You might think getting speakers is a trivial task but in fact it’s really not. So let’s break things down some and provide a peek behind the curtain.

For us speakers can fit into a few different areas:

• Keynoters. For me, keynotes drive inspiration, entertainment and are different than just the average session. I don’t think ours will be any different in that regard either. thatConference is currently working with a few folks who fit that bill and we look forward to making that announcement when appropriate.

• Sessions. This might be one of the harder things to decide on. When you get hundreds of sessions to pick from, that process can be brutal. Of course we’re going to use technology to solve that problem but it still takes people. Yes we have over 100 sessions but when you start to break down all of the different technology areas, .NET, Ruby, Node, Cloud, HTML5, Mobile and on and on, those categories start to get really small. Bring your ‘A’ game and be creative.

• Sponsored Sessions. Some partners get sessions slots, it’s a fact and one we’re not trying to hide that. Having said that, thatConference has a process in which it will work with our partners making sure the content is not only epic, but representative of the conference, well balanced and attractive.

• Open Spaces. Open Spaces are a great way to tailor your conference experience beyond what is already in ink. To date we have had so many people reach out excited to speak but unfortunately not everyone will get a spot. Open Spaces help address this not only providing an opportunity to speak but speak in the non-traditional setting AND connect deeper with your peers at the conference.

This is all a delicate balance, one of which we take very seriously.

So when does call for speakers open? Our current sketched plan is to open call for speaker around April 1st. This isn’t locked or some April fools joke but we want to announce our speaker lineup before registration. We also want to allow for enough time for people to plan their summer.

Start getting those creative abstracts ready.

a note from the past for the future –

One of the goals of mine as we are planning thatConference is to provide transparency into the process, a peek behind the curtain if you will. Maybe your trying to plan something too, and hopefully this provided you one ounce of help.

Oh yea, #NodeSummit was in the valley in case you didn’t catch the hyperbole, and this was my first trip there.

Heading out there, I felt like a fish out of water, maybe a Northern Pike? Too much? It’s not like SFO did anything to "make" me feel that way but hell it’s the valley right? It’s where things like node.js or "node" were born. It’s the "only place tech happens", or as some people would like to think. I find it funny that in this ever increasing connected world we live, some people in the United States feel as if you have to be in "the valley" to be successful in technology.

—- that! <- yep another Midwestern thing! But this is about node right? Yes, and I will eventually get there.

I have been a node fan since the day I saw it. Not because of anyone person or any particular thing, I just do. People ask me why? They want to get in these damn religious debates, tell me I’m wrong, whatever. It really doesn’t matter, I like it. So what? Node for me, struck the right chord. I can’t tell you why, I can’t yet articulate it yet and I don’t even know if I care too. Oh yea, I suck at it too, but every day I try to get one step better.

"Squirrel!" <- Movie Reference

I joined Microsoft almost 7 years ago. I joined the a financial consulting division in hope to change the world and make Microsoft and it’s customers better. Back then, I loved the financial services work ( not so much anymore ). In financial services, there is no "one" solution ever – PERIOD. We used everything, yes even the Microsoft guy. Ruby, Java, Magic, rs232, whatever. You used the right tool for the job, regardless. I wake up everyday feeling empowered enough to state my belief’s and opinions such that if I yell loud enough, Microsoft leaders will either listen to me or just fire me. I have been yelling about node since I saw it.

FWIW, after "Project X" I stopped yelling quite a bit.

The first time I saw Ryan Dahl talk about node, I saw something. It reminded me of the first time I saw Bill Gates speak. He might not like this, but I saw greatness, humbleness, conviction with credibility and someone who made me feel stupid. As it turns out, I like people that make me feel stupid, but in the right way. It pushes me to learn. Now Ryan didn’t do that intentionally, but his badassery just made me feel such. I had a great manager back in the day that always told me: "Surround yourself around greatness and it will make you better. Surround yourself around negative and dumb shit and you will end up a negative dumb ass." Ryan doesn’t know me, I can’t claim to be "surrounded" by him, but like the other geeks around, I twitter stalk, watch videos, and was one of the few at NodeSummit. I still suck at node or the larger JavaScript EcmaScript for that matter. Maybe one day I will be fortunate enough to have a beer with the guy and see him in a different lens than I do now. Ryan’s humbleness is inspiring. Ryan at NodeSummit, spoke and then turned around and sat down in the audience. That IS – AWESOME!

Chris Clark, your post was titled, your trip to the #NodeSummit and I haven’t heard shit about node yet. Thanks for reading this far then….

As someone planning a conference, and one that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, the conference experience is just as important as the content. I figured coming to the valley, node would be clouded by business pitches and marketing. No pun intended, although that’s a damn good inside #NodeSummit joke. I heard plenty about PAAS or “Platform as a Service” from everyone there. Yea yea yea, everyone has a "cloud", we get it, node enables cloud very easily.

"To the cloud!" The mainframe for the next generation of programmers.

Node was born in the valley. It has funding, and I am sure a lot of it. It may be open source but people are banking big BIG business on this baby. So much so, they threw from what I know to be the first very well organized conference called "Node Summit". Unfortunately for me, the VC goo showed through a bit too much. At this point in the game, I came to see Ryan and hear about node, and what’s surrounding it. I came with the intention to meet new people in the community and hear about the long term vision of node.

#NodeSummit ( as I was told to talk about it ) ( and oh the irony you have to tell people from the valley to use a #hashtag to talk about you ) was VERY well organized. Top Notch! Well executed, and just awesome. First class, intimate event, different than anything I have ever been to in the past. Roughly 400 people ( I didn’t count ) attended from all around the world were there in a very nice facility. As a person planning a big ole conference, I took a few notes.

There were a few high rollers there, and that was pretty epic to be honest. Ryan Dahl, Brendan Eich, Scott Guthrie, Stephen O’Grady, Erik Meijer, Oren Teich, Chito Manansala ( oh yea I had lunch with him, awesome dude ), and more. SOOOO why were all these people there? Hell node is only .6\.7. I mean you have to wonder right? Did they get paid to be there? I’m planning a conference, I get it. I am sure some money exchanged hands at least for some.

Regardless, I didn’t care. To see a panel with Erik Meijer, Brian Beckman, Brendan Eich, Ryan Dahl, and Jonathan Gay talk about the state of things was pretty epic. Hearing Eich, say I spent the majority of 10 days writing JavaScript so we could beat VBScript is pretty damn honest.

Seriously 10 Days huh? Oh, I feel stupid. Back to node.

So, #NodeSummit was cool, really cool. It wasn’t just because I got to be surrounded by people who made me feel stupid, but rather I got to hear from some real companies about their experience with node. What they were doing and WHY they decided to go in that direction. This wasn’t a hands on conference, this wasn’t about the how it was about the WHY. GENIUS. Turns out VC’s have a lot of money cause they know WTF their doing. So I have to just quote Jay-Z here,

"Whats 50k to a mfer like me, can you please remind me?" – Ni**as in ParisGet it? The 50k is Joyent, El Dorado Ventures and EMC Ventures money spent on the conference, that’s not what they care about. Just saying, there’s always motive.

Business cases were being built right in front of me. Companies, Leaders, Geeks, Visionaries were talking about why this was awesome for them. I never once saw a terminal or a node repl. Hell to be honest, I don’t even think I saw more than hello world in node displayed and shit, Scott Guthrie was the one who wrote that one, and on a MacBook nonetheless. ( FWIW, there were some side sessions where people dove deeper into things but I was referring to the main conference. )

OMG, WTF just happened, Seriously?!?!? Microsoft Geek Cred? Hipsters pants toooo tight? Technical conference right? Well, maybe? Remember motive…

I have been doing node since about .3/.4 but really serious as of .5. To hear others talk about their struggles was comforting. Debugger sucks.!.!.!. Did he just say that? I thought it was just me. Thank the good lord, I am not alone!!!

BUT, wait what!?!?!?!

That debugger sucking major ass has lead to everyone finding a better solution to dealing with suckage since there we’re no other choices. Developers are creative people, we created polyfills after all. We can adapt.

But seriously, choice is bad. Yes! WTF?!?!? The lack of choice has lead you to build something better? Ok. I get that…

I have a "little" project on the side built on the backs of node. We got to the point were the thing we were building spiking was turning into reality. Reality was getting very ugly and then something happened to us.

OMG, WTF have we done?!?! Scrap this shit, it is really sucking!

I just hit DELETE! That moment for us happened just at the right time. Start over and let’s start with some damn tests. So we busted out, jasmine, node, blaa blaa and started to re-architect and rebuild. Now I "grew up" ( although still a child ) doing *DD ( mostly TDD ), I don’t need to be sold the craftsmanship love, I get it, but…

This all felt somehow different. It felt wrong but so right.

This was some of my #NodeSummit enlightenment!!! Oh yea, everyone’s doing it… WTF, seriously? In talking with a few node peeps, "Oh yea, well what did you think you were going to do?", "I don’t know, I just thought I was doing it wrong." Bleeding edge geek problems right? OR.. Opportunities? For me, #NodeSummit turned into about the "why node" and validation of what I was already doing. The first day I heard Ryan talking about the importance of node on Windows. He clearly doesn’t want to work on a Windows machine but that is cool, but he does want node to not only run cross platform but to run really REALLY well on all platforms especially Windows.

Oh snap <- whoaa, WHAT???

Ryan then dropped the big bomb on us. He followed up by saying Rails —- up big time by not supporting Windows. WHOAAA, oh no you didn’t Ryan. Rails is the Christ child, didn’t you get the gmail on that????

That day I tweeted this: "I love the fact the #NodeSummit panel is talking about cross platform and equality amongst all. That makes for a solid and open community."

One of my better tweets right? Make sure you follow me then at http://twitter.com/csell5. But srsly it’s about the bigger vision of node and the ecosystem it plays in. NOOOOW before you go sending me some hate mail about platforms and telling me I don’t know what I am talking about. For node it’s about the bigger ecosystem. That to me is very exciting. After all that cloud thing, turns out it serves all too.

But in all seriousness, Node Summit was a great time. I meet some great people, saw some kick ass startup’s while validating a few questions I had about things. Overall it was here were some of my thoughts:

• Small and intimate. I honestly think this was on purpose, after all there is plenty of space but there were only a couple hundred people here.
• Very well organized. DAMN these guys are good. This was no slap it together conference, but really well organized. 
• Friendly. Everyone was very friendly. I meet a number of great and very passionate node people here. People also traveled very far to be part of this.
• Very HIGH profile industry people were here, i.e. People like the creator of JavaScript. ALL of them did there deal on stage and then came and sat down in the audience. All were part of the conference.
• Microsoft got some geek street cred that they deserved.  They announced the Azure support in Cloud 9 and Scott was writing node code from a MacBook.
• Not a lot of how but a lot of why. I was really shocked. Business and industry leaders were explaining why they choose things like node. They were basically educating everyone in the audience on how to build a business case to justify node.
• Some some great startups using node in some very creative ways.
• The Polygot Programmer is here. You better recognize it baby.

{ Rant:

Startups are awesome and the VC that support that eco system are a big deal but for – sake can you step out of your own reality distortion field already????? Good ideas happen everywhere. I meet awesome people everyday looking to do something. You know what they need? Exposure! Where to start? What to do? 

It’s funny you make fun at Windows, like it somehow sucks. Oh yea, 1.2 billion pc’s out there. Oh yea, it was just running that machine you bought your latte from. Just saying. Think a bit bigger. As someone who works for Microsoft we get told all the time we work in our own bubble. I laugh when I get told that, as I work in the field and my job is exactly not that, but I get the larger sediment.

Teach! Expose! Be a leader and not a hoarder.

};

In all seriousness, node.js is huge. It’s a really big deal. Mark my words in 5 years it will be a household tech name. Thanks to Eldardo Ventures for creating #NodeSummit and sponsors like Joyent, Microsoft and many others for making it possible. I give the VC’s a hard time but it’s only cause I want to see my city grow too. If it wasn’t for them, we might not even have a node, although I am pretty sure Ryan would have done it anyways.

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t give some major props to Microsoft. Not because I work there but because they did awesome. Say what you will, but their involvement with node is incredible. I would like to think I had something to do with it, but I didn’t.

Node Summit was all around good. I sincerely hope it happens again, and I hope to come back. To the conference organizers, thank you for putting in the hard work to create a classy event. Next time give Ryan some more time.

p.s. in the time writing this Ryan decided to step down from the core team of node. Well that sucks, or does it? Any technology isn’t shouldn’t be based just on one person. That is a recipe for disaster and it just doesn’t scale. I look forward to what Ryan does next as well as what the guys on the node team dream up.

Not sure what node.js is, why not? http://nodejs.org

If you made it this far – thank you!

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country."

Community is everywhere, it’s all around us. Church, Sports, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and of course our own technical communities. When I see people complaining about communities online, I sit there an just wonder, why? Why do they feel the need to invest so much energy complaining online? I am always reminded of what John F. Kennedy said, stop complaining and either be a true part of it or try and fix what you think is broken.  Community is exactly what you make it, nothing more. Community doesn’t owe you anything.

Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world"…

As a software developer I think it’s important to always do two things. One, step back and celebrate. Two, learn from the past while continually improving. When it comes to communities, we all have a thing or two to learn from our peers, not only in "your group", but the groups around you. There is so much to learn, why would anyone ever do it alone?

I want to thank everyone across the Midwest and beyond who helped support me over the past 31 days. I know I missed groups, and this doesn’t stop today. Over the next few months, myself and anyone who wants to help will be starting a new site called MidwestGeeks.net. The purpose of the site is to help consolidate and distribute information across our technical communities, and anyone involved with them. For the past 31 days I’ve gathered a great deal of information about communities across the Midwest, that of course is one example of the information that you will see on the site. It’s just a start of a larger journey, one where we can start to break down some walls and join together.

Wisconsin

Group	City	Post
MADPASS	Madison	http://csell.net/2011/12/29/31-days-of-community-madpass/
MADdotNET	Madison	http://csell.net/2011/12/27/31-days-of-community-maddotnet/
Wausau Area SharePoint Users Group	Wausau	http://csell.net/2011/12/23/31-days-of-community-wausau-area-sharepoint-users-group/
ECRuby	Eau Claire	http://csell.net/2011/12/19/31-days-of-community-ecruby/
Fox Valley .NET Users Group	Appleton	http://csell.net/2011/12/16/31-days-of-community-fox-valley-net-users-group/
Black Hole .NET	Marshfield	http://csell.net/2011/12/13/31-days-of-community-black-hole-net/
Greater Milwaukee Script Club	Greenfield	http://csell.net/2011/12/11/31-days-of-community-greater-milwaukee-script-club/
Chippewa Valley . NET User Group	Eau Claire	http://csell.net/2011/12/08/31-days-of-community-cvnug/
MADdotNET’s Geek Lunch	Madison	http://csell.net/2011/12/07/31-days-of-community-maddotnets-geek-lunch/
WI .NET Users’ Group	Milwaukee	http://csell.net/2011/12/03/31-days-of-community-wi-net-users-group/

Illinois

Group	City	Post
angleBracket	Grayslake	http://csell.net/2011/12/30/31-days-of-community-anglebracket/
Chicago DNN	OakBrook	http://csell.net/2011/12/28/31-days-of-community-chicagodnn-org/
Sangamon Valley .NET User Group	Springfield	http://csell.net/2011/12/25/31-days-of-community-sangamon-valley-net-user-group/
Chicago .NET Ninjas	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/24/31-days-of-community-chicago-net-ninjas/
Chicago SharePoint Users Group	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/22/31-days-of-community-cspug/
Rockford .NET Users’ Group	Rockford	http://csell.net/2011/12/21/31-days-of-community-rockford-net-users-group/
Chicago Sencha	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/20/31-days-of-community-chicago-sencha/
Chicago SBS Users Group	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/17/31-days-of-community-chicago-sbs-users-group/
Chicago Windows Phone Developer Group	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/15/13-days-of-community-chicago-windows-phone-developer-group/
Chicago Visual Studio ALM Users Group	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/14/31-days-of-community-chicago-visual-studio-alm-user-group/
Software Craftsmanship McHenry County	McHenry	http://csell.net/2011/12/12/31-days-of-community-software-craftsmanship-mchenry-county-scmc/
Chicago ALT.NET	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/09/31-days-of-community-chicago-alt-net/
Chicago Information Technology Architects Group	Chicago	http://csell.net/2011/12/06/31-days-of-community-chicago-information-technology-architects-group/
CNUG	Downers Grove	http://csell.net/2011/12/05/31-days-of-community-cnug/
Lake County .NET Users Group	Grayslake	http://csell.net/2011/12/02/31-days-of-community-lake-county-net-users-group-lcnug/

Indiana

Group	City	Post
South Bend Software Craftsmanship	South Bend	http://csell.net/2011/12/26/31-days-of-community-south-bend-software-craftsmanship/
SharePoint Users Group of Indiana	Indianapolis	http://csell.net/2011/12/10/31-days-of-community-sharepoint-users-group-of-indiana-spin/
.NET Users’ of Ft. Wayne	Ft. Wayne	http://csell.net/2011/12/04/31-day-of-community-net-users-of-ft-wayne-in/

Ohio

Group	City	Post
Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group	Columbus	http://csell.net/2011/12/18/31-days-of-community-central-ohio-windows-phone-user-group-cowpug/

Again, a huge thank you to all of the communities leaders for helping me make this possible. Make sure you thank them too.

angleBracket is a simple organization of web enthusiasts who collect once a month to tackle a given topic. We spend roughly 10 minutes introducing a topic and then pair up and start coding. When we decide enough is enough we get back together and share our findings.

You can find more at: http://angleBracket.net

When:

Every 3rd Thursday of the month.

Where:

College of Lake County

Room: TBD
19351 West Washington Street
Grayslake, IL 60030-1198

Who:

Clark Sell | http://clarksell.info

Clark is a web evangelist for Microsoft based in Illinois. A Chicago native who can’t spell, Clark as a kid actually made his money building cars, getting grease under his nails. That art of building would later lead him to software development where he drinks the Web Development Kool-Aid. Writing code is what keeps Clark awake at night, while continually working on his craft and rapping with others over a few cold CORS. You can hear Clark muse about software on his podcast Developer Smackdown, or find his family cruising around in a 1968 Camaro SS.

Pat Paaschp

Pat is a .NET developer for GFX International in Grayslake, IL. A Wisconsin native, he attended the infamous Sheboygan North High School and has enjoyed a great deal of bratwurst and cheese. While earning his Business Administration & Marketing degree he saw a classmate’s Perl/CGI book and decided is what a good idea to avoid all things technology and software related. But, he found himself working with computers and software during his first job when he became the IT department because he could call his older brother who “worked with computers”. When he’s not spending time with his wife and three kids he’s trying to figure out if this WWW thing is really worth all the trouble.

MADPASS is a SQL Server user group.  Our mission statement:

The purpose of this chapter is to serve the community of SQL Server professionals in the Madison area by providing a forum for professional networking, continuous learning, and technical collaboration. In support of this purpose, MADPASS shall endeavor to accomplish the following:

1. Actively advance and promote the effective utilization of products and services by promoting a
   free exchange of information concerning the use of such products and services by members of the organization;
2. To conduct regular meetings and host topical presentations concerned with the products and technologies of interest;
3. Communicate user needs in all areas of interest;

Our meetings cover a range of topics including database administration, programming, and business intelligence. We have networking time each month, along with free dinner and drinks!

When

Fourth Wednesday of each month in Madison, WI.

More Information

• Our website is http://madpass.org
• Twitter is @MADPASS
• LinkedIn is http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3719611&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
• Google + https://plus.google.com/u/0/114506358272850034374/posts.

SQL Saturday

MADPASS is planning the first SQL Saturday in Wisconsin, SQL Saturday #118, on April 21, 2012 as well – http://sqlsaturday.com/118/eventhome.aspx.

DotNetNuke is a very powerful Content Management System for developing websites. Great websites in fact…

Our Hosting Sponsor PowerDNN provides food and drink for the evening and we generally have a great discussion about all things web related. You are welcome to attend this free event, contribute to the discussion, ask questions and take off if the conversation no longer is relevant to you.

You can find more at: http://ChicagoDNN.org

Where you will find links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meetup.com and The DotNetNuke Users Group

When:

The first Tuesday of the month.

Where:

We are taking the show on the road this year and plan to rotate venues around the city. Because of member requests, we are going to hold one meeting in Downtown Chicago, one meeting in the North Suburbs, and then one out in the Southwest Suburbs. Then we will do it all over again starting back downtown. Locations are being determined so check the website for more information.

Please check the website for current information on when and where the next meeting will be held in 2012.

Who:

Don Gingold | http://SprocketWebsites.com/About

Don launched Gnu Ventures Company in 1996 to help organizations and businesses initiate and improve their Internet presence. Along with partner Kate Gingold, Gnu Ventures puts a creative spin on their combined skills in programming, graphic arts, copywriting and marketing.

Don and Kate are members of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce and between them have served as past chairs or board members of numerous committees. Currently they involved with the Ambassadors, the Business Resource Network and several leads groups. Don has over 25 years experience in applying computers and network technology to business, including pioneering work on the Internet with an international corporation.

James Nagy | http://SprocketWebsites.com/About

Jim started developing website solutions with the DotNetNuke® Content Management framework for a national automotive services corporation. For the past few years, Jim and his partner Susan Nagy have been helping companies compete in the global marketplace as J&S Tech Designs, LLC.

James and Susan are members of the Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce as well as the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce and are involved in several committees including the Ambassadors, the Business Resource Network and several leads groups. He has over 20 years of experience in information technology, software design, user experience programming and executive management.

Phil Wegrzyn

Phil Wegrzyn has been a professional developer for over 22 years, progressing from a mainframe assembler programmer to a web developer and technical consultant with a Chicagoland fortune 50 company.

For the past 5+ years he has been working almost exclusively with DotNetNuke®, deploying, administering, and developing DotNetNuke® sites to handle a wide array of complex functionality on intranet, extranet and internet-facing DNN sites. Phil has also provided training, technical guidance and development services to organizations implementing DotNetNuke® as their CMS.

The Madison, Wisconsin .NET User Group is an enthusiastic open community with a focus on Microsoft .NET and other related technologies.

Everyone is welcome to attend our free meetings – generally the 1^st Wednesday of the month is our presentation meeting where we have a two hour presentations on a select topic – everything from the latest emerging technologies so you’re informed of what’s coming – to – how to more effectively utilize the technologies that you use in your day-to-day programming life so you can maximize your potential!

For our presentation meetings – come hungry as we will provide free pizza – as a hungry developer is a scary thing.

Also — generally on the second Wednesday of the month we have a .NET Lunch where we get together and talk .NET technology while having great food!

At MADdotNET – we focus on empowering the overall developer community with knowledge – so that together we can all increase our connections with one another as well the technology that will make each of us more successful, and thus have more fun, with what we do every day!

Everyone is welcome; we are a mix of .NET professional developers, students, teachers, any one just interested in learning more – we also encourage local recruiters to attend – as they are looking to get the best jobs to the easily the best candidates in entire Madison market!

What we are not are “9-to-5’ers” – those people who’s interest stops when they leave their computers. We are passionate about learning and enthusiastically improve our skills and connections!

Everyone is also welcome to present to the group – it’s easily said that you never know a topic as well as when you prepare to teach that topic to others. Come talk about technology that makes you excited, whether it’s something you use day-to-day or something that you do ( or want to do ) on the side. There are so many great topics, from HTML5 to Kinect, from MVC to XAML, from SQL to jQuery. Challenge yourself and be rewarded from what you learn and can show to others!

You can find more at: www.MADdotNET.com

When:

Generally the 1^st and/or the 3^rd Wednesday of the month, with an additional .NET lunch meeting generally on the 2^nd Wednesday of the moth. See our site and follow us on Twitter ( @MADdotNET ) for all upcoming meeting.

Also – highly encourage you to subscribe to both:

1. MADdotNET@googlegroups.com ( http://groups.google.com/group/maddotnet ) — Our discussion forum where user group members post cool things they find and/or ask any questions on projects that they are working on and want the perspective and experience of the best developers in the area!
2. MADdotNET-announcements@googlegroups.com (http://groups.google.com/group/maddotnet-announcements ) – Meeting and event announcements only.

Where:

Presentation Meetings:

Herzing University Madison ( 5218 East Terrace Drive, Madison ) – Room #120
5:30pm – 6pm: Networking | 6pm – 8pm: Presentation and Pizza

.NET Lunches:

Alt-n-Bach’s ( 2602 Whalen Lane Madison, WI ) – in the Back Room
11:45am – 1pm

Contact:

Lance Larsen | mail@lancelarsen.com | www.LanceLarsen.com

• Not only working software, but also well-crafted software
• Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value
• Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals
• Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships

If you are interested in connecting with and learning from other like-minded software artisans in the South Bend area, please sign up and join us at our next meetup.

You can find more at: http://www.meetup.com/sobesc/

When:

Usually Every 2nd Thursday of every other month.

Where:

Innovation Park, University of Notre Dame

1400 E Angela Blvd

University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN 46617

Who:

Ross Beehler

Ross is a development manager with Press Ganey, who is very involved in the software craftsmanship movement.

Eric Landes | http://ericlandes.com

Eric is a Solution Architect for AgileThought, Eric helps coach and implement agile solutions in primarily Microsoft environments. He has been using Agile methods for the past 6 years, in a Team Lead/Project Manager capacity. He has presented on Kanban, automated acceptance tests, and other agile topics at different agile conferences, and user group meetings. Eric has a CSM and is a Microsoft MVP.

David Dickinson

Is in currently Chief Technology Officer at Pinnacle, LLC. David has been involved with agile development for over 6 years and has also been involved with Service Oriented Architecture even longer (there is a Channel 9 interview on SOA and agile that David and co did). David is very involved with the software craftsmanship movement.

The Sangamon Valley .NET User Group (SVNUG) is a Microsoft .NET user group based in Springfield, Illinois.  Founded in November 2010, SVNUG’s mission is to encourage .NET development, research, and education in the Springfield, Illinois, technical community.  We meet once a month of an evening for a presentation on a current .NET topic.

For each of our talks, we produce a collection of source code and slides for our members and other .NET enthusiasts to reference as well as a video of the talk on both our YouTube and Vimeo channels.  Our two most popular videos are Scott Hembrough’s presentation “Build Automation and Continuous Integration with TFS 2010” and Keith Reichert and Matt Havenar’s presentation “Expression Blend 4 with WPF”:

Build Automation and Continuous Integration with TFS 2010—SVNUG Presentation #9 (October 2011)

Expression Blend 4 with WPF—SVNUG Presentation #5 (June 2011)

You can find more at: http://www.svnug.com

When:

First Tuesday of every month.

Where:

The Hilton (downtown Springfield)
Conference Center (room varies by month)

700 East Adams Street
Springfield, Illinois 62701-1601

Who:

Allen E. Scharfenberg | http://www.neverminddreams.com

Allen is currently a Software Development Consultant with Capitol Strategies, Inc.—a software consulting firm based out of Springfield, Illinois.  While Allen has a great deal of experience in product development, frameworks, multi-threaded programming, and all that fun stuff, he currently enjoys helping his clients build their own business-critical applications.  Allen is the Public and Member Relations Officer for the Sangamon Valley .NET User Group (SVNUG).  When he is not coding, Allen enjoys spending time with his fiancé Amanda and their houseful of pets.

Brandon Stricker | http://nodnarb.net

By day, Brandon is a systems engineer for Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc. (LRS) in Springfield, Illinois.  By night (and sometimes on the weekends), Brandon enjoys photography and videography—which is lucky for us because, without Brandon’s passion, enthusiasm, and knack for professional-grade video work, SVNUG would not have so many wonderful videos to share with its members and the .NET community at large.  A newlywed, Brandon enjoys spending time with his wife June.  Thankfully, June lets us borrow him and his camera a couple nights a month.

Mark Lovik

Mark is currently a consultant with Capitol Strategies, Inc. in Springfield, Illinois.  With a doctorate in Physics and a penchant for taking on Herculean software development projects, Mark tends to be a busy guy.  Even so, Mark enjoys developing new ideas for talks, blogs, and videos for SVNUG and spending time with his family.

Matt Wilson

Matt is currently an Enterprise Architect with Horace Mann Educators Corporation in Springfield, Illinois.  Matt loves patterns and UML.  Which he loves more, know one will ever know.  When he is not busy working or advising the group on complicated business and compliance issues (okay, they are not complicated to him, but they are to the rest of us), Matt enjoys spending time with his family.

Keith Reichert

Keith is a Software Engineer with Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc. (LRS) in Springfield, Illinois.  Although he loves writing video capturing and editing software for LRS Sports Edge, he also loves spending time with his family.  Keith is one of the four original founders of SVNUG.

David McDaniel

David is a Senior Developer/Analyst with Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc. (LRS) in Springfield, Illinois.  When David is not lamenting Allen’s inability to pay attention to anything, he is spending time with his wonderful family.  David is also one of the four original founders of SVNUG and a former educator.

You can find more at: http://chicagodotnetninjas.org

When:

Typically, once a month.

Where:

Chicago loop.

Actual location varies.

Who:

Alfred Chan

Alfred is currently a software engineer for Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in Chicago. With 8 years of experience developing applications on the Microsoft stack for startups as well as enterprises, Alfred likes to share what he has learned over the years to promote better coding practices. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a geek who participates in various tech events around Chicago. You can also find him sailing on the lake on a nice summer day.

In 2012, we are looking to develop our web page sponsored by New Horizons and provide our members with programs that help educate them in the use of SharePoint.

Click here to access our web page.

When:

Monthly

Where:

New Horizons Center

4613-B Phillips Road

Schofield, WI 54476

(715) 203-1388

Who:

Deeann Johnson

Deeann is an Associate Line Director at Church Mutual Insurance Company in Merrill, Wisconsin. This position has given her the opportunity to actively participate in numerous projects. Her current main project is the development of electronic manuals for Church Mutual. While collaborating on the design of the site, much of the building and technical design of the site has been done by Deeann personally. In addition to developing the site, she has prepared procedure manuals, developed training, mentored others in the use of SharePoint, and provided the overall management for use of the site. When not making plans for future uses of SharePoint, she enjoys spending time with her two children and husband.

Mike Clark

Mike is the Manager of Engineering Services for Cequent Trailer Products out of Mosinee, Wisconsin. His team manages the Engineering change, New Product Launch, and Cost Estimating processes for products manufactured in the USA, Mexico, and China. Mike has been developing on SharePoint for the past 4 years and has created many InfoPath applications to simplify their business processes.

You can find more at: http://www.cspug.org

When:

Approximately every other month.

Where:

Usually either Microsoft’s Loop or Downers Grove office

Who:

Name	Company	Company Type
Michael Blumenthal	Magenic	Consulting
Leo Doyle	McLaren Systems, Inc.	Software + Services
Asif Rehmani, MVP	SharePoint-Videos.com	Training
Jamie Story	PointBridge	Consulting
Alisa Swann	Microsoft	Software + Services
Rick Seeman	Microsoft	Software + Services
Jason Bullock	Microsoft	Software + Services

For specific meeting topics and to RSVP, visit our page on Meetup.com under “Northern IL .NET Users Group,” join our LinkedIn group, and follow us on Twitter @RockfordDotNet

When:

6 p.m. – 8 or 9 p.m. or so every 4th Tuesday of the month. Scheduled meeting dates change slightly in November and December depending upon how the calendar has the holidays scheduled to fall in comparison to the 4^th Tuesday of the month.

Where:

Practice Velocity

10100 Forest Hills Road
Machesney Park, IL 61115

Oh, and there’s free pizza, beer and swag!

You can find more at: http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Sencha-User-Group/

When:

(Usually) Last Thursday of the month.

Where:

CNX Corporation
217 N. Jefferson – 4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60661

Who:

Arthur Kay | www.akawebdesign.com

Arthur has been a nerd his entire life, but has worked professionally as a web developer for more than 10 years. He is a blogger, business owner, coffee drinker and hardcore JavaScript enthusiast. Arthur currently works for Sencha Inc. as a Solutions Engineer and lives in suburban Chicago with his family.

Our goal is to promote open-source development and education by using one of the most powerful dynamic languages available. Whether you’re experienced, just starting out, or have never even seen Ruby, we welcome you to our group, to learn and share with others the amazing things that Ruby can do.

You can find more at: http://ecruby.org/

When:

Every 1st Thursday of the month from 5:30 – 7pm for regular meetings

Every 3^rd Wednesday of the month from 5-7pm for Hack Night

Where:

Meetings at
Dooley’s Pub
442 Water Street,
Eau Claire, WI 54703

Hack Night at
Mogie’s Pub
436 Water Street,
Eau Claire, WI 54703

Who:

Brian P. Hogan (http://www.bphogan.com/

Brian P. Hogan is an author, editor, trainer, and web developer who’s been building things on the web professionally since 1995 as a freelancer and consultant. He enjoys teaching and writing about technology, particularly web design, accessibility, and development. When not hacking on Ruby or JavaScript code, he’s writing songs, watching “The Simpsons,” or spending quality time with his wife and daughters.

The Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group (COWPUG) has been established to nurture knowledge base and collaboration among Windows Phone developers & enthusiasts. While we are primarily based in Columbus OH, developers from all around Ohio, neighboring states and just about anybody who has interest in Windows Phone is most welcome.

With all that’s happening in the Windows Phone ecosystem, we needed a dedicated forum to talk about upcoming technologies, architectures & development paradigms around working on the Windows Phone platform. Our focus is both Silverlight & XNA development, so that we appeal to all kinds of Windows Phone developers. We are recognized by INETA & collaborate with other similar User Groups to have some of the best speakers/experts in the Windows Phone space. In all, a great group of passionate Windows Phone developers, geeking out over latest technology & sharing experiences.

You can find more at: http://cowpug.org/

When:

Every 3rd Monday of the month.

Where:

TechColumbus
1275 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43212.

Who:

Samidip Basu | http://samidipbasu.com

Samidip Basu (@samidip) is a technologist & gadget-lover working as a Manager & Solutions Lead for Sogeti out of the Columbus Unit. Having worked on WP7 since CTP days, he now spends much of his time in spreading the word to discover the full potential of the Windows Phone platform & cloud-based mobile solutions in general. He passionately runs the Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group (http://cowpug.org/), labors in M3 Conf (http://m3conf.com//) organization and can be found with at-least a couple of hobbyist projects at any time. His spare times call for travel and culinary adventures with the wife. Find out more at http://samidipbasu.com/.

You can find more at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/chgoSBSusers

When

Every 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Where

Various locations around the Chicago area. See our website for monthly information.

Who

Ted Giesler: tgiesler@cypgrp.com

Ted has been either an internal or external consultant in the IT industry for over 35 years. He started working specifically in the small business environment in 1997. He has been involved with the leadership of the the Chicago SBS Users Group since it’s inception over 6 years ago. Ted is also recognized as a leader in the worldwide Small Business Consultant community.

You can find more at: http://www.fvnug.org

When:

Second Wednesday of Every Month

Where:

Fox Valley Technical College

Room: A170A/B
1825 N. Bluemound
Appleton, WI 54912

Who:

Scott Felder (President) | http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottfelder

Scott is a Technology Manager/Architect at J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc., a Neenah, WI transportation safety and regulatory risk management company. Scott moved to Wisconsin 12 years ago from Los Angeles, California where he worked at EToys.com before the .COM bubble implosion. For fun Scott enjoys cooking, family time, and building embedded microcontroller devices using the .Net Micro Framework. Scott can also be reached on Twitter (@ScottFelder).

Keith Burnell (Vice President) | http://www.dotnetdevdude.com

Keith Burnell is a Senior Software Engineer with Skyline Technologies and Vice President of the Fox Valley .Net User’s Group. Keith has been a consultant in Northeast WI for 7 years specializing in large scale ASP .NET web site development and architecture using Test Driven Development.  Keith is an INETA speaker and can be seen speaking at most developer focused events in WI.  When not coding, Keith enjoys golfing, woodworking, and spending time with his family. Keith can also be found on Twitter (@keburnell).

Tim Miller, Jeff Kruse, Greg Levenhagen  (Board of Directors)

Play Now

Show Notes

Ian Randall – @kiwipom

Ian Randall has been involved in software since the mid 80′s, and professionally since 1997. He’s written code in Basic, C, C++ and more recently in C# with WinForms and WPF. He has been at Datacom Systems Ltd in Auckland for over 5 years. He’s been a BA, QA, PM and TL but didn’t like any of them, and is happy now being ‘Software Developer’ He blogs (semi)regularly on http://xaml.geek.nz and is co-creator of codemania

Ben Gracewood – @nzben

Ben is a recovering manager, a coder at Intergen, and a hardened veteran cat herder (aka conference organiser).

Resources

Links mentioned during the show:

CodeMania – A Conference for Developers

Sponsors

ThatConference is a brand new conference coming to the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells on August 13th, 14th, 15th of 2012. This is a conference is founded by Developers who want to create the conference they’ve always want to go to and for a price that’s easy to justify to your boss. First and foremost this is a developer’s conference. 3 days of any technology and nothing but code. You can find more at ThatConference.com.

WebSite Hosting is provided by Applied Innovations.

Music

ReMix.NIN.com, and http://www.podcastthemes.com/

You can find more at: http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Windows-Phone-Developers

When:

First Thursday of every Month

Where:

TextNexus

200 S Wacker

15^th Floor

Chicago, IL 60606

Who:

Lawrence Delby

Larry is an independent software developer with 35 years of experience. His company Logic Development, Inc. is now 100% focused on developing applications for the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

Henry Schwenk | http://triton-tek.com

Henry is a Partner & Technology Consultant at Triton-Tek, Inc.

Matt Hidinger | http://matthidinger.com | @MattHidinger

Matt is a software developer, speaker, blogger, and open source lover. He works at Clarity Consulting currently focusing on ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight, and Windows Phone. He can be found on twitter @MattHidinger, blogging at http://matthidinger.com, working on various open source projects, and participating in the local community. In his free time he has enjoyed building two apps for the Windows Phone Marketplace: CTA Watch and Transit Directions, and is a Microsoft MVP in Windows Phone Development.

The Chicago ALM User Group is a user group that meets monthly to discuss all things ALM and Visual Studio tooling that enables teams to develop better software within their organizations.  The key mission of this user group is to foster the community of people both using the ALM tools from Microsoft, implementing the ALM tools from Microsoft, and those that are interested in ALM – in general.

You can find more at http://chicagoalmug.org

When:

• Typically the first or second Wednesday of the month; but we’ve been known to vary somewhat

Where:

We alternate between Microsoft Chicago (AON Center) and Microsoft-Downers Grove.

Microsoft-Chicago, 200 E Randolph Ave, Suite 2000 (2nd Floor), Chicago, IL  60601

Microsoft-Downers Grove, 3025 Highland Parkway, Suite 300, Downers Grove, IL 60515

Who:

Angela Dugan (Microsoft)

Angela Dugan is an ALM tools evangelist with Microsoft, and has been part of the Developer and Platform Evangelism group since July of 2006. Prior to that, she was a software developer/architect/project manager/jack-of-all-trades for a small consulting firm in the western suburbs of Chicago. Angela is also a passionate member of Microsoft’s Women in Technology group, is a Managing Director for Chicago Girls in Tech and is deeply involved in the ALM user group community in the Midwest.  When she manages to scrounge some free time, she is known to play embarrassingly dorky board games and RPGs, indulges in food snobbery, and attempts to be crafty and creative with hot glue guns, glitter and such without causing major injury to herself, her adorable dog and her equally geeky husband.

Chris Kadel (Polaris)

Chris Kadel is a Principal at Polaris Solutions.  Chris started his career as a Microsoft focused software developer, but has worked at the enterprise level with other technologies.  Chris works as an ALM Consultant as well as application solution architect when consulting for his clients.  Chris is passionate about making the software development industry a better one.

Jim Morrison (Polaris)

Jim has been active in the Microsoft community since 1995 with a focus on enterprise architecture and project management. Prior to co-founding Polaris, Jim designed, developed, and managed consulting projects for a Chicago based Microsoft Partner. Jim believes in the important role of development process and team structure to deliver successful projects. He has built extensive experience assessing, evaluating, and expanding enterprise software in a variety of industries.

Learn more about us at: http://www.bhnetug.org

When:

We strive for a meeting the second or third week of each month, announcing specific dates and times thru membership mailings and postings to our web site.

Where:

Marshfield Clinic Campus

Froeklhe Conference Center

Room: TBA

1000 North Oak Ave

Marshfield, WI 54449

Who:

Tammy Karlen

In training for bringing peace to the Middle East, Tammy is a Quality Assurance Analyst tasked with balancing the needs of users, programmers and sundry other stakeholders in the 400 person IT department of a major Wisconsin health care provider. A 2008 University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire graduate and a founding mother of Black Hole .NET, Tammy spends her way-too-limited free time with family and friends.

At SCMC we are platform-blind and language-blind. Our only goal is to help everyone grow as software developers whether they’re working on enterprise-level Microsoft systems or working on the hottest VC-backed startup this side of Silicon Valley. We love you all. Our meetings have ranged from Uncle Bob extolling the virtues of decoupling our objects from their persistence to hacking on Clojure Koans for a couple hours.

We meet on the third Tuesday of each month at Follet Software Company in McHenry, Illinois. Meetings start at 6:00 PM to allow for people driving and usually wrap up by 8:30 PM. Food and refreshments are courtesy of 8th Light and Groupon.

Our meetings are recorded and you can see past meetings and learn about the upcoming topics at http://mchenry.softwarecraftsmanship.org.

Where:

Follet Software Company in McHenry, Illinois

When:

Third Tuesday of every month at 6:00 PM

Who:

Michael D. Hall, Founder

Back in Ole Aught-Nine Mike looked around and saw no software developer community near his home in Crystal Lake, Illinois. So he proclaimed, "Nay, this shall NOT suffice." and set out to found the McHenry Cloud Developer’s Group, whose first meeting was held in the lavishly appointed basement of the Crystal Lake Public Library. After a year of holding meetings in such opulent settings as Panera and a pub bar, he sat down with Jim and Ryan to formulate the plan to find a permanent home for the group and lay out the charter for what ultimately was to become our beloved "Software Craftsmanship McHenry County." Today the group has grown to an average meeting size of over 15 attendees and enjoys ongoing sponsorships from several reputable companies that share in the values at the heart of software craftsmanship.

Ryan Gerry, Organizer

Ryan Gerry is a software engineer who is experienced using Open Source platforms. Ryan is currently working at Follett Software Company where he writes Ruby and Java applications. In the past he has worked in online advertising for Google and DoubleClick. His professional interests include cloud computing, web development, security, agile development methodologies and Open Source software. Ryan has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Western Illinois University. Ryan grew up in Lemont, IL but has been living in McHenry since 2006.

Ryan learned about the Software Craftsmanship movement at Software Craftmanship North America (SCNA) 2009 in Chicago. He also met Mike Hall at SCNA 2009 where they decided to start a user group in McHenry County.

Jim Suchy, Organizer

Jim is currently a Software Craftsman at 8th Light. He has over 11 years of software development experience. He has built software products for window and door manufacturers and worked as a consultant in the insurance, real estate, health care, and manufacturing industries. Jim has a Bachelor’s in Math and Computer Science from the University of Illinois.

There are eight rules of Script Club –

1. You Always Talk About Script club
2. You Always Talk About Script Club
3. If Someone asks for Help, And You Can Help, You Help
4. Two People Help One Person at One Time
5. One Module Per Person Per Night
6. All Scripts, All PowerShell
7. Scripts will be as short as they can be
8. If This is your First time at Script Club, You Have to Script

You can find more at: http://mkescriptclub.eventbrite.com

When:

Every 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Where:

Greenfield Law Enforcement Center

Room: Municipal Court Room
5300 West Layton Avenue 
Greenfield, WI  53220

Who:

Steven Murawski | http://blog.usepowershell.com

Steven is a Senior Windows Systems Engineer for Edgenet.  He is an advocate for Powershell, systems management best practices, and monitoring.  Steven, on occasion, pretends to be a .NET developer and occasionally publishes scary sample code or contributes to open source projects. Steven speaks regularly to local user groups, whether they be for IT professionals, .NET developers, or database administrators on the benefits of PowerShell for their environment.  For fun, Steven is an avid reader on whatever obsession he has at the time.

The group is one of the oldest SharePoint groups in the country having started in 2005. Each month approximately 50 professionals join together to listen to a presentation, network, and, of course, eat pizza.

You can find more at: http://www.spindiana.com

When:

Third Wednesday of Every Month (see above)

Where:

Microsoft Office

500 E. 96th Street 
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Who:

Robert Bogue | http://www.thorprojects.com/blog

Robert is a 8 time Microsoft MVP most recently for SharePoint who speaks nationally and internationally about SharePoint.  He’s also a prolific author of articles and books including the SharePoint Shepherd’s Guide for End Users (http://www.sharepointshepherd.com)  He has a passion for his community involvement having at one time or another having been a part of the leadership of four different technology groups.