Of course, if any of my Workshops or Presentations look interesting, be sure to contact me, and we can talk about setting something up.
A Look Back
June was a busy month. So let's take a look back at the awesome events that I spoke at (and got to attend).
NDC Oslo
It's still hard to believe that I went all the way to Norway to speak at a conference. NDC Oslo is an *amazing* event. It takes place at the main event center in the city (where concerts and sporting events are held).
I really like the layout. The main floor is used as the expo area, and there is food service *ALL DAY LONG*. I wish that more events would pick up on this. When I'm traveling and speaking, I don't always have time to eat at the right times -- and when I'm several time zones off, I don't always feel like eating at the right times either. Here's a picture of the expo area:
The session rooms surrounded the expo hall, and many of them were up in the arena seating areas and included a stage that was hanging from the ceiling. Interesting layout that works surprisingly well.
Another great thing is the overflow room. Some people call this the "ADD Room" because you can flip back and forth and try to watch all 9 talks at once. Here's a view from the back side of the room:
There are live feeds from all 9 session rooms, and a headset pipes in the audio. Just switch channels to watch a different talk. I most appreciated this when I was really tired and didn't want to risk falling asleep in front of the speaker. (There are times when it doesn't matter how interesting the speaker is, how interesting the topic is, or how much you want to hear the talk. Sometimes you just can't stay awake.)
My presentations were a lot of fun. I had a talk during the first session slot on "Becoming a Social Developer":
Thanks to Pavneet Singh Saund (@pavsaund) for the picture.
You can read more about how it went here: "Becoming a Social Developer" at NDC Oslo. And if you'd like to watch the talk, it's available here: Video from NDC Oslo.
One really exciting thing happened. My topic was featured in the NDC Oslo opening day re-cap video:
Later in the week, I talked about how design patterns are for everyone -- not just architects:
If you look at the left side of this picture, you can see the girders that held up the stage (along with the 3 pulleys holding everything up). It was a bit disconcerting to look over the edge and see a 30 foot drop. But I tried not to think about it (even though the stage swayed a bit when I walked around).
This picture gives a good idea of what the seating was like in these "rooms":
Thanks to Jonathan Mill (@jonathanfmills) for both of these pictures.
You can watch a video of the talk here: "Learn the Lingo: Design Patterns" at NDC Oslo.
I had a great time. I saw a lot of people that I knew from the US. And I met many new people. I now have friends in Germany, Sweden, Norway, England, Denmark, Poland, and other places in Europe. In addition, Oslo is a beautiful city (at least in June -- I'm not sure how I would like it in January). Next time I go, I'll need to make sure to have a few extra days to do some exploring. My trip was way too short.
Irvine Programming Meetup
There's a brand new user group in Irvine -- the Irvine Programming Meetup. I got to speak at the 2nd meeting:
I had a great time talking about Dependency Injection. You can watch a recording of the presentation here: Video from Irvine Programming Meetup.
Kansas City .NET User Group
Last week, I was in Kansas City for KCDC. But before the conference, I was invited to speak at the Kansas City .NET User Group. I got to share another topic that is dear to me: Unit Testing Makes Me Faster. It was a great turnout, especially considering that they moved their date to accommodate my travel schedule (Thanks again for that).
The most encouraging part was to get a tweet from Duane Newman (@duanenewman) this week:
I'm glad that I could encourage people to approach unit testing with an open mind. It's not a hindrance. It actually makes things go faster.
Thanks also to Duane for taking the picture above.
KCDC
I had heard really good things about KCDC, and I was very excited when I was selected to speak this year. It was an *AMAZING* event. I got to see many of my friends in the Midwest (most of whom I first met at Nebraska.Code() last year). And I got to meet a ton of new people.
The sessions were first-rate, the speakers were excellent, and I had a really great time.
I was very happy with my presentations. On Thursday, I got to speak about interfaces: "IEnumerable, ISaveable, IDontGetIt: Understanding .NET Interfaces":
Thanks to Cori Drew (@coridrew) for the great picture. And thanks to Cori for hanging out with me during the week. It was great to get to know her better.
I always like to talk about interfaces -- mainly because this topic was very hard for me to learn. I knew interfaces were important, but I didn't know why. Once I got a handle on this, they became very important to me as a developer. I love to help people take the short cut to understanding.
The next day, someone came up to tell me how helpful the presentation was. Many of the things that they were seeing in code at work now made sense. That's what makes this all worthwhile to me. The benefit I get from speaking is finding out that I made someone else's job easier.
The next day (last day of the event), I got to speak on asynchronous methods: "I'll Get Back to You: Task, Await, and Asynchronous Methods":
Thanks to Dave Fancher (@davefancher) for the picture.
I think that I was almost as caffeinated as my shirt:
Thanks again to Cori for this picture.
I know it was an awesome event because I was exhausted when it was over (I even slept for a bit on the plane). I met a ton of new people, and I got to spend time with friends in the area. I'm always amazed at how easy it is to pick up conversations with someone even if you haven't seen him/her for several months (or even a year).
I had the great chance to start out my week with lunch at Q39:
Thanks to Cory House (@housecor - left), Heather Downing (@quorralyne - center), and Matthew Renze (@MatthewRenze - right) for taking the time to meet up with me. It was a great start to a great week.
A Look Ahead
Even though I won't be speaking in July, I've got quite a few events lined up for the rest of the year. In August, I'm headed to Music City Code in Nashville TN. In September, I'm going to AIM hdc in Nebraska. Also in September, I'll be at SouthBay .NET in Mountain View CA.
At the tail end of September, I'm offering a full-day workshop as a part of Code Stars Summit in San Jose CA. This is your chance to spend an entire day with me learning about interfaces and dependency injection. Sign up now to get the early-bird pricing. If you wait too long, you'll miss your chance.
October is going to be a bit crazy. Right now, I'm confirmed for Silicon Valley Code Camp in San Jose CA, the Desert Code Camp in Chandler AZ, and DevUp in St. Louis MO. Plus I have a few tentative items that I'll announce once they get confirmed.
For a full list of upcoming events, just check my website: JeremyBytes - Upcoming Events.
I'm doing a lot of speaking and traveling. And I really love to do it. If I can help make other developers' lives better, then I'm accomplishing my goal. I love to watch people learn, and I love to be useful (don't we all).
I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new people, catching up with friends, and going places I haven't been before. (It's still hard to believe I was actually in Norway a few weeks ago.)
It took me a long time, but I really feel like I found a spot that I fit in the world (at least for now). I hope that you find the same.
Happy Coding!
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