We will have that one application that just doesn’t want to work as well as we hoped, or that has a nasty bug impacting performance and stability. This session will provide an introduction to .NET performance diagnostic tools and how you can not only fix existing performance issues, but pro-actively monitor application performance.

Level: 100

Speaker: Mitchel Sellers

Topics: .NET Framework, Development Practices, Visual Studio

This presentation will provide attendees with an overview of the capabilities of the Reactive Extensions library for .NET. Through Reactive Extensions (Rx) developers can build powerful, asynchronous applications through an elegant use of observable collections. This talk may change the way .NET developers think about .NET events and writing asynchronous code.

Level: 200

Speaker: Kevin Grossnicklaus

Topics: .NET Framework

Due to the pervasiveness of GPS data, today’s developers are being asked to incorporate geospatial information into their data-driven applications, often with no budget for procuring GIS software. SQL Server 2008 provides rich spatial support by means of the new Geometry and Geography data types, but some enterprises may not use SQL Server, or may be slow to upgrade their database platforms until years after a product release. There is still hope! .NET developers without access to SQL Server 2008 can still incorporate these new data types into their applications – no SQL Server required! Not only will this solve an immediate need using Microsoft-supported technology, but also provides an upgrade path to using SQL Server 2008 for more advanced querying support. In addition, developers can also utilize Virtual Earth technology to provide an interactive geocoding and visualization story to their end users.

Level: 200

Speaker: Jason Follas

Topics: .NET Framework, Database Development

A model for ubiquitous client development. How the HyperVize team delivered an application on WinMo, Android, IOS & the Web in 6 weeks. Co-Speakers: Blanchard, Budiman, & Allender

Level: 100

Speaker: Brian Blanchard

Topics: Windows Phone 7

HTML5 is the biggest and most powerful HTML specification to ever come out of the W3C. Its roots come from a proposal to extend HTML4 to make it easier for web developers to create web applications. With more and more browsers supporting HTML5, ECMAScript 5 and other web standards, developers now have a strong web platform they can use to create a new class of application that is more powerful and interactive than ever before. What's in HTML5 that lets us take our applications to the next level?

Level: 200

Speaker: Brandon Satrom

Topics: ASP.NET

This session distills the best guidance from the Microsoft Patterns & Practices group to provide a hands-on approach to designing application architectures. Along the way, we’ll examine the key decisions that must be made when choosing our architectural styles and designing our layers and show how those decisions turn into real shippable code on a project.

Level: 200

Speaker: Clint Edmonson

Topics: .NET Framework, Architecture, Development Practices

The Cloud now makes seemingly infinite amounts of computing power accessible to everyone. However, to maximize this power, your applications need to scale. In this session, we will explore patterns that enable massive scalability. We will examine Brewer’s CAP Theorem and contrast it to the ACID principles that guide traditional LOB applications. And finally, we will explore how to apply these patterns when building applications for the Cloud using Windows Azure.

Level: 300

Speaker: Eric Boyd

Topics: Architecture, Azure & Cloud

It is one thing to know how to build an ASP.NET application and get everything working as you want. It is another thing to get it working well. As you build web applications today, you also need to make sure that the choices you make in the construction of the application also work well in regards to the overall performance of the application. As your web application takes on more user load, you have options in how you want to deal with the growth. The choices you have can be made either via the code of your application or via actual hardware changes. This lecture will cover a lot of different ground but all the items mentioned have a direct impact on the overall performance of your ASP.NET applications.

Level: 200

Speaker: Bill Evjen

Topics: ASP.NET

There has been a lot of talk about test-driven, acceptance-test-driven, behavior-driven, anything-you-can-think-of-driven development lately. I will talk about behavior-driven development, how it relates to and encompasses some of these practices. I will show you the tools related to BDD, and how they help you code and design always with the customer's requirements in mind. Then I will actually show you how to get started with BDD on the .Net (specifically C#) platform. You should walk away from this session armed with enough information to get you started towards tested code that really nails what the customer needs.

Level: 200

Speaker: Lee Brandt

Topics: .NET Framework, Project Management, Unit Testing

This topic/session will outline a road map to benefit help IT professionals in building a successful career in software development.

Level: 200

Speaker: Michael Davis

Team Foundation Server rewrote the book on customizing build processes. Now Windows Workflow is being used for customizing build templates – to enable deployment scenarios and other custom actions, WinWF activities can help developers achieve a custom build process.

Level: 200

Speaker: Chris Kadel

Topics: Visual Studio

This session will give you a brief introduction to SharePoint development using sandboxed solutions. During this session, we’ll walk you through the process of creating a simple web part that can be deployed to an Office 365 SharePoint site.

Level: 100

Speaker: Becky Bertram

Topics: .NET Framework

During this session, we will look at ways to improve your individual soft skills, as well as your team’s overall dynamic. It is geared towards attendees at all levels. If you are an entry-to-mid-level developer looking to advance your career, this is the session to attend! We will investigate and discuss the key personal tools that you will need to develop and strengthen to advance. At the same time, George will provide information that will help you to get on top – and stay on top – of the latest technology in an ever-changing field. Even if you are already a senior developer in a team lead role, this session still will benefit you. Reaching back to the experience George has as a championship coach, the information and tools he will offer will greatly help to improve the dynamics of your team as a whole, covering team-building and leadership ideas, as well as some motivational thoughts to take you and your team to the next level of performance.

Level: 100

Speaker: George Evjen

Instead of boring the audience with a multitude of slides, this session will feature live coding to illustrate some of the well known gang-of-four design patterns in C#. Attendees will not only be able to see a live demonstration of these patterns, but through the demonstrations will be empowered to find areas in their own software where these patterns will benefit the quality and re-usability of their code all in a highly interactive session.

Level: 100

Speaker: Seth Juarez

Topics: .NET Framework, Architecture

Input validation is the most powerful tool in your arsenal when it comes to protecting your server application from attack. Code Contracts provides the syntactic sugar to build validation rules (i.e. contracts) into your code that are enforced by .NET at compile time and runtime. Not only check input validation (pre-conditions) but post conditions and invariants (rules that must always be true).

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Ayers

Topics: .NET Framework

Having a dedicated User Experience Designer on projects is still a rare thing for many teams. In many cases, the creative churns out a design, an analyst specs it out, and a developer is then tasked to build it. During this session, I’ll go over many common pitfalls that can negatively impact a users experience, and offer arguments that the audience can then use to challenge the creative or analyst to rethink the design.

Level: 100

Speaker: Brad Nunnally

Topics: User Experience

The amount of data stored today is growing at a rapid rate. However, data is only valuable if it is accessible and can be consumed by people and systems. OData is an open protocol for sharing data that is positioned to solve this problem. OData uses the standard HTTP protocol using REST principles to make data accessible and has huge industry momentum with rapid adoption growth. In this session, we will explore what OData is all about and how to expose relational and non-relational data as OData using WCF Data Services. We will then walkthrough developing apps to consume the OData feeds from multiple clients including mobile devices. Finally, we will take a look at how you can benefit from using Azure to publish your data with OData services.

Level: 200

Speaker: Eric Boyd

Topics: Azure & Cloud, WCF

There is a new “movement” popping up called DevOps. It is about the automation of development best practices as well as the automation of the deployment pipeline. Answer this question, “How long does it take your organization or team to push 1 line code of change into production?” That’s what this session is all about. See what LinkedIn is doing… a company who is pushing production releases multiple times a day. Their approach may not be best for you, but we can learn from it. This session will look at all aspects of automating the delivery pipeline with a focus on “Continuous Delivery”, a term coined in the Agile Manifesto.

Level: 100

Speaker: Ken Sipe

Topics: Project Management

CQRS and Event Sourcing has become a very popular topic lately. What is it? Is it a fad? Where do you get started? This session is an introduction to the CQRS / ES pattern with a discussion of the benefits and drawbacks. We'll also code a working demo to show how easy it can be to implement CQRS / ES in .Net applications. By the end of the session, you will know if CQRS / ES is just the latest buzzword or an architectural pattern that could save your next project.

Level: 100

Speaker: Darren Cauthon

Topics: Architecture

Within the .NET API Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides a robust set of tools and functions for creating highly extensible applications. This session will provide an introduction to MEF, and will walk through basic concepts and a sample C# MEF application showing the full features.  After this session attendees should be able to immediately apply the concepts learned.

Level: 200

Speaker: Mitchel Sellers

Topics: .NET Framework, Architecture

In this session learn how to use MSBuild to automate simple things such as project deployment and packaging of your projects and solutions.

Level: 200

Speaker: Chris Hammond

Topics: Visual Studio

This year brings us a new version of BlogEngine.NET. WordPress is the big boy on the block, but if you want to stick with .NET, BlogEngine.NET is a great alternative. In this session you will quickly learn how download, setup and customize BlogEngine.NET 2. We will explore the various database options including SQL Server Compact. Then to truly customize your install we will create an HTML5 based theme complete with IE9 pinned site features, develop a custom control and widget, and create a custom extension. Finally we will review hosting options and a few SEO tweaks for IIS.

Level: 200

Speaker: Scott Kuhl

Topics: ASP.NET

Language INtegrated Query provides a concise API to greatly enhance the readability, reduce the amount, and improve the performance of your code. I cover the foundational constructs in .NET that set the foundation for LINQ, the query operators, and applying LINQ with Lambda expressions. I close with a quick spin around Parallel LINQ (PLINQ).

Level: 200

Speaker: Philip Japikse

Topics: .NET Framework

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician, is a hero overseas for bringing his philosophy on manufacturing quality to the Japanese auto industry. He had pitched his views to American manufacturers prior to heading to Japan, but they chose not to listen, and over time came to regret it. This talk will look at the views of Dr. Deming, current trends in software and web development, and draw from history to learn how the information technology field can avoid the same fate.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jake Truemper

This session will provide approaches and best practices to creating SharePoint 2010 "Sandboxed" applications that will run in secure or multiple-tenancy environments.

Level: 200

Speaker: Kurt Rolland

Topics: .NET Framework

WCF can be a powerful framework for building distributed applications, which provide high performance and scalability by spreading their work across multiple systems. This session will describe and demonstrate a one such distributed application, built with WCF, that delegates processing of client requests to nodes. Along the way, we'll look at a simple api for clients, issues in sharing data between instances of a WCF service, and techniques for handling concurrency to squeeze the most out of available resources.

Level: 200

Speaker: Chris Smith

Topics: Architecture, WCF

Windows Azure Storage Framework offers a number of alternatives to traditional data storage that lets us challenge the architectural norm of relational data.

Level: 100

Speaker: Brian Blanchard

Topics: Azure & Cloud, Database Development

jQuery is easily the most popular JavaScript framework for web, and with Microsoft’s continued backing – usage within .NET projects is high. So, you’re probably writing jQuery already. And if you’re writing jQuery and you’re not structuring your code as plugins – you’re just plain doing it wrong. This session will discuss how you can structure your jQuery code for safety, clean separation, better reusability and easier maintenance. We’ll be using several jQuery plugins which were created for the revamped DotNetNuke 6.0 interface as the case study.

Level: 200

Speaker: Ian Robinson

Topics: .NET Framework, ASP.NET, DotNetNuke

Do you love buzzwords and new shiny technologies? How about proven development methodologies and techniques? Well check me out: Unit Testing, Ajax, jQuery, Entity Framework, the Razor Scripting Language and WebFormsMVP. These are all either fundamentals or hot items within the development community and DNN is no exception. If you haven’t checked DNN out recently – come have a seat in this session and learn all about the modern tools available to the DotNetNuke developer. Fair warning: code will be slung at a fairly brisk pace.

Level: 200

Speaker: Ian Robinson

Topics: .NET Framework, ASP.NET, DotNetNuke, Entity Framework, Unit Testing

Do you want to program the "fastest selling consumer electronics device" in history? Use the Microsoft Kinect SDK and build applications that take advantage of the various sensors and the skeletal tracking capabilities of the Kinect. In this session, we will put together an end to end interactive demo examining the various capabilities exposed by the SDK and discuss ways to Kinectify your application UI.

Level: 100

Speaker: Krishna Kumar

Topics: .NET Framework

This session will offer examples of B-Tree indexes, as well as offer an introduction to the query optimizer. It will cover obtaining execution plan information, queries that use join operations and finally, myths about optimizing and indexes.

Level: 100

Speaker: Kim Tessereau

Topics: Database Development

XML-based data is very prevalent in today's data world to the point that every database developer should know how to work with XML. Middle-tier translation of XML into relational data may be inflexible, and often leads to a loss of fidelity over time. One solution is to move the XML handling into the database itself in order to improve overall integration. SQL Server 2008 provides powerful XML processing features that allow easy access to data stored within XML without sacrificing any of the original fidelity.

Level: 200

Speaker: Jason Follas

Topics: Database Development

Handling a spike in demand or just ramping up for the end of the month demands that we are ready to scale up our processing capacity to meet that demand. Here we will take a look at how to plan for and design into our solutions the ability to scale out our systems. This last session explores multi-tenancy, message queues, worker roles and more to see how you can get the most out of your investment in the cloud.

Level: 100

Speaker: Mike Benkovich

Topics: Azure & Cloud

This session will provide take a look at the new features coming to Silverlight 5. It will include looks at databinding debugging, native features, new style capabilities and more. It will be a rapid fire session that will cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. Quick and simple demos will be used to show off new features.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Brand

Topics: Silverlight

Introduce Lambda Expressions, Anonymous Functions and Expression trees.  How these relate to one another and the various ways to write them.

Level: 100

Speaker: Craig Selbert

Topics: .NET Framework

Whether you are just getting started, or you’ve made an attempt and well… it could be better… a lot better, this session is for you. Ken has been working on Agile projects as a coach and mentor for a number of years. Come discover the common reasons teams fail to get it right. Bring your own challenges and lets discuss. This is set to be an engaging and illuminating discussion.

Level: 100

Speaker: Ken Sipe

Topics: Project Management

Despite its genesis nearly 60 years ago, functional programming has only recently reemerged as a core technique in mainstream languages. This session will contrast the functional style with imperative and object-oriented programming and dive into real-world examples of how it can be used to solve common problems in C# and F#.

Level: 200

Speaker: Keith Dahlby

Topics: .NET Framework

This session will walk through writing an effective resume, how to prepare and land the interview and tips on working with recruiters and staffing agencies.

Level: 100

Speaker: Michael Davis

Many know that PowerShell is a powerful scripting environment that can help server administrators through automation. Many developers fail to realize they could benefit from this environment too. This session will demonstrate some of the immense power available to developers and will provide enough information to allow .NET developers to walk away with the ability to code simple PowerShell scripts. The talk will wrap up with examples of using PowerShell with XML, SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint to illustrate the abilities of the platform

Level: 200

Speaker: Robert Fischer

You’ve heard the buzz, now explore why the cloud is important and how you can take advantage of the elasticity, performance and availability offered by Windows Azure. This session will start by exploring how cloud computing will change the way developers build and deploy systems, the dive into the Windows Azure Platform and how it works, and wrap up with how to take your existing site and take it to the cloud. If you’re new to cloud computing this is a session for you!

Level: 100

Speaker: Mike Benkovich

Topics: Azure & Cloud

Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V version 2.0 provide a powerful base upon which you can build a highly realistic, effective test bed for servers, clients, and networks. In this session, you’ll learn how to use the resources of a TechNet subscription, Windows Server 2008R2, Hyper-V, and a new, free sysinternals tool called Disk2vhd, to build the ultimate test or training environment. We’ll show you how to import existing virtual machines and export virtual hard disks. You’ll see how to take point-in-time snapshots, and to build snapshot hierarchies that allow you to move both backward and forward to specific points in the time. We’ll also demonstrate how to create a virtual machine from a running physical machine, and then import that VHD into Hyper-V. By the end of this session, you’ll have a solid understanding of the tools and techniques currently available for building a great virtual environment in Hyper-V.

Level: 200

Speaker: Matthew Hester

Topics: Architecture, Unit Testing

Get the most from your web sites for IE9 users. During this topic we will take an existing web site and add on features for IE pinning. We'll show you how to find, modify, create or purchase cheaply, high resolution favicons for the taskbar. We'll add thumbnail preview controls and jump lists that are both static and dynamic. We'll show you how to add notification indicators to the icon. And we'll add Pinify for jQuery integration.

Level: 200

Speaker: Scott Kuhl

Topics: ASP.NET

Now you are writing WPF applications, and wondering – what is all this code in the code behind? Shouldn’t we be doing something different? Our cousins working with ASP.NET MVC don’t even have a code behind! The answer is YES – you should indeed be doing it differently. The M-V-VM pattern is the WPF adaptation of the Presentation Model pattern (first documented by Martin Fowler). I will show how the M-V-VM pattern is utilized for building SOLID WPF applications that are also testable.

Level: 200

Speaker: Philip Japikse

Topics: .NET Framework, Architecture, WPF

Instead of having to worry about the plumbing, Office 365 gives IT the power to focus on the business, and the ability to scale up or down resource capacities based upon business demands. With a pay-just-for-what-you-use business model, IT won’t be wasting money on providing services you once thought you might need but never got around to using.  This session introduces you Office 365, Microsoft’s subscription-based online suite of it’s world-class business productivity suite: Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, Lync 2010, and Microsoft Office Professional Plus.

Level: 100

Speaker: Kevin Remde

Topics: Azure & Cloud, Project Management

While this topic is listed as an introduction and perhaps doesn’t have a catchy title, the effort to use statistical analysis and algorithms to peer into data does take a ‘deep dive’ approach. Luckily, Analysis Services provides us with some easy-to-use tools, making the use of data mining outcomes easier to approach. In this session, attendees will learn basic data mining methodology, learn the Analysis Services tools, and gain an introduction to the various algorithms used by SQL Server data mining. Additionally, the creation of prediction queries will help developers put to use information that might otherwise be more difficult to come by, or perhaps even avoided.

Level: 300

Speaker: Dean Furness

Topics: Database Development

One of the challenges in doing something new is that some people don’t quite know where or how to start. For the typical .NET developer that is interested in iPhone / iPad development, you may feel that way just because it is vastly different than what you have used / interacted before. This session will go through the list of various hardware / software / knowledge / extra stuff needed to start creating software for the iOS platform. The session will go through some of the basic and uncommon differences found in iOS development with the end goal of having a simple application developed by the end of the session.

Level: 100

Speaker: Muljadi Budiman

This session will provide an introduction to the Netduino project, and resources available to developers looking to work with the .NET Micro Framework. The session will dive into a simple program on Netduino.

Level: 100

Speaker: Chris Hammond

Topics: .NET Framework

Entry-level session detailing patterns and practices for test-driven development using NUnit and Moq

Level: 100

Speaker: Chris Smith

Topics: Development Practices, Unit Testing

An overview of various user experience techniques. What they are, when to use them, and advantages and disadvantages of each.

Level: 100

Speaker: Danielle Cooley

Topics: User Experience

You can’t swing a stick in the ASP.NET world without hitting some JavaScript.  And even though both languages have curly braces, JavaScript is not C#. This presentation will cover common misconceptions about JavaScript, some hidden gotchas, and areas of danger for C# developers that expect JavaScript to work like C#.

Level: 200

Speaker: Brad Tutterow

Topics: ASP.NET, C#

Level: 100

Speaker: Shawn Mehaffie

Topics: ASP.NET

Whether you have just started using DotNetNuke or have never seen it before, this session may be for you! A JumpStart session is a great way to get some general direction on how to start. I’ll point out some of the most exciting features and some of the beginner gotchas.

Level: 100

Speaker: Cuong Dang

Topics: DotNetNuke

Learn the basics of jQuery and start writing less and doing more!

Level: 100

Speaker: Jesse Phelps

Topics: ASP.NET

This session will cover the basics of using MVC and what models, controllers, and views are and how they work. We will also cover some of the basics of the new Razor templating engine. The code samples will include ASP.Net and MVC example, so that attendees can see how the differences between an MVC and ASP.Net based site. At the end of the session attendees should have enough knowledge to at least start working with MVC.

Level: 100

Speaker: Shawn Mehaffie

Topics: ASP.NET

This session will provide a complete walkthrough of the Visual Studio LightSwitch product and the powerful capabilities it provides enterprise .NET developers. Attendees will get to learn about LightSwitch while watching a complete application be developed from scratch.

Level: 100

Speaker: Kevin Grossnicklaus

Start off your STLDODN 2011 experience on Friday morning with one our popular JumpStart sessions! In this session, Chris Deweese will show you how to leverage all of the newest tools for your connected, service-oriented applications using Windows Communication Foundation 4.0.

Level: 100

Speaker: Chris Deweese

Topics: WCF

Join us for an introductory look at developing applications for Windows Phone 7. We will also take a look at the markeplace submission process, using the Microsoft Advertising SDK and using analytics by PreEmptive Solutions.

Level: 100

Speaker: Scott Spradlin

Topics: Windows Phone 7

Level: 100

Speaker: Jay Schmelzer

Topics: .NET Framework, Visual Studio

Too often, I’ve heard development teams create their own custom tools to test and monitor their applications. First, we’ll cover several Microsoft tools that can help you test and monitor your WCF applications. Additionally, WCF 4.0 adds new routing and discovery features. This session will cover these in the context of service versioning, but the focus will be on the configuration of these features.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Fattic

Topics: WCF

Scrum and XP have found a strong following in the development community. But most non-development groups (such as Web Administrators, Production Support, Security, Testing, and Users/Stakeholders) inside the enterprise are not only far from agile, they are not trying to move to be more agile. I start with a refresher on Scrum, and then use real experiences from large enterprise development projects to teach you how to effectively work with non-agile teams.  Instead of trying to "convert" them, I discuss strategies to adapt to their needs while remaining agile in the development realm.

Level: 100

Speaker: Philip Japikse

Topics: Development Practices, Project Management

This session covers many of the extension methods delivered with LINQ and provides examples of how to leverage these methods to write leaner and faster code.

Level: 200

Speaker: Ralph Wheaton

Topics: .NET Framework

So you’ve been developing in other languages, had plenty of C-like language experience under your belt, and obviously you think Objective-C can be learned in an hour or so. Or at least you should be able to read some Objective-C code. If you think like that, you may be surprised… This is an introductory session on the Objective-C language. It is somewhat tailored to be contrasted with other typical .NET languages and also shows how different it can be. Join us in taking a look at the main lingua franca for Apple and iOS Devices software development.

Level: 100

Speaker: Muljadi Budiman

The release of Windows Phone has created a rare opportunity for app developers to get in on the ground floor of a new and fast-growth mobile app marketplace. In this session, we will explore the ins and outs of the Marketplace and how to get started building and monetizing apps for the Windows Phone.

Level: 100

Speaker: Eric Boyd

Topics: Windows Phone 7

SQL Server can handle the largest of databases. However, application architecture and design can unnecessarily limit potential performance. This session will demonstrate techniques to maximize performance of applications that need to sustain a rate of thousands of inserts per second.

Level: 200

Speaker: Dan Guzman

Topics: Database Development

See how these three development tools can be used to create great web sites!

Level: 200

Speaker: Jesse Phelps

Topics: .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Entity Framework

You’ve seen how to do MVVM. Now it’s time to learn why. In doing so, you will discover ways to unleash the MVVM pattern (and its associates) to truly turbo charge your development. Some of the topics we will discuss include: the origins of MVVM; identifying when MVVM is appropriate; and using MVVM to leverage the same codebase across multiple platforms among others.

Level: 200

Speaker: Michael Brown

Topics: .NET Framework, Architecture

In this session we will discuss ORMs, how and why they are becoming so popular, and how to use them effectively. I will show you how to set up NHibernate, use FluentNHibernate to create mappings in code and use the Repository pattern to create a robust, easily maintainable data access layer.

Level: 200

Speaker: Lee Brandt

Topics: .NET Framework, Architecture, Database Development, Development Practices

This session provides 4 steps to achieving On Time Quality. 1. Identifying SW Requirements and Technology Risk. 2. Developing a Project Strategy and Roadmap. 3. Simple techniques for tracking and reporting progress. 4. Ensure quality handoffs anad deliverables. The techniques show how to deal with unexpected events so prevalent in today's development environment.

Level: 200

Speaker: Don Borcherding

Topics: Project Management

We have all sat down in a scrum or lean session at one of these conferences and walked away frustrated because the image of agile utopia that is presented just won’t fit in our current business. We either don’t have the span of control we need or pieces just don’t make sense for us. This session will fill in the gaps. In this session we will discuss all aspects of the agile or lean methodologies and how we can implement them in our areas. Come with questions, thoughts, and ideas, but leave your biases at the door.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jonathan Mills

Topics: Project Management

Bring your questions about adopting or using the large variety of features in TFS. We can even chat a bit about the next version announced at this year's Tech Ed. If you have some TFS success stories, please share them with your peers. I'm happy to be joined by Michael "Mighty Mouse" Querimit.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Fattic

Topics: Visual Studio

This is an Open Spaces discussion about best practices for the ASP.NET MVC framework. Bring your questions, your best practices, and any other thoughts on the MVC framework.

Level: 100

Speaker: Gus Emery

Topics: .NET Framework, ASP.NET

is is an Open Spaces discussion on the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Bring your questions, thoughts, and best practices!

Level: 100

Speaker: Brad Tutterow

Topics: Database Development, Entity Framework

This is an Open Spaces discussion on getting started with the Microsoft BI stack. Bring your thoughts and questions!

Level: 100

Speaker: Dean Furness

Topics: Database Development

Level: 200

Speaker: Jeff Ayers

Topics: Security

This is an Open Spaces discussion about the 2 technologies and what you can do in them from a developer’s perspective.

Level: 200

Speaker: Craig Selbert

Topics: ASP.NET, Silverlight

Bring your Microsoft SQL Server quandaries to this session. Dan and Kim have extensive experience ranging from highly transactional OLTP systems to large BI implementations and will be happy to help answer questions related to SQL Server performance, design and implementation.

Level: 200

Speaker: Dan Guzman

Topics: Database Development

This session is an opportunity for you to ask questions of, complain about, and / or praise the organizers of the Day of .NET event. Your feedback is vital since we wouldn't bother to put this event on if you attendees, speakers, and sponsors didn't find it valuable!

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Strauss

Discussion about how to transition from a developer to a manager. What skill sets you need. What to expect when you make that jump. Bring success stories as well as lessons learned to share with others.

Level: 100

Speaker: Boon Lee

In this session you’ll see examples of how you can analyze the performance on your website, and then make improvements using tools such as Google Page Speed and YSlow.

Level: 100

Speaker: Chris Hammond

Topics: ASP.NET

Whether it is buying clothing, food, or software, consumers like the simplicity of the one-stop shopping experience. Product producers also benefit greatly by being a part of a community marketplace. These rules of commerce apply to data just as much as physical goods and mobile apps. The Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket is the marketplace for data set distribution in the cloud. In this session we will explore the benefits of the marketplace and the cloud for distributing data. Next, we will review the features and capabilities of Azure DataMarket. We will then walkthrough subscribing to, consuming and paying for data from Azure DataMarket. And finally, we will explore what this means for data publishers and how you can get data into the Azure DataMarket.

Level: 100

Speaker: Eric Boyd

Topics: Azure & Cloud, Database Development

Are you scared of PowerShell or do you think PowerShell is just another command line prompt? Have you used PowerShell? Do you even know how to start with PowerShell? You will learn the basics of PowerShell and what it can do for you! You will learn how PowerShell combined with your applications can help save you time and money.

Level: 100

Speaker: Matthew Hester

Bring your questions about the new Visual Studio LightSwitch. How do I get involved as a developer? In what ways is it extendable? Where is it's sweet spot? Who are the targeted users? We're sure you have questions, so satisfy your curiousity with the product's Group Program Manager!

Level: 100

Speaker: Jay Schmelzer

In this session we take a small, functional but tightly-coupled, software solution and improve its design using each of Robert C. Martin's S.O.L.I.D. principles as follows: SRP: Single Responsibility Principle; OCP: Open-Close Principle; LSP: Liskov Substitution Principle; ISP: Interface Segregation Principle; DIP: Dependency Inversion Principle. Each principle is applied in sequence to the existing solution, making it possible for the attendee to observe the principle in relative isolation first while also evolving an understanding of how the principles all collaboratively reinforce each other when applied together. Before each principle is applied and the solution is refactored to introduce it, the attendee is presented with one or two simple PowerPoint slides to introduce the concept and provide some abstract understanding of its goals and benefits to OO programming. The principle is then applied to the existing solution, demonstrating the practical application of the principle to working software. At each step along the way, the existing solution (a simple console application) is re-executed, demonstrating that the overall behavior of the software solution has not been negatively impacted by the various refactorings.

Level: 100

Speaker: Steve Bohlen

Topics: Architecture

Reporting (the often undervalued portion of software development) is an essential part of all great software packages. Attendees will learn how to plan, design, implement, and consume reports within the context of LightSwitch.

Level: 100

Speaker: Seth Juarez

Topics: .NET Framework

With a growing trend of mobile usage, it’s simply hard to ignore the fact that companies have started delivering content to various platforms and devices. However, the state of mobile development is so fragmented with hundreds of models of smart phones and tablets that make building mobile projects more costly. With responsive web design, you’ll be able to plan, build, and deliver content to various screen resolutions via the same web property. This session will walk through the basic techniques of layout and create an example of a website that is nicely presented on different screen resolutions.

Level: 100

Speaker: Cuong Dang

Topics: User Experience

Did you play Rock, Paper, Scissors as a kid? Does it still determine who makes the afternoon coffee run? Then you already know how to play the game. Now's your chance to code your own player "bot" and test your skills by taking the game to a whole new level in the Cloud. In this session we explore how the competition works and what you need to know to come out on top.

Level: 100

Speaker: Mike Benkovich

Topics: Azure & Cloud

What’s SCRUM and what’s in it? This session will answer these questions. This session provides an overview of SCRUM framework and the constructs of SCRUM framework - Scrum Teams, Time-Boxes, Artifacts, and Rules.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jaikrishnan Pandurangan

Topics: Project Management

Are you wondering where Silverlight fits in to your development toolkit? Haveyou seen Silverlight introductions that do nothing but show you how to createspinning ghosts and gradient fills? Are you ready to for an introduction toSilverlight that focuses on real-world usage? This session will include anoverview of XAML, containers and commonly used controls found in Silverlight.This talk expects no knowledge of Silverlight or XAML.

Level: 100

Speaker: Michael Eaton

Topics: Silverlight

How is the team progressing through requirements or user stories? For each of the requirements or user stories, how are we progressing through tasks? Are we fixing bugs? What is the quality of our bug fixes? Are our tests getting enough coverage? What is the quality of our builds? Do we need to reposition resources? Smart IT project decisions hinge on dependable metrics. Quantitative metrics are only possible with process guidance and systems which support governance of such processes. Integrate the development features of Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010, the BI and Reporting power of SQL Server, and the collaborative components of SharePoint to gain visibility into your IT projects.

Level: 100

Speaker: Michael Querimit

Topics: Project Management, Visual Studio

Owning Microsoft SQL Server and using its relational engine is a staple of many organizations. But owning SQL Server means you really own many other pieces of technology. One of those is SQL Server Analysis Services and having the ability to build multi-dimensional cubes to provide new analytics capabilities for your organization. The goal of this session is to provide an introduction to the cube building process and to help the audience take the foundational steps in delivering business intelligence – pushing the attendees to ‘take the leap’ and begin a new way of serving business users with information. Topics will include a comparison of relational and multi-dimensional data storage, data warehouse design, cube building, and related components that Analysis Services provides.

Level: 200

Speaker: Dean Furness

Topics: Database Development

This session will discuss the importance of maintaining your web footprint and social media network. It would include tips and pointers on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and when / how to use each one.

Level: 100

Speaker: Michael Davis

SQL Server .Next, code named “Denali,” will be a very big release. Attend this session to preview the new T-SQL features and functions that are on the way to a database near you.

Level: 200

Speaker: Kathi Kellenberger

Topics: Database Development

Are you a developer interested in becoming an independent consultant? Do you have a great software idea and have thought about starting your own software company? In this presentation Kevin will talk about his journey from the corporate world to being an independent consultant and through owning a small consulting firm. We will cover all aspects of business ownership from where to find the right technology and how to find partners such as legal and accounting help. You may find it fascinating that a small company actually has the opportunity to have the same (if not better) IT infrastructure than most large enterprises for a fraction of the cost. In this talk you will learn how Kevin tackled such things as: Business email, Computers and hardware, Time tracking and reporting, Collaboration tools and development environments, Accounting and billing, Legal support, Telephone systems, Taxes, Office space and leases, Payroll and employees.

Level: 100

Speaker: Kevin Grossnicklaus

If a little decomposition is good, then A LOT of decomposition is better right? Well, maybe not :) In this talk, we'll take a look at understanding the intent behind Dependency Injection, understand the value of following the Single Responsibility Principle in our OO designs, and investigate the trouble that blind adherence to this pattern can often cause in our projects. To solve these problems, we'll dig into the benefits of using an Inversion-of-Control (IoC) container, explore just what's really going on under the hood with these things, and understand patterns and anti-patterns for their use in our code. Attendees should possess good intermediate C# language skills and understand core OO design principles.

Level: 200

Speaker: Steve Bohlen

Topics: Architecture

Join us in a ‘testing’ session on C# language. We’re going to cover beginner and intermediate level information in the Questions and Answers that will be shown. Some of them are trivia(l), some of them are object-oriented patterns, and some are just basic language knowledge. See if you think you know as much as you should to become a good practical C# developer!

Level: 100

Speaker: Muljadi Budiman

Topics: .NET Framework, C#

The C# language is a wonderful framework for producing high-quality code with a very fast time-to-market – probably more so than any of its predecessors! That said, there are little nuances of the language that can occasionally be a stumbling block if you aren’t aware of them. This session discusses those issues and how to remediate them.

Level: 100

Speaker: James Hare

Topics: .NET Framework

The .NET Framework is full of “macro-sized” goodness that we all love and know. But, the .NET Framework also has a lot of smaller “micro-sized” tips and tricks that can improve code. This presentation focuses on those “Little Wonders” of the .NET Framework that make our lives easier in big ways.

Level: 100

Speaker: James Hare

Topics: .NET Framework

This session provides an overview of WCF and how it compares to web services. Topics include configuration and operation/data contracts, as well as writing and using the service.

Level: 200

Speaker: Ralph Wheaton

Topics: WCF

The Kinect is a little marvel of technology that has been released to the masses. This session will delve into foundational concepts surrounding this little gadget and describe Microsoft’s Kinect API in a user friendly manner. Attendees will learn how to access the device’s depth, camera, and skeletal information to create novel user interfaces to their software.

Level: 200

Speaker: Seth Juarez

Topics: .NET Framework

Get a behind the scenes look at the making of the St. Louis Day of .NET web site using the MVC based Orchard content management system. We will show how to get it up and running and how it was customized to fit the unique needs of our awesome conference.

Level: 100

Speaker: Clint Edmonson

Topics: .NET Framework, ASP.NET

So you have read all about Silverlight and XAML, and the way this rapidly maturing web platform allows you to develop rich, interactive, beautiful UI’s for delivery of complex applications over the web. Perhaps you have put together your first application or two, experimenting with layouts and controls in this brave new paradigm. But how do you harness this technology and make the leap from pretty Silverlight website to powerful new Silverlight business application? We will dive into the basics of Data Binding. You will learn how you can easily implement fluid, two-way binding between your user interface and your code with simple syntax right in your XAML markup. We will examine the critical DataContext property that exists in all Silverlight user controls, and discuss how it can be used for everything from tracking a simple textbox to visually modeling a complex object in a list box or combo box. Along the way, we’ll briefly touch on the concepts underpinning the data binding framework, including type converters and the all-important INotifyPropertyChanged interface. Finally, if time allows, we will close with a brief look at exciting new data binding features coming later this year with the release of Silverlight 5.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Strauss

Topics: Silverlight

The shiniest, newest version of Entity Framework 4.1 is a dramatic addition to the world of data-access in the Microsoft stack. This presentation will cover the three tasty flavors that EF 4.1 comes in: Database-first, model-first, and the exciting new code-first.

Level: 100

Speaker: Brad Tutterow

Topics: .NET Framework, Database Development

Cloud computing is emerging as a promising IT service delivery vehicle. For IT professionals and for the businesses they support, it is crucial to recognize the opportunities, and to play a key role in the transformation from existing infrastructure-focused IT into a more service-oriented, user-centric, and IT-as-a-Service environment. Are you ready for the challenge to lead and transform your IT organization? And will this mean a personal transformation in your job or career as well?

Level: 100

Speaker: Kevin Remde

Topics: Azure & Cloud

Dear Diary, today I met our new software tester. I was like, “Who are you to criticize my work? I mean, what can YOU know about varsity coding?!” Offended, the tester ran off with some sparkly-skinned kid named Ed. Unfortunately, this left me responsible for testing our prom management application. Of course, I always run some basic tests, but my stupid users are always clicking on things out of order! I mean I could be writing more code! As you know, I’ve been friends with that kid from the reservation for like my whole life and he offered to cheer me up by teaching me how to use Visual Studio to link requirements to test cases to a variety of nifty automated tests! Now I really don’t need that morose, hussy tester! Seriously: testable architecture & patterns, automated UI testing, controlling data, web service testing

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Fattic

Topics: Architecture, Development Practices

Moving to WPF from Winforms can be a daunting task, even for the most experienced developers. WPF is an extremely powerful and flexible framework,but almost averything you've come to understand about developing windows applications has changed. While the learning curve can be steep, the changes are absolutely worth the effort. This session will help reduce the learning curveby addressing the top 10 pain points developers new to WPF experience.

Level: 100

Speaker: Michael Eaton

Topics: WPF

Trying to unit test your code but finding that you end up with brittle, hard-to-maintain unit tests that are taking more and more of your time to keep current as your production code evolves? Do you KNOW you should be writing tests, but just cannot find an efficient way to do so? Then this talk is for YOU! Effective unit testing is more art than science -- in this talk we'll look at both Patterns and Anti-Patterns for writing, organizing, and designing efficient, effective unit tests that help to ensure your tests continue to add value to your project throughout its evolution rather than becoming an anchor that weighs down your progress and impedes your speed! Learn both what to do and what NOT to do from someone who has been writing unit tests for over ten years! Attendees should have at least some familiarity with basic unit testing frameworks (using Asserts, etc.) and be comfortable with general C# language constructs.

Level: 200

Speaker: Steve Bohlen

Topics: Unit Testing

See how with some basic hardware knowledge and the power of .NET, you can bring your home to life!

Level: 300

Speaker: Jesse Phelps

Topics: .NET Framework

This session will contain a brief introduction to MVC; it’s origin and how to utilize the system. Then we will drop into the new pieces that were added in the v3.0 release. Topics that will be covered include the Razor View Engine, Controller session state, dynamic collections, Caching and Validation.

Level: 100

Speaker: Gus Emery

Topics: Architecture, ASP.NET

This code-heavy presentation will focus on the new developer features of the Windows Phone 7.1 release (codename Mango). We’ll cover topics like Augmented Reality, Search Extensibility, many of the sensor APIs (like camera, gps, gyro, and compass), and, of course, multi-tasking. This presentation definitely assumes some knowledge of Silverlight or Windows Phone development, but you’ll learn plenty if this is your first exposure to the technologies too.

Level: 200

Speaker: Jeff Blankenburg

Topics: Silverlight, Windows Phone 7

This session will discuss an implementation of global error / event logging in a Silverlight application. Including client side logging and offline support.

Level: 200

Speaker: Ian Lackey

Topics: Silverlight

With the way that technology is moving these days we have been bombarded with new tools and technologies, including the new WebMatrix package. In this session we will drill-down on the following items that are part of the package; Razor View Engine, IIS Express, SQL Server CE 4.0. During this session, Gus will demonstrate how the WebMatrix solution integrates with Visual Studio 2010, and how easily you can harness the power of this new package to create and easily build a web solution utilizing the included tools.

Level: 200

Speaker: Gus Emery

Topics: ASP.NET

The water cooler talk is that, “boy that sure sucks for Sony.” Well, in this interactive guided discussion we'll talk about what happened and the impact it has had on Sony. Then we will look at what it could mean for other .COMs and what it means for us in different roles. For example the impact on customers, management and developers. We'll wrap up with: what can I do as a (role)?

Level: 100

Speaker: Bryan Nehl

Topics: Development Practices, Security

Identity management is something all of us dread and yet all of us must implement. Too often, authentication and authorization quickly becomes messy to implement and impossible to upgrade – avoidance is the only sane thing to do until now. WIF provides a layer of abstraction that separates the mess from your business logic and might just make managing identities more interesting to you.

Level: 100

Speaker: Jeff Ayers

Topics: .NET Framework, Security

Microsoft is all in when it comes to the mobile and cloud computing markets. Windows Phone and Windows Azure are currently two of their biggest initiatives. In this session you'll learn how to bring these two platforms together by building Windows Phone 7 applications that are backed by scalable cloud components hosted in Windows Azure. This demo-focused session will cover the end-to-end experience and address how to tackle issues such as authentication, storage, notification, and data synchronization.

Level: 200

Speaker: Adam Grocholski

Topics: Azure & Cloud, Windows Phone 7