User Group

Observations of a Speaker Idol Event

Update I’ve updated some of the points below, based on some of the comments I received, including points about when to answer questions, the appropriateness of jokes, and following through after the presentation. Last night, I attended a terrific Speaker Idol event at the NYC .NET Developer’s Group at the Microsoft office in NYC. It’s [...]

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User Groups – Expanding Beyond the Mundane

Running a user group is extremely rewarding, and I’ve been lucky enough to be involved doing so for over a year. I’ve been very fortunate to have great partners in Leo Junquera and Louis Edouard. It’s been great for us to have been able to run a code camp just after a few months, and [...]

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Running a Code Camp – After the Event

In my previous two posts, I discussed guidelines for the preparation of running a code camp, and then I went through all the tasks for handling the actual day of the event. Here, I’ll be discussing the things you should do after the event is done — after you’ve given yourself a few hours (minutes?) [...]

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Running a Code Camp – The Event

In my previous post, I discussed guidelines for preparing for the running of a code camp. If you’re not out of breath yet, hang in there. This is where it all pays off. I’ll then follow up with a post about the follow-up steps to be done after the event. Arrive Early If you can [...]

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Running a Code Camp – Preparation

I’ve only been involved in running one code camp, but I think we learned a lot, and it went well enough to be able to recommend some guidelines. This first post will list my guidelines for the preparation steps. It assumes you’re already involved in running a user group. I’ll follow up with posts about [...]

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Code Camp was a Success — Whew!

Well, the big day has come and gone, and we survived. Not only did we survive, but I think we did pretty well. Our first code camp took place on Saturday, and I have to say, it was an amazing experience. You can’t have a code camp without speakers, and we were extremely fortunate to [...]

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NY/NJ/CT Community Mixer

On Wednesday night, Microsoft held the first official “community mixer” event for the community leaders of the tri-state area, which was a great opportunity for all of us to meet face to face. We’ve been having monthly conference calls to keep abreast of all the happenings within the local user groups, but that feels a [...]

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A Short Lesson on How to Present Clearly – Presenting AJAX

Last night at the Fairfield / Westchester .NET User Group in Stamford, CT, Microsoft’s Peter Laudati brought uncommon clarity to his presentation of Microsoft’s AJAX framework. Peter is a top-notch presenter, and he proved why he’s a Developer Evangelist for the NY / NJ area. Although I’ve seen many solid presentations at user groups and [...]

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Fairfield / Westchester .NET Code Camp, Call for Speakers (November 10th)

This is a special announcement for the .NET developer community… On Saturday November 10th, the Fairfield / Westchester developer community will be holding our first Fairfield / Westchester .NET Code Camp! The event will be hosted by The University of Connecticut School of Business, at the Stamford Campus.The continuing goal of the Code Camps series [...]

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