When:

• September 2, 2008
• 5:30 PM - 5:45 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
• 5:45 PM - 6:00 PM - Lighting Presentation
• 6:00 PM - 6:10 PM - Intermission – Presenter switch over
• 6:10 PM – 7:30 PM – Main Presentation
• 7:30 PM – 8:00 PM – Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where:

• The Jones Center
  922 East Emma Avenue
  Springdale, AR 72764
  Room 100

NetMeeting URL: http://snipr.com/3a50w

Click here to RSVP on CodeZone

Add to your calendar:

•  Microsoft Outlook
•  Windows Live Calendar
•  Apple iCal
•  Yahoo! Calendar
•  Google Calendar