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Happenings Around INETA North America (NorAm) |
First I would like to thank all the INETA Board members and volunteers that spent countless hours before and at TechEd 2006 in Boston to make all of the INETA activities a resounding success. Amanda Murphy and Rob Zelt organized a highly successful New England Regional User Group Leadership Summit where about 30 user group leaders had some great discussion and shared many ideas that will improve their user groups. Once again Stuart Celarier and Michael Wiley did a fabulous job organizing the Birds of a Feather sessions with Culminis and Microsoft which were well attended including the new All BoF Night on Tuesday complete with food and beverages compliments of Microsoft. Fellow Board members Scott Spradlin and Chris Wallace went above and beyond to make the INETA booth a success. In addition, several INETA members volunteered time at the booth as well. Our thanks to Bob Goodearl of the Boston .NET User Group for organizing a great panel discussion at the Mega User Group Meeting on Monday evening. Last, but certainly not least many thanks to Nancy Mesquita, our Administrative Director, who worked many hours before and at TechEd on all the activities. Everyone worked with a passion towards our common cause of bettering the community which was immensely satisfying for all involved and made all that work a lot of fun.
Volunteers Needed: We are looking for several volunteers to assist in the Marketing, Sponsorship, and Technology/Web Site areas. If you have time and are interested please contact Nancy Mesquita at nancy.mesquita@ineta.org.
Those of you that stopped by the INETA booth at TechEd in Boston saw a preview of several exciting new features in our upcoming web site. During July and August we will be expanding the beta testing and are looking for people to do some testing starting mid-July. You don't have to be an expert, just willing to spend some time testing some specific features. If you have time and are interested please contact Nancy Mesquita at nancy.mesquita@ineta.org.
Chris Pels, President, INETA NorAm chris.pels@ineta.org
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Promoting and Growing Your User Group Through Strategic Marketing |
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INETA Live! Webcast
July 26th at 3:30PM EST
Perception is reality. But in order for there to be a perception about your user group, your target audience and potential partners need to know you exist and understand the value you bring to the developer community as a whole. That's where marketing comes in. During this fun-filled hour, join INETA Vice President and Wintellect's Director of Marketing - Sara Faatz - as she delves into the five principles of marketing theory and how they apply to your user group; uncovers some basic components of a promotional plan with a specific goal in mind; describes how to work with partners/sponsors; and offers the top 10 tips for securing sponsors. In a world filled with marketing noise you can't afford not to learn these time-tested tactics for getting your message heard and achieving the results you need to grow a successful user group.
Register now for this webcast.
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CoDe Magazine to debut "CoDe on the Road" Feature in Sept/Oct issue! |
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CoDe (Component Developer) Magazine, The leading independent publication for .NET Developers announced that they will feature a page in each issue dedicated to .NET related events where CoDe Magazine is present. Whether it is INETA events, Code Camps, User Group meetings, or developer-centric conferences or meetings, CoDe Magazine is in the thick of it! Have your event, speaker, or group featured in CoDe Magazine with "CoDe on the Road." Simply send in a picture of a featured speaker, your group or event along with a name, title and brief caption and it may appear in CoDe helping you spread the word about your group or event to the Microsoft developer community! "CoDe on the Road" will also have an online element to display more photos. Tom Buckley of CoDe Magazine encourages that submissions be kept simple and to not forget to have a little fun with them. You may submit pictures to Tom at tbuckly@code-magazine.com for review and publication.
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Speaker's Corner with Brian Noyes |
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Julia Lerman was able to catch up with INETA Speaker Brian Noyes in between his crazy speaking, travel, training, consulting and writing schedule!
Q: Your career path was a little more Hollywood than Comp-Sci. Do tell!
My first career was as a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) flying F-14 Tomcats in the Navy. I did one operational tour in VF-111 flying off the USS Carl Vinson and USS Kitty Hawk, and graduated from TopGun (U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School). I entered the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School cooperative program, which meant I went to grad school and got a masters degree in Aerospace, followed by attending Test Pilot School, followed by a tour flying as a test flight project officer out of Pt. Mugu California working on the mission computer and weapons system software for the F-14D.
Q: At what point in your life did you become one with your inner geek?
A buddy in my first squadron who was a geek got me interested in computers, which quickly led to developing software as a hobby, then employing my programming skills in my role as a project officer and manager of software projects. Over the years I shaped my career in the navy to stay as technical as possible and grow and use my software skills. Eventually I got senior enough that I couldn't stay technical any more, so I decided to get out and pursue software as a full time thing.
Q: What aspects about software development are you most passionate about?
My biggest challenge is reining myself in and trying to focus on a small set of things instead of wanting to play and become competent in everything, which is becoming more and more impossible as the software technology spectrum expands. I would have to say that my greatest passion is teaching other developers about those technologies once I have figured them out and started to employ them through training courses, conference talks, user group presentations, and writing. I focus a lot on architecture professionally, which requires a strong understanding of the underlying technologies, so I am always investigating the latest greatest technologies as soon as I can get my hands on them. These days I am mostly focusing on smart client technologies and .NET 3.0 (WinFX) capabilities.
Q: What do you like most about being part of the INETA speakers bureau?
Hands down: the opportunity to get out in the field across the country and make contact with lots of developers from lots of different communities, industries, and technical arenas. I love to discover what aspects of a technology they are using, enjoying, finding challenges in, and helping them gain a better understanding of how to best use the technology. The enthusiasm I see at the user groups about developing applications with Microsoft technologies is always refreshing and helps me realize I am not just a freak for having that enthusiasm myself.
Q: What do you do for fun unrelated to computers?
Well, on the rare occasions when I am actually at home, I savor spending time with my beautiful wife Robin and 16 month old son Nathan. We enjoy traveling together, exercising, walking, eating out, shopping, watching movies, or anything else that just lets us spend a little time together since I am on business travel myself so much. Other than that with all the stuff I pack on my plate, there is not much time left for leisure activities. I do enjoy reading mindless fiction novels to unwind, including action/thriller stuff like Dan Brown, Vince Flynn, (old) Tom Clancy, etc., and historical fiction like James Clavell and James Michener as well.
Brian is just finishing up a book on ClickOnce due out from Addison Wesley in the fall!
Through the INETA Speakers Bureau, you can have Brian speak at YOUR user group!
Request your speaker today.
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Lang .Net 2006 Compiler Symposium |
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Registration is now open for the Lang .Net 2006 Compiler Symposium which will be held July 31st through August 2nd on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Washington.
Technologists from all platforms (CLR, Java, etc.) who want to come and share their research and implementation experiences are welcome.
Lang .Net 2006 is a forum for discussion on programming languages, managed execution environments, compilers, multi-language libraries, and integrated development environments. The conference will provide an excellent opportunity for Programming Language Implementers and Researchers from both industry and academia to meet and share their knowledge, experience, and suggestions for future research and development in the area of programming languages.
If you are a language designer, compiler writer, or tool builder in industry or academia, Lang.NET 2006 will be a unique opportunity to directly interact with the architects of Microsoft language platforms.
While Microsoft language technologists will be very active participants in the conference, at least 50% of the program is will be presentations by non-Microsoft employees.
Each day will be concluded with a panel discussion and in the evenings there will be ample opportunity for networking during the social events and dinners.
Please visit http://www.langnetsymposium.com/ for more information and registration.
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May Winners Announced - INETA Membership Survey Sweepstakes |
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$100 to Chippewa Valley .NET User Group (CVNUG), Eau Claire, WI, USA
and $50 to Doug Rhoten
$100 to Connecticut .NET Developers Group, Farmington, CT, USA
and $50 to Supriyo "SB" Chatterjee
$100 to Utah .NET User Group, South Jordan, UT, USA
and $50 to R. Aaron Zupancic
plus to INETA Membership Manager, Territory: Pacific Northwest - AK, GU, HI, ID, OR, WA
$50 to Paul Mehner
How do you win?
You and your INETA user group are automatically entered when your INETA User Group Leader or Representative submits your INETA monthly user group survey for your INETA user group.
Make sure your INETA monthly user group survey is submitted - it's easy and just takes a minute!
Congratulations to this month's winners and Good Luck to you - Watch for future announcements to see if your user group is a sweepstakes winner!
Chris Wallace, Vice President - Membership, INETA NorAm chris.wallace@ineta.org
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Download the free Digipede Network Developer Edition |
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Digipede Technologies announces the availability of its free Digipede Network Developer Edition. The Digipede Network is a Windows grid computing solution that delivers dramatically improved performance and scalability for real-world applications. It's the only commercial grid computing solution built on the .NET platform. The Digipede Network includes the Digipede Framework, through which .NET developers can build
scalable, high-performance, distributed applications.
http://www.digipede.net/products/dev-edition.html
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From the Editor |
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TechEd Debrief - A week with the .NET stars
TechEd was a big hit this year. If you've never been, start planning now for next year's big event - you should go to at least one in your life. It's good to find out that those other genius industry leaders you only read about are just people like you and me. Most of them had to stand in line and wait for their meat-patties at lunch like the rest of us. Speaking of food - overall, I thought that the free meals were quite tasty.
So, at the end of the week, I ended up with this arm-load of hot-off-the-press books that I just had to read. (Several of which were signed by the authors at the show!) "There's no way I'm paying $12.00 to have these things shipped home!" I said to myself. Why, I'd probaby have to pay $3.00 for a box too! So I bought a new suitcase at WalMart for $39.95 and paid the $25.00 extra heavy baggage fee at the airport. What a goof. That huge case is still sitting in the hallway at home ... snickering at me every time I walk by. Those books better be good!
Do you work at FedEx or UPS or DHL or the post office? Be a hero - work out a deal with TechEd attendees. We stick our little attendee code thingy on a book or other goody we don't want to lug around all week -- toss it on a conveyor belt and somehow it ends up at my home in a week or so. I'd consider sacrificing my free ice cream bars for that service.
A major part of INETA's time at TechEd was spent talking to potential sponsors so that we can increase our value as an organization to you - our members. We had many great conversations with vendors at the event. I'm excited about some of the new partnerships and sponsorships that were born that week. Over the next year, watch INETA and our member services grow.
Another Call for Volunteers
Are you involved in your local user group? Do you enjoy working with other volunteers? INETA needs you! Send an email to
Nancy Mesquita
and tell her you want to get involved!
Scott Spradlin, Vice President - Marketing, INETA NorAm scott.spradlin@ineta.org
Archived newsletters are available on the INETA website at
www.ineta.org/newsletters.
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President's Note
