Monday, April 24, 2006

The Coolest .Net User Group Around

I was very impressed with the WI .Net User Group and the event they hosted on Saturday. Besides being my first trip to Milwaukee, this was also my first time hearing each of the speakers present. I have been to many events, but this event is by far the best I have attended.

The biggest highlight for me on the speaker side was Scott Hanselman. Scott presented about the general coolness of open source software, and how we should all aspire to have great solutions rather than “accidental” code. In this context, Scott visited the subject of dasBlog. I have to admit that at the beginning of his presentation, I couldn’t care less about dasBlog, and by the end of his presentation I was formulating my data migration plan. He had me laughing and enjoying the command prompt – who would have thought?

Besides the slew of entertaining and informative out-of-town speakers, the guys running the whole show were friendly, welcoming, and a fun group of people. I was surprisingly invited to a pre-event party and an after-event dinner. I was showered with cool new software – including Office 2003 Professional and Resharper. The WI .Net User Group networks like crazy, and I got to meet a new set of technical peers who now feel like friends. I even considered throwing caution to the wind and staying an extra night in the city by the water, just so I wouldn’t have to miss out on a second of fun.

So now the challenge – how can the Minneapolis .Net user group top Milwaukee? ;)

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Road Trip :)

The snow has all melted - the birds are singing - what better time for a Road Trip?

A good friend, and past colleage of mine, Avonelle, suggested we hit the road for the Wisconsin Deeper into .Net event this coming Saturday.

I have never been to Milwaukee, and am especially looking forward to Julia Lerman and Scott Hanselman speak.

Who knows - with two girls in Milwaukee for the FIRST TIME, we might have to go LaVerne and Shirley on the city and hop on a brewery tour :) This is my prediction of what we will look like in two days time.