GTA East .NET

Toronto Code Camp 2008

User Group Leader — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:20:38 GMT

Date:
Saturday March 1st, 2008

Event Description:
In case you aren't familiar with Code Camps, they are designed to provide a forum for the developer community to speak, network and share ideas. In recent years, many user groups had lost the participation of their members for presentations. This core principle has been overshadowed by commercial aspects and user groups have really drifted from their fundamental purpose. The main tenets of a Code Camp are:

By and For the Developer Community: Code Camps are about the developer community at large. They are meant to be a place for developers to come and learn from their peers. Topics are always based on community interest and never determined by anyone other than the community.
Always Free: Code Camps are always free for attendees.
Community Developed Material: The materials of a Code Camps are always developed by the community. Only original content is accepted. All presentation content must be provided completely (including code) without any restrictions.
No Fluff - only Code: Code Camps are code & demo centric, not marketing materials and management overviews.
Community Ownership: All are welcome to attend and speak and do so without expectation of payment or any other compensation other than their participation in the community.
Never occurs during work hours: Code Camps always occur on weekends. This is to increase participation without impacting “work hours”.

Our last event was a huge success with over 350 attendees, 25 sessions, 24 speakers, 20+ volunteers and contributors including Manulife Financial, Microsoft, ObjectSharp Consulting, Infusion, Navantis, DevTeach, etc. This year we will continue to build on the success of the prior Code Camps and increase the number of attendees and make the event an even greater critical and logistical success.

[Details and Registration on www.torontocodecamp.net]

Directions in IT and Christmas Party

User Group Leader — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:37:41 GMT

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

New Features in C# 3.0 and .NET 3.5

User Group Leader — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:06:20 GMT

Date:
Monday November 19th, 2007

Event Description:
Conversation about the new language features in .NET 3.5 have been dominated by the inclusion of Linq. In this session we will look at some of the features that have been lost in the shuffle. We will deep dive into anonymous constructors, simple properties, anonymous types, the ‘var’ keyword, lambda expressions, extension methods and more.

Speaker Biography
Donald Belcham, C# MVP

Donald Belcham is an independent contractor in Edmonton. He has worked with .NET for the last 5 years and currently works with both web and smart client applications. Donald is an avid practitioner of agile development methodologies, pragmatic coding practices and delivering quality and value to the business. A Microsoft MVP in C#, Donald is active in the community as the President of the Edmonton .NET User Group, an organizer of the Edmonton Code Camp and a speaker at User Groups and Code Camps across Canada and in the United States. His thoughts on software development, .NET and C# can be found at www.igloocoder.com.

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

Building Next Generation Web applications using Silverlight

User Group Leader — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 05:33:21 GMT

Date:
Thursday September 20th, 2007

Event Description:
Silverlight is arguably the biggest shift in Microsoft strategy on the web since IE was introduced over 10 years ago. With the reach of cross platform and the richness of the .NET framework, the future of building Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s) has never been more exciting. In this talk, you will learn about Silverlight, the platforms, tools and technologies you can use to build Silverlight applications, and how it differs from the full Windows Presentation Foundation platform in .NET 3.0 and how Silverlight can be used in conjunction with other technologies, such as ASP.NET Ajax, Web Services and Visual Studio 2008.

Speaker Biography
Jason Beres, Director of Product Management for Infragistics

Jason Beres is the Director of Product Management for Infragistics, the world’s leading publisher of presentation layer tools. Jason is one of the founders of Florida .NET User Groups, he is the founder of the New Jersey .NET User Group, he is a Visual Basic .NET MVP, and he is on the INETA Speakers Bureau. Jason is the author of several books on .NET development, he is a national and international speaker conference speaker, he is a frequent columnist for several .NET publications, and keeps very active in the .NET community.

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

Developer Night in Canada - Data Driven Apps & Web Sites

User Group Leader — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 16:36:00 GMT

Date:
Wednesday April 11, 2007

Speaker:
Jean-Luc David

The purpose of this event is to demonstrate how the Microsoft Application Platform provides a robust and secure foundation for building data-driven applications and Web sites. Specifically, this session will examine some of the tools and technologies available for developers including Visual Studio Team System for Database Professionals and examine some of the exciting new features of ADO.NET.

Prizes For This Event:

To be announced...

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

User Group Leader — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:47:00 GMT

Date:
Thursday February 22nd, 2007 THIS DATE HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED

Speaker:
Chris Dufour, MVP

The Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is Microsoft's unified framework for building secure, reliable, transacted, and interoperable distributed applications. In this session we will begin with a high-level overview of the WCF architecture and its key concepts. Then we will learn how to build and consume simple WCF services. After attending this session you will be able to start creating your own WCF enabled applications.

Download the PowerPoint and demo code http://gtaeast.torontoug.net/Downloads/1675.aspx

Prizes For This Event:

Windows Vista Business (3 copies)

Windows Vista Business is the first Windows operating system designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses. You'll empower your entire business to work more efficiently with a stunning and improved, simple-to-use interface that makes it easier to search and find the information you need quickly and easily, both on your PCs and on the web. With powerful new safety features, you're in control and can better protect the key information that is the life of your business and that builds the trust of your customers.

Suggested retail price for full package product, $299.00 USD. Suggested upgrade retail price, $199.00 USD.

Vista Posters

Assorted T-Shirts

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

Toronto Code Camp 2007

User Group Leader — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:47:00 GMT

Date:
Saturday March 31st, 2007

Are you a developer interested in improving your .NET skills? Then this is the event to attend. The Second Annual Toronto Code Camp promises to be the biggest and best community owned event we've ever had. This free one day seminar with 25 code intensive technical sessions is designed to guide the developer to the next skill level. The focus of a Code Camp is to deliver programming information and sample code that can be used immediately. All training, slides, manuals and demo code are provided free of charge!

Without the support of our generous contributors an event like this would not be possible so I encourage you to visit their sites.

For more information and to register visit http://www.torontocodecamp.net

Explore Windows Live Services

User Group Leader — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 03:31:00 GMT

Date:
Monday November 13th, 2006

Speakers:
Farhan Thawar, Product Manager for Windows Live
Jean-Luc David, Developer Evangelist

Windows Live makes it easy for developers to extend and customize applications through open service APIs, straightforward licensing, and permissive terms of use that can run on multiple platforms, browsers and languages. In this session you will be able to discuss Microsoft’s strategy for Windows Live with Farhan Thawar, a product manager for the Canadian Windows Live Team!

You will also get a preview of the current Windows Live services, like Gadgets, Live Search and Virtual Earth, along with exciting demos of technologies that you can incorporate in your applications today!

Prizes For This Event

1 - MIcosoft Visual Studio Tools for the Micosoft Office System
1 - Infragistics NetAdvantage 2006 Volume 1
1 - Infragistics NetAdvantage 2005 Volume 1
5 - Introducing Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System
1 - Security for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
1 - Microsoft .NET Development for Micosoft Office
1 - Micosoft Flight Simulator 2004
Assorted t-shirts

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

Refactoring with Generics

User Group Leader — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 09:45:00 GMT

Date:
Thursday, October 19, 2006

Topic:
Refactoring with Generics

Speaker:
Kathleen Dollard, Northern Colorado .NET SIG

Generics open up new opportunities to increase the robustness of your code, improve its performance, and significantly reduce the total amount of code you write. After a brief introduction to generic syntax, this talk dives into using generics to improve the quality of your code. You'll see how easy it is to shift your current collections to generic collections and learn about new features such as robust sorts, finds, and filters across collections. You'll learn how to write your own generic methods and classes. Finally you'll see how to leverage the spectrum of generic possibilities in a business object hierarchy that reduces the total lines of code by about 50%. You'll walk out of this talk understanding how to use generics to improve your own applications.

Prizes for this event:

1- MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft .NET Core Requirements, Exams 70-305, 70-315, 70-306, 70-316, 70-310, 70-320, and 70-300
4 - Introducing Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System
1 - Writing Secure Code 2nd Edition
1 - Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System
1 - ComponentOne Reports for .NET
Assorted t-shirts

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]

Unit Testing

User Group Leader — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 15:52:00 GMT

Date: Thursday June 15th, 2006

Speaker: Chris Dufour

Most developers hate testing their own code. It's boring and, besides, isn't that QA's job? The answer: No! As a developer, you need to be able to accurately test your code and it needs to be a repeatable process to ensure future changes don't break existing code. Chris Dufour from EP Canada will demonstrate how to write, execute, and manage Visual Studio 2005's integrated unit testing.

[Details and Registration on gtaeast.torontoug.net]