May & June 2017 Speaking Engagements

My speaking schedule has been a bit slow lately, but things are picking up in May and June.

Friday-Saturday, May 5-6, 2017
CodeStock
Knoxville, TN
Event Site
Topics:
o I'll Get Back to You: Task, Await, and Asynchronous Methods in C#
o Becoming a Social Developer: A Guide for Introverts

I've been wanting to go to CodeStock for several years, so I was really happy when I learned I was selected to speak this year. On top of that, it's the 10th anniversary of CodeStock. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new people and also catching up with some friends that I haven't seen in a while. The line-up of topics and speakers looks great. There's a lot of fun and learning in store.

Monday-Friday, May 15-19, 2017
SDD 2017
London, England
Event Site
Topics:
o I'll Get Back to You: Task, Await, and Asynchronous Methods in C#
o Becoming a Social Developer: A Guide for Introverts
o Learn to Love Lambdas (and LINQ, Too!)
o DI Why? Getting a Grip on Dependency Injection
o Unit Testing Makes Me Faster: Convincing Your Boss, Your Co-Workers, and Yourself
o Clean Code: Homicidal Maniacs Read Code, Too!

As you can see, I'll be pretty busy during the Software Design & Development Conference. These are all topics that I love to talk about, and I'm really excited that I get to share them with a new group of people. I've heard some great things about this event. The speaker line up is pretty incredible; check out the full list.

Thursday-Saturday, June 1-3, 2017
Music City Code
Nashville, TN
Event Site
Topics:
o Awesome C#: Unit Testing (Half-Day Workshop)
o Design Patterns: Not Just for Architects
o Unit Testing Makes Me Faster: Convincing Your Boss, Your Co-Workers, and Yourself

I had a really great time at Music City Code last year. I met lots of people and also started some lasting relationships. This time around, I have the opportunity to give a half-day workshop on unit testing. I'm really looking forward to sharing some of the hurdles I've run into as well as some techniques to make testing easier and more effective.

A Note About Topics
You might have noticed that I tend to do the same talks over and over. (I add 1 or 2 new topics each year.) That's because these are topics that I struggled with as a developer. And they are topics that developers still struggle with today. I do my best to help people over the hurdles that I had to get over. I know that when things are less mysterious, they suddenly get much more exciting to me, and I try to encourage that in everyone who comes to one of my talks.

I used to feel bad about talking about the same things over and over again. But I've found that I'm really effective at making these topics understandable. And there are always new people to show them to.

A Look Back
In April, I had the chance to speak at the Global Scrum Gathering in San Diego, CA. I got to share how "Unit Testing Makes Me Faster". Here are a few pictures taken by Lynn Winterboer and Scott Dunn.

Thanks to Lynn (@agilelynn) for lots of tweets during the talk. She even grabbed a couple videos of me showing videos:
https://twitter.com/agilelynn/status/851499685273579520

@jeremybytes compares #UnitTesting (long-term value) vs building a test application (limited value) - VIDEO! #SGCal pic.twitter.com/HLBOnPmLLt

— Lynn Winterboer (@agilelynn) April 10, 2017

https://twitter.com/agilelynn/status/851506435913547776

#unitTests should run FAST - like 603 in 169 MILLISECONDS! @jeremybytes #sgcal pic.twitter.com/RZ9Vh4h9Xr

— Lynn Winterboer (@agilelynn) April 10, 2017

A Look Ahead
There's lots of stuff coming up for the rest of the year. In July, I'll be headed to Detroit.Code() in Detroit MI. In August, I'm back at KCDC in Kansas City MO. In September, I'll be at Visual Studio Live Chicago in Chicago IL. In October, I'll be at TechBash in Pocono Manor PA and Visual Studio Live Anaheim (which is really in Garden Grove CA). And there's still a few tentative events on my calendar.

In the midst of all this, I'm relocating to Washington state in June. I'll be looking for local events, MeetUps, and user groups in the Pacific Northwest. So if you'd like me to come to your event, be sure to drop me a line.

Hope to see you at an event soon!

Happy Coding!

Recordings from NDC London

I had a great time speaking at NDC London back in January. I wrote a bit about it soon after the event.

The good news is that the recordings of my presentations are now available. So if you missed the event (or just want to experience the talk again), here's your chance.

And if you'd like to see more from NDC London, keep an eye on their YouTube channel playlist: Playlist: NDC London.

Get Func-y: Delegates in .NET
Watch it on YouTube, or watch it here:



Focus on the User: Making the World a Better Place
Watch it on YouTube, or watch it here:



My schedule is filling up for the rest of the year. I'm looking forward to lots of events and meeting lots of great people.

Happy Coding!

Speakers, Let's Change Our Terminology: No More Rejections

[Update: There's a huge, awesome update to this story, so be sure to scroll all the way down.]

I'm probably just getting philosophical in my old age, but how 'bout we, as speakers, change our terminology regarding whether we are selected to speak at an event:

No longer "Rejected"
Now "Not Selected"

This came up when my friend Jonathan Mills (@jonathanfmills) was dealing with the joys and sorrows of selecting sessions for KCDC (link: https://twitter.com/jonathanfmills/status/839957293550673920):

This got me thinking a bit, particularly since I wrote about the topic earlier this week: Rejection Gets Harder (Not Easier). What can we do to change our perceptions to make this process more productive?

Words Have Meaning
It seems like I've run into a number of different examples of how the words we use change the perception of the situation. A big example is the difference between "Sorry" and "Thank You".

When you keep someone waiting...

Don't say, "Sorry I'm late."
Instead say, "Thank you for waiting."

This changes the tone of the statement and injects gratitude into the relationship. The same thing is true when a speaker thinks about being "accepted" or "rejected" for an event. These words have meaning that may not really apply.

Let's look at an example, let's say that I decide to play Xbox. I've got a number of choices:

If I choose to play "Zoo Tycoon", I'm not rejecting "Batman Arkham Knight" or "The Witcher 3". I'm selecting the item that best matches my current needs (whether relaxation or catharsis), and I can only accommodate one selection. The other items just remain unselected. (Of course, I may decide to forego Xbox and watch "Rocky and Bullwinkle" instead.)

"Rejected" implies that someone made a conscious choice to exclude you from the selection process. This translates into "We don't want you." This may be true in some cases, but the vast majority of events get way more submissions than they can possibly accept.

"Not Selected" implies that other choices were made in preference. This may mean, "We really like you, but we don't have space for everyone."

A Speaker Problem, Not an Event Problem
The terminology of "accepted" and "rejected" is not coming from the events themselves. I think that events go out of their way to avoid the term "rejected". Here's an example from a recent event notification that I received (and I've got lots of examples):

"We regret to inform you at this time that your papers were not selected."

This is pretty common, but we as speakers tend to translate this into "rejected".

Change Your Words, Change Your Thoughts
As I mentioned in the previous article, it's really easy to take rejection personally even though it isn't personal. But by changing how we refer to things, we can change how we think about things.

I'll be the first to stop using the word "rejected". I will now say that I wasn't selected. I know that I'm good at what I do. I know that my talks are useful. But I also know that there are other speakers and topics that are better fits for a particular event than I am.

And that's okay.

Huge, Awesome Update
This topic had been on my mind for a while. A couple of events that I have submitted to use PaperCall.io to collect submissions and handle selection. I noticed that the site used the term "rejected", so I tweeted about it.

To my huge surprise, PaperCall.io responded within just a few minutes of the tweet:

Then 2 hours later, they implemented the changes (tweet link):

I immediately went out to my profile, and found that the updates were already in place (I had grabbed a screenshot from before the updates were made):

A big thanks to PaperCall.io on getting on board with this idea and jumping on it so quickly. This is really amazing.

Happy Speaking!

Rejection Gets Harder (Not Easier)

When starting out as a speaker, you get a lot of rejections. It takes a while to get used to, particularly because you're never quite sure why your submission was rejected. I don't take it personally (at least that's what I say publicly even though it does feel a bit like a personal rejection).

Different events have different priorities: sometimes they are looking for particular topics, sometimes they are looking for particular speakers, sometimes they put preference on local speakers to build the community, sometimes they are looking for brand new sessions, sometimes they are focused on a particular audience.

You generally don't get feedback for a rejection. (I don't think I've ever received feedback from a rejection.) Many times events get so many submissions that they can't go through and say why a particular session was *not* selected. Often times, it's just that they have too many submissions for each slot, and you're number 105 when there are 100 openings.

Look to the next event on the list, trust that you'll find the right audience, and keep moving forward.

When you're first starting out, this isn't as big of a deal. Yes, it hurts when someone says "no". But it's also pretty much expected, particularly when you don't have much of a track record.

Fewer Rejections
Something I didn't expect is that rejection has gotten harder as I've been accepted at more places.

Here's why: early in my speaking journey, I would submit to a lot of events, and I would get selected for a few of them. It was really easy to double- or triple-submit for a particular time frame because there was no way that I would get selected for more than one of them.

But I hit a turning point, and I started to get more acceptances than rejections. I actually ran into a problem with this last year. I was accepted to two events for the same time period, and I had to decline an acceptance. (I actually had to do this twice.)

No More Double-Submissions
After this happened to me, I stopped double-submitting. This is because I know how difficult it is for a selection committee to get a line up that works well for their event. When someone backs out, it leaves a hole that they need to back fill.

In order to make sure that doesn't happen, I no longer submit for more than one event for the same time period. Often I don't submit for two events that are back-to-back so that I won't be too tired from attending multiple events during a single trip. (I did this one time last year; it was a great experience, but I was exhausted. It's not something I want to do again.) This is especially important since I am committed to being present at events, and I want to be able to talk to as many people as possible.

Picking the "Right" Events
So now comes the hard part. Now I have to select which events I'm going to submit to. This means picking one event over another (and sometimes over two others). And that makes each rejection that much harder.

For example, last year I submitted to a particular event that I was pretty sure I was going to get in to. There was another event that I really wanted to speak at as well, but the dates overlapped. Well, I submitted to the first event (and not the second). There were a couple of reasons for this decision (including travel cost), but I got rejected from the first event. That left a gap in my schedule, and I was left wondering if I had made the wrong decision.

Finding the Right Audience
In my particular case, I have a pretty specific focus: I deal with mid-level language features and patterns. You can look through my presentation topics to get an idea of what that is. These are core skills that are important for developers, but they aren't new or shiny.

No Feedback
It is difficult when you don't get feedback from an event. For example, if I knew that an event was only looking for fresh topics that haven't been presented before, then I would know that I'm not a good fit for that. If I knew that an event was focused on "what's new", then I would know that I'm not a good fit for that. Some events put this in their descriptions, but many do not.

"Wrong" Decisions, New Opportunities
The end result is that I do make "wrong" decisions, but those sometimes work out for the best. For example, remember the event I mentioned above where I got rejected? Well that opened up additional time for another event I was already scheduled to attend. Because of that, I was able to add a workshop for that event, and I got some good experience with a full-day format.

I've also received a rejection from an event I was planning on speaking at this summer, and I chose not to submit to another event in order to leave space for it. It was hard to get the rejection, but I think it will all work out for the best. I have some changes coming up in my life and having some free time during the summer is probably just what I need.

Rejection Gets Harder
When I have to pick among three events for a time period, I never know if I'm making the best decision. For the events that I know, I can make a pretty intelligent choice (Yes, this is the right audience for me. No, I don't quite fit in with what they are looking for.) But for the events that I don't know, I have to take a gamble.

As someone who loves to speak, I hate to miss out on opportunities. At the same time, I'm better off speaking in front of the right audiences.

This is one reason why I asked people to contact me if they want me to come to their events. If someone wants me at their event, then I know that I'll probably have the right audience. This makes it easier for me to prioritize things on my schedule.

The good news is that I have gotten to know a lot of event organizers. And I've also managed to build a good reputation at the events I've spoken at. This has opened up a lot of opportunities for me.

[Update 03/09/2017: On further thought, I'm going to remove the word "rejection" from this scenario. Read more here: Speakers, Let's Change Our Terminology: No More Rejections.]

No Second Guesses
Ultimately, when you're rejected from an event, you have to accept that you won't know why. And it's really easy to second-guess reasons. But don't do that.

Instead, look to the next event on the list, trust that you'll find the right audience, and keep moving forward.

Happy Speaking!

March 2017 Speaking Engagements

After a bit of time off, I'm back to speaking in March. It should be a lot of fun.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017
So Cal Developer Network
Buena Park, CA
Meetup Event
Topic: TDD in the Real World

It's always great to present at my home user group (although my recent travel has been preventing me from attending as much as I'd like). This time, I'll be talking about how to use Test Driven Development in the real world. Things can get tricky when we try to break down the things we need to code. But sometimes, we just need to think about them in a different order. That's exactly what we'll be doing here.

Saturday, March 18, 2017
Boise Code Camp
Boise, ID
Event Site
Topics:
o I'll Get Back to You: Task, Await, and Asynchronous Methods in C#
o DI Why? Getting a Grip on Dependency Injection

I'm really excited to be able to speak at the Boise Code Camp this year. It's an event that I've wanted to get to for the last 3 years, but I always had something else going on. I've heard great things about it, and I'm looking forward to meeting lots of new people. I'm not quite sure which topic(s) I'll be presenting; the schedule hasn't been completed yet. Stay tuned for details. Schedule completed; check the event site for details.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017
PostSharp Webinar
Online
Webinar Link
Topic: Design Patterns: Not Just for Architects

If you don't have a chance to come see me in person, here's your opportunity to see me online. I'll be talking about Design Pattern, one of those things that I didn't think was important early in my career. Once I learned about them, I found that they made a lot of things easier, and I could leverage the learnings found by people who have thought about things way longer than I have. Design Patterns are not just for architects; they are useful to developers as well.

Thursday, March 30, 2017
DotNet Group.org
Las Vegas, NV
Meetup Site
Topic I'll Get Back to You: Task, Await, and Asynchronous Method in C#

At the end of the month, I head to Las Vegas. I've spoken at this user group a number of times, and I always have a great time. You won't want to miss it.

A Look Back
This is normally where we'd take a look at my speaking engagements from the prior month, but there aren't any. Instead, I spent most of February up in rural Washington. I'll have more details (and pictures) from this trip in a few days.

A Look Ahead
My schedule for the rest of the year is starting to fill in. In April, I'll be at the Global Scrum Gathering 2017 in San Diego CA. In May, I'll be heading to CodeStock in Knoxville TN. This is my first chance speaking there, and I'm really looking forward to the opportunity. A couple weeks later in May, I'm going to London for SDD 2017. I have 6 talks scheduled, so I will be pretty busy during that week. I'll also be at TechBash in Pocono Manor PA in October.

I have a lot of submissions still out there. I'll be posting them as things get confirmed. If you'd like me to come to your event, be sure to drop me a line: Planning for 2017. I was planning on doing less travel this year, but it doesn't like things are going to work out that way. Priority will go to the people who would like me to come to their event.

If you're at one of these events, be sure to stop by and say "Hi". I'm always looking to meet new people and to catch up with old friends.

Happy Coding!

A Look Back at January 2017

This is normally where I would put my speaking engagements for February, but I don't have any. I'll be taking a bit of time off instead.

So let's take a look back at January.

A Look Back
I had the great opportunity to go back to NDC London this year. I had an amazing time. It was really great to catch up with friends from all over the world and also make some new friends.

I gave 2 talks. The first was Get Func<>-y: Delegates in .NET. I had a good group in attendance, and it seemed to be well received.

[Update 04/2017: A recording of this presentation is available here: Get Func-y: Delegates in .NET.]

Here's what @jesbach87 said (direct link):

Thanks for the great picture (although it does make me look like a bit of an evil genius).

My friend Dave Fancher (@davefancher) was also there (direct link):

I also got some nice nice compliments on the talk:

I also got some great comments a week later:

My second talk was Focus on the User: Making the World a Better Place. These were the brave folks who came to the first presentation of the day the day after the event party. So I knew they were serious.

[Update 04/2017: A recording of this presentation is available here: Focus on the User: Making the World a Better Place.]

Thanks to my friend Jessica Engstrom (@grytlappen) for the great picture (direct link):

Liam Westley (@westleyl) was nice enough to point out that I tend to stand like a teapot. Based on the pictures from Twitter, it's kind of hard to deny that.

And thanks to Andy (@Pondidum) for this nice comment (direct link):

Recordings from both of these talks will be posted in the coming months. I'll be sure to post the links when they're available.

In addition to the presentations, I had a ton of great conversations. I got to catch up with some folks who I haven't seen for a while. I got to see some of my friends from Europe. And I met some new folks. I had some really great conversations on a huge variety of topics. That's one of the best parts of going to any event.

Sightseeing in London
I also had 3 days to spend in the city. London is one of my favorite places. There is history everywhere, you can walk around and find interesting stuff without even trying, and I really like riding the underground.

Here are a few pictures:

"Sophie" (at the Natural History Museum) is the most complete stegosaurus ever found. Considering that I've also met "Sue" (the most complete T-Rex), I think I'm starting to build a collection.

The Victoria and Albert Museum was amazing. And it included this sculpture. How do you even do that?!?

I spent time in Regents Park, the London Zoo, and Hyde Park. One of the highlights was visiting Speakers Corner in Hyde Park.

This is a place where people get on a soapbox and talk about whatever they'd like. This was a really interesting experience. The topics were varied, the people were interesting, and the dialogues made you think. There was also a bit of humor as people listening threw in their own comments.

I had many other adventures in London (and took over 500 photos). I'm looking forward to going back in May for SDD 2017.

If you're interested in seeing all the photos, you can view the gallery here: Jeremy goes to London (Jan 2017).

A Look Ahead
Even though I don't have anything scheduled for February, I do have a few events in March. On the 18th, I'll be at the Boise Code Camp in Boise ID. Details are still pending. I've heard great things about this event, and I've wanted to go for the last 2 years. So I'm really glad that I have the chance to get there this year.

At the end of the month, I'll be in Las Vegas NV for dotNet Group.org. I've been to this group several times, and I'm glad for the chance to go back. Keep an eye on my website for more details.

You can always check my website to see what's coming up.

Remember, if you'd like me to be at your event this year, be sure to drop me a note. I already have 16 tentative events planned. I'm not sure how many I'll be able to fit in this year.

Happy Coding!

January 2017 Speaking Engagements

It's the start of a new year, and it's time to get back to speaking. January is usually pretty busy for me, but this year, the local user group leaders haven't hit me up. So, I've just got one event scheduled. But it's a good one.

Mon - Fri, Jan 16 - 20, 2017
NDC London
London, England
Conference Site
Topics:
o Get Func-y: Delegates in .NET
o Focus on the User: Making the World a Better Place

I feel very fortunate to be going back to NDC London (and it's only 2 weeks away!). Last year, NDC London was my first international speaking engagement. It was a great experience, and I met a lot of great people, including Anthony Chu (@nthonyChu) from Vancouver, Canada who I got to see again in November at the Microsoft MVP Summit, and also Scott Nimrod (@Bizmonger) from Miami, FL who I got to spend some time talking with in November.

In addition, I got to spend time with some of my speaker friends, and I also had the chance to meet Mark Seemann (@ploeh) whose Dependency Injection book was very influential for my development, and it helped give me the tools I needed to help lots of other folks. I'm looking forward to seeing him again this year.

I'm looking forward to my talks. I've been talking about delegates for quite a while. They've been very useful in my career. And as I've gotten into functional programming, I understand how they are a bit of a gateway to that world in C#.

In addition, I get to talk about making the world a better place. As a developer, that's my goal. Sometimes it's a simple as making one person's job easier to do. And even though that seems small, it does change the world for the better. In this talk, I tell a lot of stories from my career and show that I've been most successful when I've really understood my user. On further reflection, I see that this actually started before I was a professional developer, and it's been extremely useful in my career.

A Look Back
In December, I spoke at Visual Studio Live!, part of the Live! 360 conference in Orlando, FL. I had a really good time and got a really amazing response. I was scheduled to give 3 talks, and I was a bit concerned when I saw the room that they put me in:

Yikes! That's a big room

It turned out I didn't need to be concerned. I had over 200 people show up for my first talk. And attendance for the others was good as well.

What really amazed me was the response. Usually when I do a talk, I get a few mentions in Twitter. But when I came out of one of my talks, I had 54 notifications!

This was a combination of tweets, likes, and retweets. Here are a few that I picked out. The most complimentary came from Londovir (Link to @Londovir's tweet). (Sorry Londo, I don't have your real name):

From Casey Vlastuin (direct link):

It's always interesting to see what people pick up on. From Derek Jacobs (direct link):

I met Aaron Van Wieren at Live! 360 last year, and I got to spend a bit of time with him this year as well. (If you want to be impressed with endurance, he regularly runs 50 mile races.) He's a great guy to hang out with (direct link):

And from Carla Lewis (direct link):

And finally, it looks like I made Jose Cunha into a believer in unit testing. I'm really happy to see this since it's the goal of that talk (direct link):

Lots of other folks were nice enough to Tweet about my presentations as well. Unfortunately, I can't include all of them here. A big thank you for all the folks who came to my talks. And I'm really glad that so many people were able to leave with useful information.

At the airport on my way home, I got a bit of conflicting information regarding how long Orlando has been around:

Anyone know which one it is?

Share Your Development Experience
One of the reasons that I speak is that it allows me to multiply my impact. If I write an application for 10 people, I can have a positive effect on those 10 people. But if I can influence 10 developers, and they each have a positive effect on 10 people, I've multiplied my influence.

So whether you're speaking, blogging, podcasting, streaming, answering questions on StackOverflow, or simply talking with the other developers on your team, make sure you share your experiences. We all learn from each other, and we can multiply our impact to make the world a better place.

Happy Coding!

2016 Year in Review

It's been an interesting year. I've traveled quite a bit, met a lot of great people, made some friends, and learned some new things.

Note: This article is primarily for myself. It's for me to review my year and see what kind of progress I've made compared to previous years. I recommend that you do the same. Compare yourself to yourself last year. Do not compare yourself to me.

Travels
I did quite a bit more traveling this year compared to last year. I was away from home for 95 days (and my cats weren't too happy about me being away that much). But I got to see a lot of new places:

2016 US Travels

2016 European Travels

Fortunately(?) Google has been tracking me all year, so it was pretty easy to get these maps.

I was on lots of airplanes this year (okay, so it was 41 airplanes). A side-effect of that is that I got Silver status on United in April and then Gold status in October. I've also got to know the Denver and Houston airports pretty well.

And even though there are dots on the map for Stockholm and Copenhagen, those were just airport changes (although I did get to learn what a French hot dog was while I was in Copenhagen).

Speaking
I had a really great time speaking this year. I spoke at 35 events - a mix of user groups, corporate events, code camps, regional events, and professional events.

User groups are great because it gives us lots of time with a topic. It's also a bit less formal, so we can dig into questions and have a good conversation. I spoke at 16 user groups, mostly .NET-related since that's where most of my technical talks live. But I also spoke at a couple agile-related groups as well.

I managed to make it to 3 code camps this year. Code Camps are great because they give developers a great chance to get tons of free information all in one place. It's also a great place for developers to get started as speakers. Unfortunately, I didn't get to either of the So Cal Code Camps this year; I had conflicting events. I'm going to try to make it to them in 2017.

My biggest change this year was speaking at regional events. These are great opportunities for developers to get some great information for a lot cheaper than a professional conference. I spoke at 7 regional events (up from 2 last year).

One really cool thing is that I was asked to keynote at AIM/hdc. I had a really great time doing this.

I had the chance to speak at 4 professional events (including 2 outside the US). This was great particularly since I spoke at my first professional conference late last year.

Workshops
I got to expand into something new this year: full-day workshops. This gave me a chance to get into a bit more detail and also engage with folks a lot more. I did 4 workshops, and each was a bit different. The groups ranged in size from 4 to 35. Some people worked together, some were complete strangers. And I got to work with developers with different levels of experience.

I'd like to expand to do more workshops. And I've learned quite a bit from my experience this year. One challenge is that some venues want a majority of lecture and some venues want a majority of labs. I'll have to plan for a lot of flexibility so that I can get the right mix for a particular group.

Note: if you're trying to get the numbers to add up, it doesn't quite match up. That's because there's a bit of overlap for some of the events/workshops. If you're curious, you can check the list of all of the events on my website.

Recognition
I've been meeting more and more people at events who know me through Pluralsight or podcasts or my blog. A big reason why I've been speaking so much (other than I really love to do it) is to help build my brand and get more recognizable.

Here's the best comment that I've received this year (from someone at Music City Code):

"You are a lot taller than you seem on Pluralsight."

Get Your Request In
If you'd like me to come to speak at a particular event, send me a request. There are too many good events to make it to all of them (and I think I traveled just a little too much this year), so I'll have to make some tough choices. If someone puts in a request, it will go to the top of the list.

Consulting
I did a bit less consulting work this year than I did in 2015. I haven't been pushing this much, but it's something that I really love to do.

I don't want to write your code;
I want to make it so your developers can write your code.

I really enjoy helping people in this area. Many times, I'm working with a small team of 2 or 3 developers who don't have an expert in their group. The problem in that scenario is that you don't know what you don't know.

I've had a chance to help out these teams by doing a code review and looking at the pain points that they have. Based on that, I can give guidance on technology and techniques that can help them improve their situation. And if they aren't familiar with those techniques, it gives me a chance to do some teaching.

And that's what I really love to do: make developers better.

I'll be looking to expand this work in 2017.

Streams & Podcasts
I've had several people ask to be part of their streams and podcasts this year. Dave Rael invited me to come back onto the Developer On Fire podcast, Scott Nimrod invited me to have a conversation about programming where we talked about all sorts of stuff, and Steve Bishop invited me to show some of my experience (and problems) with TDD.

I really enjoyed these opportunities because I get to be part of conversation where we can bounce ideas off of each other.

Becoming a Social Developer
There have been some great opportunites for me to share "Becoming a Social Developer" this year. At NDC Oslo, they gave me a full hour to talk about it. It went much better than expected, and I was happy to see the positive response.

"Becoming a Social Developer" at NDC Oslo

I also got the chance to share a bit at Code PaLOUsa in Louisville, KY. A big thanks to them for giving me 10 minutes to share.

Also, a big thanks to David Neal (@reverentgeek) for giving me some time during his keynote at Music City Code in Nashville, TN. That was another great opportunity for me to share (and get some great pictures from the event photographer).

"Becoming a Social Developer" at Music City Code

As already mentioned, Dave Rael invited me back to Developer on Fire to specifically talk about "Becoming a Social Developer". And at AIM/hdc, they requested that I include the topic as part of my keynote presentation.

I'm still amazed at the reaction to "Becoming a Social Developer". It really resonates with quite a few people. I have some opportunities coming up in 2017 to share (including SDD 2017), and I'll be looking for others as well.

Friends
One really great thing about all the travel this year was that I got to meet a lot of great people. In addition, most of the regional events that I spoke at were in the same part of the country. This meant that I got to spend time with the speakers who were making the circuit. At each event, it seems like I got to know one or two people really well. You can read a bit more about it in an article I wrote earlier this year.

I didn't realize how large my circle of friends had grown until I went to the Microsoft MVP Summit in November. I felt like I knew twice as many people as I did the previous year, and this was just from people I had talked to at various events. I spread myself a bit thin at the summit since I wanted to spend at least a little bit of time with everyone that I knew.

And this was just from folks who were at the Microsoft MVP Summit. A lot of the friends I've made were not there. It really made me think about just how big my circle has expanded this year. It's an interesting experience for someone who is not typically a social person.

Videos & Blog
Because of all the traveling, I haven't spent as much time with videos and blogging. (I'm really amazed at how exhausting traveling can be.)

My YouTube channel has been a bit dormant. I published 4 videos this year (compared to 10 last year).

My blog has been a bit down as well. I published 74 articles, including this one (compared to 86 last year). I did have some good series on Euler problems, learning F#, unit testing, and asynchronous programming. In addition, I found myself writing quite a bit about how to help other developers and what we can do to improve the culture of our industry.

Learning
I've learned quite a bit this year. Most of what I've been experimenting with has turned into blog articles, so the list looks pretty similar to what I wrote above: learning F# (using Euler problems), unit testing and TDD, asynchronous programming, and more.

This coming year, I'd like to expand more into machine learning, and I feel like I need to look at containers (like Docker). To go along with the machine learning, both Azure Functions and AWS Lambda look really interesting.

I haven't looked at .NET Core much at this point, primarily because I don't usually do much with pre-release technology. Once it releases (along with the tooling coming with Visual Studio 2017), I'll be looking at it a bit closer.

A great side effect of speaking at so many events is that I'm also attending those events. This has given me a chance to hear great speakers talk about a variety of different technologies. I don't know how many of them will become part of my regular development, but it's important to know what they are good for. Then I can take a closer look when the right problem comes up.

Being Human
A lot of the conversations that I've had with other developers this year have not been about technology. They have been about being human. This is something that is really easy to ignore or suppress in our industry, but it is a very important area. We learn about ourselves, we learn about the people we work with, we learn about the people that we build software for.

I'll be exploring this topic a lot further in the coming year.

Coming in 2017
I'm not quite sure what's coming for me in 2017. I don't have a list of goals for the year. There are times that I feel like I'm living life a bit by accident. But I've also found that the things that I run towards usually don't work out, and that better opportunities come up that I haven't planned. (And for those of you who are curious about my high risk decision, I'll be giving an update in the next couple weeks.)

With that said, I'm heading in a general direction. I don't know exactly which path my journey will take, but I know that it will be an interesting one.

Remember, in the coming year, don't compare yourself to those around you. We all take different paths, and those comparisons are not valid. Compare yourself to yourself in the past. And use that to improve yourself going forward.

Happy Coding!

Planning for 2017: Do You Want Me at Your Event?

I'm planning my calendar for 2017. I'm going to scale things back a bit, so I'll be prioritizing the events I'll be at. If you'd like me to come speak at your event, please contact me. You'll go to the top of the list.

A Busy 2016
The reason that I'm scaling back for 2017 is that I was on the road quite a bit this year.

• 35 Events
• 53 Talks
• 41 Airplanes (not many direct flights)
• 95 Days Away From Home

Note: These numbers include my trip to Orlando next week.

2016 US Travels

2016 International Travels

I've had a really great time (and look for the upcoming "Year in Review"), but I don't think I can keep up with this type of schedule.

Looking Forward to 2017
I want to get to some new events in 2017. And I'd also like to return to a lot of events I went to this year. But I won't be able to include everything I'd like to do.

If you'd like me at your event, contact me.
This will help me prioritize my schedule.

Feel free to drop a comment on this article, send me a tweet (@jeremybytes), or email me: speaking (at) jeremybytes (dot) com.

I'm looking forward to another year of awesome events: helping developers, meeting tons of people, making new friends, and catching up with old friends. Hopefully I'll see you somewhere along the way.

Happy Coding!

December 2016 Speaking Engagements

The year is winding down. I have just one more event for 2016, and it should be a good one (and it starts next Monday).

Mon - Fri, Dec 5 - 9, 2016
Visual Studio Live!
Orlando, FL
Conference Site
Topics:
o I'll Get Back to You: Task, Await, and Asynchronous Methods
o Learn to Love Lambdas (and LINQ, Too!)
o Unit Testing Makes Me Faster: Convincing Your Boss, Your Co-Workers, and Yourself

Visual Studio Live! is part of the Live! 360 event in Orlando (6 co-located conferences). There are tons of sessions and speakers on a wide variety of topics. I had a great time at this event last year, and I'm looking forward to the same again this year.

I've got three talks, and they are all on topics that I love to talk about (granted, pretty much all of my topics are ones that I love to talk about). I gave a preview of the talks on a webcast a while back. You can still get to it if you provide your email address: Visual Studio Live! Orlando Preview.

If you're at the event, be sure to hunt me down to say "Hi". Or join me at the Birds-of-a-Feather lunch; I'll have my own table.

A Look Back
In November, I drove out to Phoenix AZ to speak at the .NET user groups. I have several friends in the Phoenix area, and it was great to be able to catch up with them in person.

At the North West Valley .NET User Group (NWVDNUG) in Glendale AZ, I talked about practical ways to use reflection in our applications:

Thanks to Barry Stahl (@bsstahl) for the photos.

At the South West Valley .NET User Group (SEVDNUG) in Chandler AZ, I talked about how to get the right levels of abstractions in our code:

Thanks again to Barry for the photo.

While I was in Phoenix, I visited the Desert Botanical Garden. I had a bit of a hard time there. I'm a very tactile person, and I like to touch things. The problem is that everything at the botanical garden is pointy and really doesn't want to be touched:

A Look Ahead
In January, I'm headed back to NDC London. I'm really excited about this. The event was really great this past January, and I made some new friends that I've kept in touch with. I'm looking forward to meeting some new people and seeing some great talks (the talks I'm giving will be great, too). In addition, I get to spend a couple days in London, so I'll get to see some of the things I didn't get to when I was there last time.

Lots more to come. I hope to see you at an event soon!

Happy Coding!