The catch? Attend the Ozarks .Net User Group meeting on April 1st. Here’s a list of the other prizes for the event GRAND PRIZE 1 - iPad (Wi-Fi 16GB) THIRD PARTY COMPONENTS 6 - Telerik Premium Collection 5 - Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 1 - Nevron Chart for .NET Lite DevExpress Xceed PRODUCTIVITY 2 - CodeRush with Refactor! Pro 2 - ReSharper CodeSmith GAMES 3 - Halo3 ODST (XBox 360) 3 - Forza Motorsport (Xbox 360) OTHER SOFTWARE 3 - Windows 7 Ultimate 2 - Microsoft Office Standard 2007 HARDWARE...

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It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I suppose sometimes when one’s personal life gets busy, there are some things that fall by the wayside. So what all has happened since I last blogged? Business has been good with lots of lessons learned. I had hoped I would have had an important announcement several months ago concerning the business I own, but that simply hasn’t materialized yet. Will keep everyone posted. Ensuring your business has a good sales pipeline and stays ahead in the technology curve...

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As most of you know, I serve on the INETA (International .Net Association) Board of Directors, being in charge of the Speakers Bureau and other Speaker programs. There have been several rumors floating around with a lot of misconceptions and I wanted to clarify a few things. The budget numbers have come in, and the U.S. National Speakers Bureau budget is less than half of what it was last year. I can personally guarantee that User Groups will continue to have speakers funded by INETA. However, we...

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Fair warning, I’m combining several blog posts into one. As a father, there’s nothing that makes you more proud than to see your son take his first steps, say daddy for the first time, or catch his first ball. In my professional career I’m extremely proud of the accomplishments my peers have been making. These are the people I’ve been working with and helping their professional community efforts, and while I like to think I helped them in some way, truth be told, they entirely did the work on their...

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I’m currently on my first INETA Board of Directors Conference Call and I thought I’d keep people updated on what’s going on, as there’s some really good stuff being discussed. I know one of the perception problems, is that INETA is a black hole, which is on the top of my list to help change, and hopefully by doing this, that perception will change. If you’d like to write content for the various code magazines, there are opportunities for you! Community Night (aka Birds of a Feather) at TechEd is...

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INETA has a great gimmick. Give someone a award and then recruit them to do volunteer work! While I am completely joking, I was recently appointed to INETA’s Board of Directors. Congratulations go out to my fellow Board Members. Rob Zelt, President Mike Vincent, Vice President Scott Spradlin, Secretary Morgan Baker, Treasurer Steve Andrews, Director Lori McKinney, Director Randy Walker, Director Shawn Weisfeld, Director Chris Williams, Director Our first order of business will be a Board Meeting...

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Scott Spradlin, one of most influential people I know in the world of Microsoft programming, has gone way too long without being recognized. I remember having talked with Scott on many occasions about user groups and Ineta. He’s been one of those long time influentials, mostly behind the scenes, serving in various roles with INETA and being the glue that helped connect St. Louis developers together. Scott served as the Regional Mentor for INETA for many years, helping several user groups get started....

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I was a bit shocked when I received the email announcing that I am one of ten Community Champions awarded. A huge thank you to those that nominated me. It’s always a good feeling of accomplishment when you’re recognized for your efforts. While they haven’t posted the announcement on the website yet, you can read more about the award at http://www.ineta.org/Champi... Below is the Newsletter announcement. Community Champions Winners Announced INETA Community Champion Award...

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For those that weren't able to attend last Tuesday's Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting, 8/5/2008, Zach Young (our Vice President of the group) was able to secure Jeffrey Palermo as a speaker for a special meeting this Thursday (8/14/2008). This is a huge boon, as Jeff is one of THE most sought after speakers in North America. Jeff is most known for the Party with Palermo series of events before each of the major conferences. Jeff hails from Austin, Texas, which was recently named the hardest...

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A big heartfelt thank you and congratulations to two of the developer community builders in the Northwest Arkansas area, Jay Smith and Michael Paladino with special mention to Zach Young. As a Microsoft MVP, one of our benefits this year, is the ability to award people with a special prize. This prize is an MSDN Premium account with Visual Studio Team Suite, which includes nearly all of Microsoft's business software, free of charge. Jay Smith works for Tyson Foods, Inc. where he is a PMO Architect...

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I have vastly been neglecting my blogging. So as not to be outdone by Chris Koenig .... I was able to meetup with the organizers of the event, Jason Pluenneke, Curt Wolfe, Boyd Evert, & Dennis Berk several weeks ago. I am personally very excited about this new user group starting up. Partly because of my small part in helping them (one of my roles as the INETA Membership Mentor), but mostly because of my passion for databases. I'm really looking forward to what will be coming out of the group....

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In my role as INETA Membership Mentor I hooked up with Jeff Julian while trying to process his Office User Group application through INETA. I had heard about GeeksWithBlogs but hadn't ever had an opportunity get familiarize myself with it. Jeff and I got to talking through e-mail and I joined as one of the members. I am now cross-posting my technical posts there and since then my readership has gone up quite a bit. Plus they've helped me automate some submittals to www.community-credit.com. Hopefully...

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