December 2012 Meeting–WordPress Inside Out, Literally

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held December 11th, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. Please RSVP before noon on December 10th so we can order enough food for everyone.
Location:
Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758
Please use the main lobby doors in the center of the building. If entering from the front the cafeteria will be toward the back on the left.

Meeting Information

Elections:
It’s that time of year again, no not Christmas, time to elect our officers for next year. Please come prepared to vote for your favorite candidates.
Title: WordPress Inside Out, Literally
WordPress Inside Out is an approach/method for designers and developers that want their pixel-perfect designs without the ordinary blog look.  To achieve this, we will literally turn WordPress inside-out. The presentation will include taking requirements (i.e. from a client) and efficiently create a custom theme for each new site/design without sacrificing beautiful design and functionality.
For simplicity, WordPress Inside Out is based on the default TwentyTen Theme. The approach is to break down the TwentyTen Theme to its bare essential layout blocks.  The goal is to show that a simple approach and good methodology can lead to beautiful and maintainable web sites.
About the Presenter: Shan Pesaru
Shan is CEO of Sharp Hue: a web design, development, and hosting firm that he founded in 2006 (Fayetteville, AR). Sharp Hue helps small businesses with the visual appeal and usability of their sites by designing pixel-perfect custom themes for WordPress. Shan has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the University of Arkansas.
Agenda
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways
Where
Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101 
ROGERS, AR 72758

The .NET Rocks Roadshow

Mark your calendars!

On the evening of Monday November 12th, from 6pm-10pm we will be welcoming 3 very special guests here in Northwest Arkansas. Carl, Richard and Matt will be presenting and recording a *live episode* of the popular .Net Rocks Podcast for the monthly Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting.  This is a free, open to the public, event being held at the St. Mary’s Center for Non-Profits in Rogers. This will be an excellent time to network with fellow professionals in the area as well as listen to some great speakers (food and prizes will also be available).  Please register for the event so that we have enough food.

More information about our Speakers:

·         Carl Franklin has been a figurehead in the VB community since the very early days when he wrote for Visual Basic Programmers Journal. He authored the Q&A column of that magazine as well as many feature articles for VBPJ and other magazines. He has authored two books for John Wiley & Sons on sockets programming in VB, and in 1994 he helped create the very first web site for VB developers, Carl & Gary’s VB Home Page. He is also the MSDN Regional Director for Connecticut, an MVP for Visual Basic, host of .NET Rocks! and Mondays, and CEO of Pwop Productions, which provides podcasting services. Carl is also an accomplished musician and audio/video producer. He started Pwop Studios in 1999 as a record label for his first album, a collaboration with his brother Jay: Strange Communication. Carl's other band, Solvo, is a funk/jazz/blues/rock band. Solvo is Latin for "to set free or unbind."

·         Richard Campbell is one of the co-founders of Strangeloop Networks and today serves as product evangelist, introducing the company's unique story to advisors, investors, patent attorneys, beta-customer candidates, potential employees, etc. Richard has more than 30 years of high-tech experience and is both a Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP). He has consulted with a number of leading North American organizations; Barnes&Noble.com, Dow Chemical, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Services, Reuters, Subaru/Isuzu and the U.S. Air Force. In addition to speaking at conferences around the world, Richard is co-host of ".NET Rocks!, the Internet Audio Talk Show for .NET Developers" and the host of "RunAs Radio, the Internet Audio Talk Show for IT Professionals."

·         Matt Nunn is a Sr. Product Manager with the developer tools marketing team in the US BMO where he focuses on driving development of custom solutions across the broad range of Microsoft technologies. Prior to joining the US BMO in May of 2011, Matt was a Senior Product Manager in the Developer Division BG where he led technical product management efforts for 5+ years focused on the ALM products and the business of Application Lifecycle Management with Microsoft tools. Prior to joining the Visual Studio team, Matt spent 3 ½ years working on the SQL Server team where he helped to launch SQL Server 2005 and 1 ½ years with the Microsoft Office team helping define and promote Office as a development platform. For 10 years prior to joining Microsoft, Matt worked as a technical consultant and project manager designing and building software systems with various consulting companies both in the US and the UK. Matt has numerous magazine articles and conference talks to his name including sessions at Tech Ed and PDC over the last 14 years.

NWADNUG Special Event

 

We Will Be Hosting

 

The .NET Rocks! Visual Studio 2012 Launch Road Trip!

 

Monday 12th of November

at the

Center for Nonprofits

1200 West Walnut

Rogers, AR 72756

Please register on the site and plan to join form 6-10pm for great time.

October 2012 Meeting–Books and Blogs II

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held October 9th, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers.

Please RSVP before noon on October 9th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please use the main lobby doors in the center of the building. If entering from the front the cafeteria will be toward the back on the left.

Meeting Information

Title: Books and Blogs II

As professionals, we all have different sources that we use to expand our knowledge about our fields.  Some of us read blogs about development or ways to manage a project.  Others read books about how to better manage their relationships with teammates or interact with managers.
This month's meeting offers you a chance to hear about books and blogs that other members of the group use to "sharpen their saws" and the opportunity to share your own sources of inspiration.  
Anyone wishing to present can share a brief (1-5 minutes) presentation about a book or blog that he or she finds useful.  If you have a copy of your book to pass around, please bring it with you.  No one will be required to share, and everyone is free to contribute.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101 
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please forward this announcement to anyone you think would be interested.

September 2012 Meeting - CoffeeScript

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held September 11th, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. John Teague will be presenting on CoffeeScript.

Please RSVP before noon on September 11th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please use the main lobby doors in the center of the building. If entering from the front the cafeteria will be toward the back on the left.

Meeting Information

Title: CoffeeScript, the little language that could
CoffeeScript is a small language that compiles to JavaScript.  It accentuates JavaScripts good parts, obfuscates the bad parts and remembers all of the little things you might forget when writing solid JavaScript.  We'll take a tour of some the key points of the language and show how it can help solve real world problems.

About the Presenter: John Teague

John Teague is a software consultant and entrepreneur living in Austin TX.  He is the Owner and Principle Consultant of Avenida Software, a dual-shore consulting company.  John helps his clients build high performance websites using the latest technologies, and helps enterprises move away from the monolithic application to more nimble collaborative systems based on distributed architecture and SOA.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101 
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please forward this announcement to anyone you think would be interested.

August 2012 Meeting–Entity Framework 5.0

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held  August  14, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. Brian Sullivan will be presenting on Entity Framework 5.0.

Please RSVP before noon on August 14th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please use the main lobby doors in the center of the building. If entering from the front the cafeteria will be toward the back on the left.

The doors lock at 6:00 PM so if you have trouble getting in please call (479)274-8448

Meeting Information

Title: Entity Framework 5.0

Entity Framework 5.0 introduces some highly anticipated features, including Enums, SQL Server spatial data types, and table-valued functions, as well as across-the-board performance improvements. We'll take a look at each of these, as well as some other features in post-4.0 releases that you might not know about, such as validation and an improved change-tracking API.

About the Presenter: Brian Sullivan

Brian Sullivan is a senior consultant for Improving Enterprises in Dallas, TX. He got his start in programming maintaining legacy mainframe applications in COBOL at a large trucking company, but quickly realized he needed to find a more productive environment in order to stay sane. He jumped at the opportunity to help transition some of those COBOL applications to .NET, and he hasn’t looked back since. He has been working with Microsoft technologies for about 7 years, and is interested in increasing the exposure of agile techniques and methodologies in the Microsoft developer community. He is the former leader of the Shreveport .NET User Group and speaks frequently at local user groups and regional conferences. Brian is a Microsoft MVP in Data Platform Development and graduate of Harding University in Searcy, AR.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101 
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please forward this announcement to anyone you think would be interested.

July 2012 Meeting - What’s New With Windows Azure?

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held July 10, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. Toi B. Wright will be presenting on Windows Azure.

Get your Ticket for the meeting here! Remember his is how we figure out how much food to get so please help us make sure we have enough for everyone. Please RSVP before noon on January 10th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please use the main lobby doors in the center of the building. If entering from the front the cafeteria will be toward the back on the left.

Meeting Information

Title: What’s New With Windows Azure?

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced significant improvements to Windows Azure. Windows Azure now supports persistent VMs that can be updated and persisted to Windows Azure blob storage. This means that many existing on-premise applications can easily be migrated to Windows Azure. Also, Microsoft recently announced that they are extending Windows Azure’s reach into a PaaS platform with Windows Azure Web Sites. Windows Azure Web Sites is a simple and powerful hosting platform that allows developers to easily build and rapidly deploy web applications on Windows Azure using their favorite languages, frameworks, and tools. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how to quickly build and deploy applications using the new Windows Azure features and services including Virtual Machines and Windows Azure Web Sites.

About the Presenter: Toi B. Wright

Toi B. Wright is an independent consultant who has worked as a software developer for over 25 years. She has a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. She has been a Microsoft MVP in ASP.NET since 2005 and she is the author of the WROX book titled, 'ASP.NET 4 24-Hour Trainer'.

Ms Wright is the Founder and President of the Dallas ASP.NET User Group, www.dallasasp.net. She has been involved with various user groups around Dallas since 1994 and has been running one or more user groups since 2000. She most recently founded the new Geeks in Pink group,www.geeksinpink.org. This group is dedicated to supporting women in technology. Also, she was the organizer of the original We Are Microsoft - Charity Challenge Weekend, www.wearemicrosoft.com.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101 
ROGERS, AR 72758

June 2012 Meeting–SignalR

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held June 12, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. Chris Patterson will be presenting on SignalR.

Get your Ticket for the meeting here! Remember his is how we figure out how much food to get so please help us make sure we have enough for everyone. Please RSVP before noon on June 12th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758

Please use the main lobby doors in the center of the building. If entering from the front the cafeteria will be toward the back on the left.

Meeting Information

Title: SignalR

SignalR is a new component in the Microsoft ASP.NET stack, enabling asynchronous signaling from the server to the browser. By providing a channel for server-initiated conversations to the browser, an entirely new class of interactive, real-time applications can be created. In this session, we will go beyond the simple chat server example and demonstrate how to use SignalR to connect your browser-based applications to the events produced by your back-end systems (such as order updates, inventory changes, etc.), and explain how the server is able to execute Javascript methods in the browser.

About the Presenter: Chris Patterson

Chris is a senior architect for RelayHealth, the connectivity business of the nation's leading healthcare services company. There he is responsible for the architecture and development of applications and services that accelerate care delivery by connecting patients, providers, pharmacies, and financial institutions. Previously, he led the development of a new content delivery platform for TV Guide, enabling the launch of a new entertainment network seen on thousands of cable television systems.

In his spare time, Chris is an active open-source developer and a primary contributor to MassTransit, a distributed application framework for .NET. In 2009, he was awarded the Most Valuable Professional award by Microsoft for his technical community contributions.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 101
ROGERS, AR 72758

May 2012 Meeting–PowerShell for Developers

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held May 8, 2012 at 6:00 PM at Rockfish in Rogers. Jon Parker will be presenting on PowerShell for Developers.

Get your Ticket for the meeting here! Remember his is how we figure out how much food to get so please help us make sure we have enough for everyone. Please RSVP before noon on January 10th so we can order enough food for everyone.

New Location:

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 100
ROGERS, AR 72758

Meeting Information

Title: PowerShell for Developers

About the Presenter: Jon Parker

Jon has been programming since 2001 at BYU-Idaho. He discovered .Net in 2003 and hasn’t looked back since. While Jon started out with web programming, his current passion is tweaking applications for speed. Jon boasts taking a 30 min Unix C process to .Net that now runs in < 3 min.

Jon is currently employed at Walmart Stores Inc. He is married and has 1 child. In his spare time he codes (of course) and builds tree houses.

Agenda

6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where

Rockfish
3100 MARKET ST. SUITE 100 
ROGERS, AR 72758

April 2012

 

There will NOT be a user group meeting tonight.

We have lost access to the room we were using at the University of Phoenix so we currently do not have a place to host the meeting. We are working to find another location and upon success we may reschedule this month's meeting.

If any of you have any ideas of where we may host future meetings please let us know. 

March 2012 - Party with TEK Systems

Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Time: 6:00pm until 8:30pm
Topic: TEK Systems is bringing the NWA/River Valley IT community together in order to have a great time bowling and networking!

They have bowling lanes and rooms reserved and will provide food and drinks.
Each group member can bring 1 guest.
http://www.facebook.com/events/268586503214908/

Location:
Cosmo Bowling Lanes @ Fast Lane Entertainment
1117 N. Dixieland St
Lowell, AR 72745
View Map | Get Directions

Febuary 2012 Meeting - Model-View Patterns: Making Sense of MVC, MVP and MVVM...

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held February 28th, 2012 at 6:00 PM at the University of Phoenix in Rogers. Rob Vettor will be presenting on Model-View Patterns.

Get your Ticket for the meeting here! Remember his is how we figure out how much food to get so please help us make sure we have enough for everyone. Please RSVP before noon on January 10th so we can order enough food for everyone.

Meeting Information

Title: Model-View Patterns: Making Sense of MVC, MVP and MVVM...

The separation enforced by 'Model View' patterns can quickly transform your application into a maintainable, modular and rapidly developed package. New features are easily added, new screens are a snap, testing is enhanced and developers and designers can more easily work simultaneously.

Come compare the Model-View-Controller (MVC), Model-View-Presenter (MVP) and Model-View-View-Model (MVVM) patterns. In this session, we'll...

• Explore the foundation, benefits and drawbacks of each pattern at an architectural level
• Contrast differences between each pointing out applicable situations where each may apply
• Walk through a variety of examples on the Microsoft platform, including Microsoft MVC, ASP.Net, Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation

You'll walk away with a clear understanding of each pattern, with examples that you can implement in your projects.

About the Presenter: Rob Vettor

Rob Vettor is an Application Development Manager for Microsoft, providing reactive support and proactive guidance to development teams for Microsoft Enterprise customers. An INETA Regional Speaker, user group leader and former 3-time C# MVP, Rob has built systems for a number of corporations, including Avanade, Raytheon, American Express and Jack Henry and Associates. Rob lives in Dallas, TX, with his wife, twin sons and three dogs, and is the founder of Hands-On-Coding (http://www.hands-on-coding.net/), a user group in which attendees bring their laptops and learn .NET coding by doing.

You can contact Rob at robvettor@hotmail.com, and check out Rob’s blog at www.robvettor.com.

Agenda
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where
University of Phoenix - Pinnacle Hills Learning Center
1800 S. 52nd St, Suite 100
Rogers, AR 72758

January 2012 Meeting - Database for Mango

The next Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group meeting will be held January 10th, 2011 at 6:00 PM at the University of Phoenix in Rogers. Chris Koenig will discuss database development with Windows Phone "Mango".

Get your Ticket for the meeting here! Remember his is how we figure out how much food to get so please help us make sure we have enough for everyone. Please RSVP before noon on January 10th so we can order enough food for everyone.

Meeting Information

Title: Database for Mango

With the release of the new "Mango" operating system, the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 now supports SQL Server CE as part of the Windows Phone runtime environment. Join Microsoft Developer Evangelist Chris Koenig for a tour of SQL Server CE Database Support on Windows Phone. We’ll talk about defining, creating and accessing databases on the device, deploying databases with your application, and making updates to your database as you version your application.

About the Presenter: Chris Koenig

Chris Koenig is a Senior Developer Evangelist with Microsoft, based in Dallas, TX. Prior to joining Microsoft in March of 2007, Chris worked as a Senior Architect for The Capital Group in San Antonio, and as an Architect for the global solution provider Avanade. As an Architect and 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, Arkansas and Louisiana while specializing in Windows Phone 7 and Silverlight development.

Chris can be reached on Twitter at @chriskoenig

Agenda
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Welcome and News, Sign-in and Food
6:15 PM - 8:10 PM - Main Presentation
8:10 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing and Prize give-a-ways

Where
University of Phoenix - Pinnacle Hills Learning Center
1800 S. 52nd St, Suite 100
Rogers, AR 72758