Updated: I had the wrong MSDN link – fixed now
I write this from CodeCampOz which has been a fantastic event. For a ‘free’ event it has been remarkably smooth and well organised. (The event itself is free, you only have to get and stay here (Wagga) so travel and accomodation is the only cost.)
The weekend has focussed on Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 (released just a few days ago and given to everyone on arrival – excellent touch guys, with thanks to Andrew Coates I believe) with some other sessions on SQL 2005 and BizTalk Server.
I consider this a mini-TechEd whereby you can get a look at the upcoming features of Microsoft products by some of the leading Australian developers. It should be on everyone developer’s agenda in order to keep up to date with what is happening in the land of Microsoft.
It has been thought provoking in both good and not so good ways (I’ll cover the not so good in a separate blog – they are nothing to do with the event by the way).
When it comes to presenters, most were very good, the standouts in my opinion being Greg Low, Adam Cogan and Joel Pobar. In the latter case, here’s a guy who is super smart, and passionate about his technology (the CLR in his case). I found him inspiring.
On another tack, I find it harder and harder to investigate new (even current) technology, so an event like this is a forced few days to forget about all the day-to-day stuff that consumes all our time and consider future development.
For us it will be to look into using SQL 2005 and ASP.Net 2.0 as soon as possible, and to delve into the compact framework as we are getting more and more requests for mobile device solutions these days. Desktop development in .Net still doesn’t have me excited (yes, I know I’ve got a VFP bias, but seriously, why would I move?) and I find this puzzling: I thought by now I would be seriously considering a move…
Greg and Mitch are to be highly commended for having both the intiative and organisational skills to make this event happen so smoothly. They pointed to the help of CSU and Microsoft so a big thankyou to those guys too. One thing I really admired about Greg and Mitch is that they got stuck into presenting aswell. I know how hard it can be organising events, so hard in fact that you have little time to do anything else. Kudos to them for presenting excellent sessions aswell.
So, congratulations Greg and Mitch, see you again next year. (Actually I’ll see Greg on Wednesday at the MSDN event in Sydney – if you aren’t already going people, you should consider it just to see Greg in action).
