INETA Newsletter

In this issue: New Members, INETA Speaker News, INETA Repository, Special Appearance, User Group Specials, Dave Wanta in Norfolk, VA, Manage your INETA User Group Profile,Billy Hollis in Wisconsin, User Group Relations Committee, Newsletter Info

10 User Groups joined INETA in January: Represented are Brazil, Israel, India and York, England and in the U.S.: Los Angeles, CA; , Derry New Hampshire; Oklahoma City, OK; University of Connecticut School of Business.

Congratulations go out to some of our INETA Speakers: In January, two more INETA speakers became Microsoft Regional Directors. Ken Getz is now the RD for Southern California and Chris Kinsman was named as RD for the Pacific West Region. Congratulations. And congrats are also in hand for Juval Lowy and his wife who have had a new baby, Eleanor, at the end of January. We can be sure this will be one smart baby!!!

While we are at it, there is another MSDN Regional Director announcement which is that our own Bill Evjen, President of INETA, was just named as the RD for St. Louis - Mid America District.

Web Services guru Don Box to make special appearance at Multi-User Group Event

INETA is pleased to announce that they have arranged for world-famous software architect and guru Don Box to appear at a multi-user group event to be held in conjunction with the XML Web Services conference (http://www.xmlconference.com/santaclara/ineta.asp) in March.

This event is FREE! If you belong to an INETA user group in the Santa Clara area, this is one event you won't want to miss. See the BAY.Net (www.baynetug.org/baynetug2) User Group Website for details on Don's special presentation.

Want to attend the conference? Your user group members can save money on the conference fee or purchase a specially created INETA package. Just visit the "Specials" page at www.ineta.org for more info.

.

Have you checked out the Specials page lately at INETA.ORG? You can get great deals on stuff you really need, such as conference discounts for DevTeach (Montreal May 10-14 in English) and programming tools such as RDP Enterprise. The Specials page is one more of the benefits you receive by being part of an INETA user group. We are always adding new specials, so keep checking back.

With all the twists and turns of a Hollywood movie, the Norfolk SQL Server User Group pulled off a great meeting with INETA Speaker, Dave Wanta, giving their January presentation.
Scene 1: User Group schedules G. Andrew Duthie for their January 20th meeting
Scene 2: Just days before the meeting, Andrew learns of a family emergency (all is well now, thank you) that means he is unable to fly across the country to the meeting
Scene 3: Never fear, the INETA Speaker Bureau pulls through and Dave Wanta happily agrees to fill this last minute engagement.
Scene 4: Dave arrives in Norfolk in the midst of a freak snowstorm. Same storm prevents about 1/2 of the expected crowd from attending the meeting.
Scene 5: Dave gets to the meeting and he and user group leader, Susan Lennon, discover that the university meeting hall they booked to accommodate the expected crowd, does not have the correct wiring to hook Dave's laptop to the projector.
Scene 6: Cut to Dave Wanta giving his entire presentation on the leading edge .NET technology using the old standby chalk and blackboard combo.
Scene 7: Crowds cheer as Dave completes yet another brilliant presentation without the dreaded PowerPoint slides!

The reviews are in and Susan reports that with all that happened, it was still a fantastic meeting, a pretty good turnout of 40 attendees considering the major snowstorm and even without the aid of live demos or powerpoint slides, Dave's presentation had high ratings all across.

Next month - the excitement continues! Read about Mike Amundsen parachuting in on emergency notice to the C# User Group in Boston, MA!

Did you know that you have total control of your user group information on the INETA website? Once logged in, you can go to the INETA Membership and see a link to edit your user group details. It is especially important to keep your URL and contact information current. We have discovered many out of date links to INETA User Group websites.

January 14, 2003 at the WI .NET Users Group

Billy Hollis came to the frozen tundra and really heated things up as he presented "Objects in The Real World" to the largest audience the WI .NET Users Group has ever had, despite temperatures in the single digits. Over 110 .NET fanatics packed into an auditorium in Madison, WI to watch, listen and learn from one of the best speakers in the .NET world.

Then, with introduction music from the Matrix movie playing, Billy Hollis walked up to the podium dressed entirely in black, with a Matrix-style long black leather jacket and sunglasses. The crowd erupted in applause and the group was welcomed to the world of the real -- Objects in the Real World that is.

After a few jokes to warm up the audience, Billy spoke for an hour and a half about advanced object-oriented concepts in .NET that went beyond the theoretical world and deep into real world programming techniques and strategies. He covered dynamically loading forms, dynamically loading other classes, use of interfaces, shadowing, serialization, and a host of other object-oriented programming topics that pushed the WI .NET UG to its mental limits. Billy was absolutely amazing at the meeting and the group is still talking about how fantastic Billy was and how much they learned.

For any UG leaders who have still not yet requested an INETA Speakers Bureau speaker -- what are you waiting for? INETA pays all the speakers expenses and makes all the logistical arrangements for the speaker. Your group will grow and appreciate your efforts if you get involved and use the many resources INETA affords. Don't let Wisconsin have all the fun!

The INETA User Group Relations Committee welcomes new committee members Chris Pels from Boston.Net, Dan Wygant from the Huntsville (Alabama) VS.Net Group and Scott Robertson from Los Angeles .Net Developers Group.

The committee has all kinds of new ideas to implement in 2003 to enhance your INETA membership! We will surely keep these guys busy!

Anyone can sign up to receive this newsletter on the home page of www.ineta.org.

Please send news (and pictures) from your user group so we can include it in a future newsletter! Contact us at: ugrelations@ineta.org

To contact INETA: Be sure to check the appropriate tab on the www.ineta.org site to see who is the correct contact for your areas of interest. Forums are open to all, but to post, you must sign in with your User Group's login and password