Well, this was not only my first Code Camp speaking engagement, it was my first Code Camp, period. What a great time! Stan Spotts did a great job putting it together, but kudos to Bill Wolff and the other track leads as well. On Saturday I did a talk on Custom WebControl Development and it went over real well. I was amazed that I was able to stuff 2-3 hours of material into a 1 hour talk and I had to summarize a lot of information, but the crowd seemed to still be getting into it and I was hit with a ton of questions afterward. Sunday I did a talk on Declarative Programming and how to use custom WebControls as an approach to ASP.NET development. Most of the crowd there were returns from my first class. The problem was that they gave me a small room and everyone had to cram into it. But that didn't stop anyone from coming - they were standing in the back against the wall. I'm proud to say that this class received not only the standard end-of-talk applause, but two other applauses during the middle of it. I look forward to doing these [and others] again at other Code Camps. I think NY and NJ are next; unfortunately I was late submitting for DC. One of the best parts about the weekend was the people I got to meet. A lot of names I knew already like Brian Noyes and Kevin Goff, but I also got to meet and chat with some of the attendees that just wanted to geek out a little over the material I was covering. This is the stuff I live for - pretty pathetic huh? Nothing is better than starting a new talk and asking if anyone has done this stuff before - then noone raises their hand. This is like fresh meat to a speaker like me. If anyone that was in my classes reads this blog entry, thanks for attending and making my talks so great. Can't wait till the next one.
Well, I'm done with the ASP.NET 2.0 WebControls talks this week. I did the first one at the NJEVBUG, a .NET Users Group that meets in the Microsoft offices in Iselin, NJ and the second one at the Northern New Jersey .NET Users Group. Both talks went just over 2 hours and everyone seemed happy to stay for duration. The material is very exciting, as is anything having to do with ASP.NET 2.0. This is my first set of talks as an MVP and the beginning of a big year for community stuff. Thanks to everyone reading this who attended either one of them - a good audience makes it all worth while.
Next week I'm doing two other talks at CodeCamp Philly so I'll let you know how that went. After that, on May 6, I'm doing a WebControls talk at the Univ. of CT .NET Users Group, afterwhich I'm going to sleep for a week.
Stay on top of my website; I'm putting some new stuff online soon.
Monday, April 11th I'll be speaking at the NJEVBUG group that meets in the Microsoft offices in Iselin, NJ.
Tuesday, April 12th I'll be presenting at the Northern New Jersey .NET Users Group that meets in the SetFocus office in Parsipanni, NJ.
The talk of both presentations will be “ASP.NET 2.0 WebControls & more”
I'll also be presenting at a CodeCamp in Philladelphia on the 23rd and 24th of this month.
The two talks will be “Custom WebControls Demystified“ and “Declarative Programming in ASP.NET through WebControls“
As if that wasnt' enough, on May 4 I'll be doing the “Custom WebControls Demystified“ talk at the Univ. of CT Users Group in Stamford.
Hope we have a good turnout.
About 5 weeks ago I posted a webcontrol I developed called GalleryBuilder. It basically allows you to create an instant photo gallery in 3 steps. There are a few out there that perform a similar task but being the property and styling insane developer that I am, I felt (and still feel) that mine offered a lot more functionality. Well after 5 weeks its been downloaded over 500 times. I've received some really great emails telling me what a great control it is and how much people like it. That's the main reason I develop these things, however I am almost done with a “Pro” version of the control that will even superceed the original. I'm not going to list any additional features here and now but I will tell you that it's going to be awesome. This one will not be free but it will be very affordable. Of course I will post a blog entry when it's released so keep a watch out. Thank you Peter Blum for some great advise in marketting commercial WebControls.
And check out some of my other controls at www.dotnetdude.com
I would say that all the late-night coding sessions and speaking engagement preparations and all other community involvement have payed off, but the truth is that they pay off constantly when I receive “thank-you” emails from people to whom I've provided a solution. One of the reasons I got into user-group talks and writing for CoDe Magazine, etc. is that I really enjoy passing on knowledge. One of the best things around is the ooooos and aaaaaas you get when your audience sees something really cool that they did not know they could do. I get that a lot especially when I teach people how to develop custom webcontrols. Well, though I trully enjoy all my community involvement and will continue to do it no matter what, it was great news to find out that Microsoft has awarded me with an MVP award in the area of Visual Developer - C#. Thank you Microsoft and thanks to all the guys and gals in the local development community who either directly or indirectly encourage me to continue helping others in the .NET community and to continue staying involved. I have to mention some names because they provide a great deal to the community and need to be linked here: Rob, DonXML, ScottW, ScottG, Stacey, Andrew, and Rod.
I have a lot planned for the upcoming year, including many group talks (in fact I have 2 this month + 2 code camps), many more articles published, a lot more freeware (and some commercial stuff as well), and of course -- non-stop blogging.
Let the games begin...