Doug Ware speaks at the Atlanta .NET User Group tonight!

Quick Summary

I attended the Atlanta .NET User Group meeting tonight.

Need to find out about local developer events?

FYI...

You can find out when all the local (greater Atlanta) Microsoft related user groups are happening at the Atlanta .NET

Regular Guys website.

You can also find out about local developer events at the Community Megaphone (Code Camps and Roadshows and Webcasts). Very easy to subscribe to an RSS feed of local events.

Doug Ware, the speaker, is the founder of eLumenotion Training and Consulting and is the leader of the Atlanta .NET User Group.

Tonight he spoke about using the Web Browser Control in WinForms. This was a brief tutorial and very helpful info. He used his helpful tool "SharePoint Skinner" to demonstrate the Web Browser Control.

The technical presentation is about State Machine Workflows. I thought this would be an exciting topic. Being a MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) / BizTalk advocate, this topic is near an dear to my heart.

Most workflow talks focus on sequential workflows, but in this talk focused State Machine workflows. State machines have always seemed like a complicated topic, but, as Doug clarified, they're actually easier to use for most situations.

During his talk, Doug built a State Machine Workflow from scratch, covering both handling faults and working with events. He covered the limitations of state machines in workflow foundation. This was great info, because it gave us a nice battle card for how to identify the situations where State Machine workflows do not fit requirements.

Doug used SharePoint as the workflow host, but clarified that the concepts apply to any workflow host.

This was a great presentation.

Event Details

Food and drinks were sponsored by the folks from Magenic.

The event was hosted at the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in Atlanta

Announcements

Sarah Cromey from Veredus announced that they are currently looking for .NET Web Developers. If you are interested in a position with Veredus, you can contact Sarah directly at through her email address, scromey(at)vereduscorp.com
Doug Ware's company is giving some new training on SharePoint 2007.

DreamSpark - I introduced a small group of folks to the DreamSpark website, where students can get free license to the best development tools.

Microsoft Online - Also spoke with a few folks over a beer at the bar after the event about Microsoft Online (Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting). If you want to get access to the Microsoft Online Services beta, go to http://mocp.microsoftonline.com. When you get into the MOCP site, go through the setup process. On this site you will be able to apply for the trial. That should get you going.
I am currently gearing up my community efforts on MS Online, so I encourage you to come back to check out my other posts on MS Online. You can also participate in the MS Online forums, and add commentary to the MS Online team blog.
Microsoft PDC2008 (Professional Developers Conference)
- There currently a $200 discount till the 8th of September 2008, so hurry up and take advantage of the discount. This is going to be a huge conference. I really hope to see you all there.